The Smarteez and Post-modern Identities: The Meaning of Style among the Youth in South Africa Smarteez

Several studies have explored style among youth cultures, though the South African content has been ignored. The Smarteez is an emerging South African youth subculture that uses their style as a means for identity expression. This paper examines the Smarteez discourses on style in an attempt to better understand their style decisions. By means of an ethnographic study, the findings demonstrate that their relationship with style is consistent with post-modern consumer theories (Bennett, 1999 Bennett, A. 1999. Subcultures or neo-tribes? Rethinking the relationship between youth, style and musical taste. Journal of Sociology, 33(3): 599–617. [Google Scholar]; Kjeldgaard & Askegaard, 2006 Kjeldgaard, D. and Askegaard, S. 2006. The glocalisation of youth culture: the global youth segment as structures of common difference. Journal of Consumer Research, 33(September): 231–247. [Google Scholar]; Maffesoli, 1996 Maffesoli, M. 1996. They time of the tribes: the decline of individualism in masssociety, London: Sage. [Google Scholar]; Wilska, 2002 Wilska, T. 2002. Me-a consumer? Consumption, identities and lifestyles in today’s finland. Journal of Economic Sociology, 45(3): 195–210. [Google Scholar]). The concept of style was organized into four overall thematic categories: style reflexivity, style switching, idealizing freedom and urbanized identities.