Youth informal associations. Formal and informal groups, their characteristics Youth movements and informal groups

12.03.2020

There are a number of youth public organizations of a positive orientation. All of them have great educational opportunities, but recently the number of informal children's and youth associations of the most diverse orientations (political, economic, ideological, cultural) has sharply increased; among them there are many structures with a pronounced anti-social orientation.

In recent years, the now familiar word “informals” has flown into our speech and taken root in it. Perhaps, it is in it that the vast majority of so-called youth problems are now accumulating.

Informals are those who get out of the formalized structures of our lives. They do not fit into the usual rules of conduct. They strive to live in accordance with their own interests, and not those of others, imposed from outside.

They are very different - after all, those interests and needs are diverse, for the sake of satisfying which they are drawn to each other, forming groups, currents, directions. Each such group has its own goals and objectives, sometimes even programs, peculiar “membership rules” and moral codes.

There are some classifications of youth organizations in the areas of their activities, worldview.

Musical informal youth organizations.

The main goal of such youth organizations is listening, learning and spreading your favorite music.

Among the "musical" non-formals, such an organization of young people as metalworkers is most famous. These are groups united by a common interest in listening to rock music (also called "Heavy Metal"). The most common groups playing rock music are Kiss, Metallica, Scorpions, and domestic ones - Aria, etc. In heavy metal rock there are: the hard rhythm of percussion instruments, the colossal power of amplifiers and the solo improvisations of the performers that stand out against this background.

Another well-known youth organization is trying to combine music with dance. This direction is called breakers (from the English break-dance - a special type of dance, including a variety of sports and acrobatic elements that constantly replace each other, interrupting the movement that had begun). There is another interpretation - in one of the meanings, break means “a broken dance” or “a dance on the pavement”.

The informals of this trend are united by a selfless passion for dancing, the desire to promote and demonstrate it in literally any situation.

These guys are practically not interested in politics, their reasoning about social problems is superficial. They try to maintain good physical shape, adhere to very strict rules: do not drink alcohol, drugs, and have a negative attitude towards smoking.

The Beatles fans fall into the same section - a trend in whose ranks many of the parents and teachers of today's teenagers once flocked. They are united by their love for the Beatles, its songs and its most famous members - Paul McCartney and John Lennon.

Informal organizations in sports.

The leading representatives of this trend are famous football fans. Having shown themselves as a mass organized movement, the Spartak fans of 1977 became the founders of the informal movement, which is now widespread around other football teams and around other sports. Today, on the whole, these are fairly well-organized groupings, distinguished by serious internal discipline. The teenagers included in them, as a rule, are well versed in sports, in the history of football, in many of its intricacies. Their leaders strongly condemn illegal behavior, oppose drunkenness, drugs and other negative phenomena, although such things occur among fans. There are also cases of group hooliganism on the part of fans, and hidden vandalism. These informals are armed rather belligerently: wooden sticks, metal rods, rubber clubs, metal chains, etc.

Outwardly, the fans are easy to distinguish. Sports hats in the colors of your favorite teams, jeans or tracksuits, T-shirts with the emblems of “their” clubs, sneakers, long scarves, badges, homemade posters with the wishes of success to those they support. They are easily distinguished from each other by these accessories, gathering in front of the stadium, where they exchange information, news about sports, determine the signals by which they will chant slogans in support of their team, and develop plans for other actions.

Close to sports informals in a number of ways are those who call themselves "night riders". They are called rockers. Rockers are united by a love of technology and antisocial behavior. Their obligatory attributes are a motorcycle without a silencer and specific equipment: painted helmets, leather jackets, glasses, metal rivets, zippers. Rockers often became the cause of traffic accidents, during which there were victims. The attitude of public opinion towards them is almost unambiguously negative.

Philosophical informal organizations.

Interest in philosophy is one of the most widespread in the informal environment. This is probably natural: it is the desire to understand, comprehend oneself and one's place in the world around him that takes him beyond the framework of established ideas, and pushes him towards something different, sometimes alternative to the prevailing philosophical scheme.

Hippies stand out among them. Outwardly, they are recognized by sloppy clothes, long uncombed hair, certain paraphernalia: obligatory blue jeans, embroidered shirts, T-shirts with inscriptions and symbols, amulets, bracelets, chains, sometimes crosses. The Beatles ensemble and especially his song “Strawberry Fields Forever” became a hippie symbol for many years. Hippie views are that a person should be free, first of all, internally, even in situations of external restriction and enslavement. To be liberated in the soul is the quintessence of their views. They believe that a person should strive for peace and free love. Hippies consider themselves romantics, living a natural life and despising the conventions of the "respectable life of the burghers."

Striving for complete freedom, they are prone to a kind of escape from life, avoiding many social duties. Hippies use meditation, mysticism, drugs as a means to achieve "discovery of oneself."

The new generation of those who share the philosophical quest of hippies often refer to themselves as "the system" (system guys, people, people). “System” is an informal organization that does not have a clear structure, which includes people who share the goals of “renewal of human relations” through kindness, tolerance, and love for one's neighbor.

Hippies are divided into "old wave" and "pioneers". If the old hippies (they are also called old hippies) mainly preached the ideas of social passivity and non-interference in public affairs, then the new generation is inclined to fairly active social activity. Outwardly, they try to have a “Christian” appearance, to resemble Christ: they walk the streets barefoot, wear very long hair, are not at home for a long time, and spend the night in the open. The main principles of the hippie ideology became the freedom of man.

Freedom can be achieved only by changing the inner structure of the soul; the liberation of the soul is facilitated by drugs; the actions of an internally uninhibited person are determined by the desire to protect their freedom as the greatest treasure. Beauty and freedom are identical, their realization is a purely spiritual problem; all who share what has been said form a spiritual community; a spiritual community is an ideal form of hostel. In addition to Christian ideas. Among the "philosophizing" non-formals, Buddhist, Taoist and other ancient Eastern religious and philosophical teachings are also common.

Political informal organizations.

This group of informal youth organizations includes associations of people who have an active political position and speak at various rallies, participate and campaign.

Among the politically active youth groups, pacifists, Nazis (or skinheads), punks and others stand out.

Pacifists: approve of the struggle for peace; against the threat of war require the creation of a special relationship between the authorities and the youth.

Punks - belong to a fairly extremist trend among non-formal people who have a well-defined political coloring. By age, punks are mostly older teenagers. The boys take the lead. The desire of a punk to attract the attention of people around him in any way, as a rule, leads him to outrageous, pretentious and scandalous behavior. They use shocking objects as decorations. It can be chains, pins, a razor blade.

Punks are divided into "left" and "right" and promote the goals of "protest against existing mercantile relations in society."

Neo-fascists (skinheads).

In the 20-30s of the 20th century, something appeared in Germany that killed millions of people, something that makes the current inhabitants shudder

Germany and apologize for the sins of their ancestors to entire nations. The name of this monster is fascism, called the "brown plague" by history. What happened in the 1930s and 1940s is so monstrous and tragic that sometimes it is even difficult for some of the young people to believe what those who lived in those years tell them.

More than 50 years have passed, and history has made its new turn, and it is time to repeat it. In many countries of the world there are youth organizations of a fascist wing, or so-called neo-fascists.

"Skinheads" were born in the mid-60s as a reaction of a certain part of the British working class to hippies and motorcycle rockers.

Then they liked the traditional work clothes, which were difficult to tear in a fight: black felt jackets and jeans. They cut their hair short so as not to interfere in fights. By 1972, the fashion for "skinheads" began to wane, but unexpectedly revived 4 years later. A new round of development of this movement was indicated by already shaved heads, army boots and Nazi symbols. English "skinheads" began to fight more often with the police, fans of football clubs, the same "skinheads", students, homosexuals, immigrants. In 1980, the National Front infiltrated their ranks, introducing neo-Nazi theory, ideology, anti-Semitism, racism, and so on into their movement. Crowds of "skinheads" with tattooed swastikas on their faces appeared on the streets, chanting "Sig, heil!" Since the 70s, the uniform of the "skins" has remained unchanged: black and green jackets, nationalist T-shirts, jeans with suspenders, an army belt with an iron buckle, heavy army boots (such as "GRINDERS" or "Dr.MARTENS").

In almost all countries of the world, "skins" prefer abandoned places. There "skinheads" meet, accept new sympathizers into the ranks of their organization, imbued with nationalist ideas, listen to music. The inscriptions, quite common in their habitats, also speak of the foundations of the teachings of the "skins":

Russia is for russians! Moscow is for Muscovites!

Adolf Hitler. Mein Kampf.

Skins have a clear hierarchy. There is a "lower" echelon and a "higher" - advanced "skins" with excellent education. "Non-advanced skins" are mostly teenagers aged 16-19. Any passer-by can be beaten half to death by them. You don't need a reason to fight.

The situation is somewhat different with the "advanced skinheads", who are also called "rightists". First of all, this is not just unbridled youth who have nothing to do. This is a kind of "skinhead" elite - people are well-read, educated and adults. The average age of the "right skins" is from 22 to 30 years. In their circles, thoughts about the purity of the Russian nation are constantly exaggerated. In the thirties, Goebbels moved the same ideas from the rostrum, but only it was about the Aryans.

Functions of youth organizations.

A conversation about the informal movement of youth will not be complete if we do not touch on the question of what functions amateur associations perform in the development of society.

First of all, the very layer of "informality" as unregulated social activity will never disappear from the horizons of the development of the human community. The social organism needs a kind of life-giving nourishment, which does not allow the social fabric to dry out and becomes an impenetrable, immobilizing case for a person.

It is correct to assess the state of the informal youth movement as a kind of social symptomatology that helps to diagnose the entire social organism. Then the real picture of modern, as well as bygone social life will be determined not only by the percentage of production tasks, but also because how many children are abandoned by their parents, how many are in the hospital, commit offenses.

It is in the space of informal communication that the primary, independent choice by a teenager of his social environment and partner is possible. And instilling a culture of this choice is possible only in the conditions of tolerance of adults. Intolerance, a tendency to expose and moralizing primitivize the youth environment, provoke teenagers to protest reactions, often with unpredictable consequences.

The most important function of the youth movement is to stimulate the germination of the social fabric on the outskirts of the social organism.

Youth initiatives become a conductor of social energy between local, regional, generational, etc. zones of public life and its center - the main socio-economic and political structures.

The influence of youth groups on the personality of a teenager.

Many of the informals are very extraordinary and talented people. They spend days and nights on the street without knowing why. No one organizes these young people, no one forces them to come here. They flock themselves - all very different, and at the same time subtly similar in some way. Many of them, young and full of energy, often want to howl at night from longing and loneliness. Many of them are devoid of faith, whatever it may be, and therefore they are tormented by their own uselessness. And, trying to understand themselves, they go in search of the meaning of life and adventures in informal youth associations.

Why did they become informal? ј - because. activities of official organizations in the field of leisure are uninteresting. official institutions do not help in their interests. 7% - because their hobbies are not approved by society.

It is generally accepted that the main thing for adolescents in informal groups is the opportunity to relax and spend their free time. From a sociological point of view, this is wrong: "nonsense" is one of the last places in the list of what attracts young people to informal associations - only a little more than 7% say this. About 15% find an opportunity to communicate with like-minded people in an informal environment. For 11%, the most important thing is the conditions for the development of their abilities that arise in informal groupings.

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In order to understand adolescents and young men from informal youth groups, one must know the history of the emergence and development of these groups, their modern types, and the causes of their emergence. Only then can one develop one's attitude towards them and outline the means of educational influence.
nbsp; Informal youth groups have become the most pronounced at the present time. Their emergence is associated with the rejection of adolescents and young people of the socio-economic systems that have developed in their countries, social and spiritual values. This is a protest against the existing order and the search for more just and worthy forms of human existence.
This protest was greatly intensified during the period of social upheavals and crises. Small groups of young people began to appear in significant numbers, striving to isolate themselves from the surrounding society, to oppose themselves to it. They developed special hairstyles and clothes, specific gestures, language, ways of behaving, and special forms of art, primarily music. They are characterized by a keen interest in themselves and their kind, in music, and at the same time, an awakening desire to participate in political life. They are, the beatniks, who do not have a permanent place of residence, live in basements, wear primitive clothes. They defiantly oppose their way of life to the bourgeois comforts they despise. They are busy searching for the meaning of life and do not reject work, but only at will and as far as it is necessary to maintain life. Many of them openly talk about their disappointment in adults and, having not found their own solution to important political problems, deliberately withdraw from participation in the political life of society.
"Have fun! Don't think about anything!" - such is the morality of a fairly significant part of the youth. There are a growing number of Satanists seeking to subvert the deepest foundations of spirituality. In many youth communes, the idea began to take root. sexual revolution, new and free relationships between the sexes, some of them have common sexual partners. Challenging the existing society, fake forms of intimate relationships. Preachers of "sexual liberation" publicly perform sexual acts. Entrepreneurial businessmen use this explosion of interests of teenagers and young people in sex: sex shops, sex magazines, erotic centers have appeared in large numbers.
As an expression of extreme desperation and protest, the “revolution of insight through drugs” has arisen. It is argued that only through the systematic use of narcotic drugs does it become possible to develop sensuality, knowledge of the world, and establish connections between people. For many, this is seen as the only way to solve their difficult life problems.
There are various religious sects. They seek to "evangelize the counterculture". Other religious views and beliefs, especially those associated with Hindu philosophy, are also gaining ground.
There are also more “peaceful”, purposeful types of youth disagreement with society: the “green” movement, groups of new democracy, protection of all rights, etc. Adolescents and youth are campaigning:
"Rock against pumaranches, etc."
"No launch pads for World War III!"
Thus, the pressing, burning problems of modern society fall into the center of attention of young people who are actively involved in the protest movement.
From the mid-70s to the present, the rocker movement has been spreading.
Rockers and bikers are always with motorcycles. They not only drive motorcycles perfectly, but also perform acrobatic stunts on them, for example, they ride for some time only on the rear wheel, and also jump on a motorcycle from a springboard, “jigit”, etc.
They drive in large groups along the night streets at high speed (sometimes up to 140-160 km / h), with the mufflers removed. Often there is a rocker in the back seat. Rushing them at breakneck speed through the deserted streets of big cities, the rockers experience "a feeling of sweet liberation from the shackles of society." Rockers strive to find the ideals of life that satisfy them in communication with their own kind, in their rock clubs. Many rockers don't have driver's licenses. There have been cases of stealing other people's motorcycles, refueling from gas tanks of other people's cars. In some cases, they come into contact with criminal elements who hire them to escort their cars and other unseemly deeds.
The mentor should use the rockers' interest in technology and motorsport to switch them to socially useful activities.
Fan clubs, the so-called fan clubs, have now become widespread.
Sometimes the members of these clubs are not just sports fans, but propagandists of extremism and violence, ethnic hatred.
Even more extreme positions are occupied by "skinheads", "skinheads", "skins". The difficult existence gave rise to their blind hatred of wealthier people and the desire for undisguised violence against others. The main "cadres" of neo-Nazism are formed from them. However, their ranks are not uniform. Not every skinhead is a fascist. For many of them, participation in these groups is just a means to express their protest against the indifferent attitude of society towards them. There are also groups of poppers who deny negation. They condemn the critical and protesting generation of their "leftist" fathers, strive not to see the bad in life and enjoy the benefits that are available. Punks have gained great fame in the modern world. Feeling abandoned and betrayed by society, they, indignantly, consciously seek to evoke a negative reaction in the members of this society, even self-loathing. "Shock and provoke!" is their slogan. This applies especially to punk rock bands. Such views find expression even in the outward appearance of punks, strikingly different from all other people: they have clean-shaven skulls, extravagant hairstyles, bizarrely painted faces with red or black paint. Variety in clothes: a leather jacket on a naked body, canvas fabric on a thin shirt with a jabot. Torn clothes (jeans, leather jackets), chains on the face, causing dog collars around the necks and chains from the toilet. Many of them look bleakly and hopelessly into the future, but some groups find their way out in progressive forms of political struggle. The punk jargon is rude, the behavior is often defiantly obscene. Many of them use drugs and toxins. They move from city to city, establishing connections with each other. Their appearance in the city is usually associated with an increase in the number of fights, robberies and other forms of violence with the aim of desecrating a person.
In recent years, a new youth informal movement, cyberpunkism, has emerged and has become widespread. It comes from the words "cybernetics" and "punk". Fantasy and mathematician. R. Oakker called it "the synthesis of man and machine."
Cyberpunkism has been characterized as "a sinful alliance of the tech world with the lower reaches of pop culture and street anarchy".
There are 2 categories of cyberpunks: those who are aware and those who are not aware of their belonging to cyberpunks. The second is much more.
These are people of different professions, ages, social class, passionately in love with computers. Cyberpunk canvases made by means of computer graphics are already exhibited in art galleries.
Cyberpunk magazines are published on computers and transmitted to screens over computer networks. Several popular pop groups promote cyberpunk music. They are recorded on CDs. New technology allows them to enter the space of telephone numbers and faxes used for computer communication. Thus, all temporal, state and social borders are opened before them. Cyberpunks got used to technology, which all previous informal youth movements could not do. They want to use it to connect art and science, literature and industry. The cyberpunks have decided either we will subjugate technology to ourselves, or it will subdue us.
All these listed groups show that it is impossible to reduce the essence of the informal youth movement in a philistine way to the quirks and oddities of “fat-mad”, “who knows what desire”, “lustful and depraved” youth.
Causes of the movement of informals
Difficulties for teenagers and young people to find their place in life
Heightened perception of social imperfections and injustices
Youthful maximalism
A peculiar combination of rationality with great emotionality, etc.
The social is refracted through the age-related and individual-personal. It is clear that this refraction in consciousness and embodiment in behavior is by no means always correct: if only youth knew, if old age could!
Therefore, mature people are struck by the originality and unexpectedness of the forms of youth protest, which obscure the content and meaning of it from them. At the same time, we must not close our eyes to the fact that some informal youth groups, under the influence of blind hatred, take the path of crime and violence. Today, the youth movement, like many social movements of our time, has a global character. Our youth, ceasing to be the youth of a closed society, has become widely involved in it, adopting the advantages and disadvantages of informal people from other countries.
At the same time, our informal youth movements have their own specifics. And often their own, special forms. Regional gathering places are usually located on the outskirts. Metalheads, punks, wavy, breakers, rockers, usually friendly to each other, and leftists, extremists, who are at war with them, gather there.
Researchers distinguish between constructive and non-constructive informal associations. The former often advocate more radical reforms of society. Some informals set narrower tasks: the preservation and restoration of historical and cultural monuments, the protection of nature, physical and mental health, etc.
The system is divided into "hanging out" groups. There are two layers in them: "pioneers" and "odtsovye" or "mammoths".
The former are teenagers who have recently become hippies, diligently assimilating this role. "Odtsovye" are the old members of the system, seriously delving into the problems of politics, religion, mysticism, and artistic creativity.
All hippies wear long, flowing "khair" hair, usually parted in the middle. Often, a thin bandage covers the forehead and back of the hippie’s head (“hairatnik”. Many grow a beard.
There are three main reasons why these people wear long hair:
1. It's more natural, closer to nature
2. Jesus Christ wore long hair and a beard, hippies imitate him
Long hair allows you to better capture the radiation of the cosmic mind, being a kind of individual "antenna".
Hippies wear jeans, sweaters, T-shirts, out-of-fashion coats. Clothes are often torn and shabby, or they are specially given this look.
Artificially make holes, put bright patches on jeans and jackets. Clothes are often inscribed in English.
All hippies wear jewelry (“renki”):
bracelets on the hands (beaded, leather or wooden)
beads on the neck
crosses on leather laces
images of zodiac signs, skulls, etc.
A modern hippie has a “ksivnik” hung on his chest, this is a small rectangular bag made of denim. It contains documents and money. In cold weather, hippies live in the city, go to "parties", and in the summer they travel by passing cars, set up tent camps.
Hippies believe that a person should be free, first of all, internally. Previously, the freedom of love for hippies was reduced to the ability to openly enter into an intimate relationship with the one you love. Now hippies are talking about love that brings people together.
They preach pacifism: they urge not to respond to violence with violence, they oppose military service. They believe in a different, “higher” reality that exists along with the ordinary one in which we all live. You can get to it through a change in the state of consciousness through meditation or art. Hence the great interest in the problems of religion and creative activity.
Characteristic for modern is the desire for naturalness. This is expressed in their desire not to change what happens by itself:
e.g. don't cut your hair
not to take any purposeful, active actions, to be inactive
be unpretentious in everyday life, be able to endure hardships and hardships
Romantics love everything bright, original, creative. They want to be free individuals, independent of social conventions. Therefore, in life they act impulsively. At the same time, they strive for new relationships in a society built on love for other people. However, the naturalness they declare is demonstrative, parodic. She is a well-known challenge to modern society, which criticizes them.
Groups of majors also gained fame: "pseudo-Americans", "pseudo-English", "pseudo-French", etc.
They wear clothes and shoes made in the respective western country. The use of wearable items produced in any other country is condemned.
Among the majors, an image of an active, enterprising, strong person who knows 2-3 foreign languages is formed. Majors are against drugs, many of them are actively involved in sports. There is a noticeable layer of teenagers imitating majors. They are called "rednecks".
The involvement of majors in the activities of the majority of adolescents led to a drop in interest in studying at school, to an unwillingness to learn any profession. On the contrary, the other part of the majors considered their stay in the group temporary, until the accumulation of a certain minimum of material resources.
Youth groups united by a passion for a particular occupation have become widespread. Among them, the most famous are breakers - breakdance fans, skateboarders who ride special boards.
Satellites, including fans of a particular singer of an ensemble, genre.
There are adherents of certain idols - "Fans", "fans". Such groups usually do not have any "philosophy" of their own. Their very appearance is defiant and aggressive: in black clothes, with sharply honed spikes, a large amount of metal, placed on the chest with an inverted cross, the word “Satan” written in paint in English on T-shirts. They practice a cult of Satan, often calling themselves Satanists.
Satanists support ensembles that call for violence, cruelty, preaching racism, chauvinism. They are prone to hooligan acts, to provoking hostile clashes between various youth groups and participating in them.
They are joined by groups of teenagers who are attracted not so much by music as by the fashionable informal costume or the desire to cover up their unseemly deeds with it. They got the name "fucks". Superficially understanding the problems of rock, the "suckers" act as guardians of the "purity" of the metalworker's rules, behave with others very defiantly and aggressively.
Individual approach to informal teenagers
How to treat them? Some people believe that all informal youth groups should be banned and immediately disbanded. Others call for the development of informal groups that enable older teenagers and young men to “go wild” and find themselves in life. These views are wrong. It is impossible to give recommendations for the correct attitude to all groups. They are too different in their aspirations: from pro-social to socially dangerous and illegal. Therefore, you need to start by studying the characteristics of those informal groups that you have to deal with.
Each member of the informal group must find its own special, individual approach. To do this, you need to understand the characteristics of his personality, biography, the reasons and circumstances for his entry into this youth association.
It is necessary to develop the ability to put oneself in the place of an informal teenager, to conduct a dialogue with him on an equal footing, to achieve mutual understanding.
You should start by getting the most general information about them:
how many similar informal associations are there in the area
what is the number of participants in each of them
who is included in them (age, gender, nationality, social origin, education, family)
whether they are associated with anti-social groups, delinquents, drug addicts, hooligans
whether members of the group have a desire for alcoholism or depraved behavior.
Next, you should get answers to questions of a sociological nature:
interests and cultural level of group members
social and moral values (ideals, beliefs, aspirations), etc.
It is desirable to clarify the structure and dynamics of the group:
who can be a member of a group
requirements for it
entry and exit rules
Is the composition of the group constant?
how the leader of the association of youth is determined by the attitude to the outside world, the presence of a tendency for the growth or disintegration of the group.
Then, factual material should be obtained to develop the psychological characteristics of the observed informal association of young people. It is very important to understand the worldview of the members of the group. For example, how do these lovers look at the environment, people and objects? Is it possible to compare their view of things with the view of professionals?
It is also necessary to identify what personality traits a representative of this or that informal group actually develops. For example, to determine whether they are really kind, and the fans are aggressive.
It is also important to find out how people around them look at informals: other teenagers and adults. And how do the members of youth groups present themselves in the eyes of others?
It is necessary to establish the typology of existing groups, their interaction with each other in the area and the development prospects. Now about an individual approach to an informal teenager.
You should start by finding out the reasons for joining a certain informal group of each specific member. The participation of a significant number of adolescents in these groups is due to the fact that it is more difficult for them to assert themselves in life than for young men and adults, as well as with their pronounced interest in game elements of activity, which informal people have a lot of, clothing attributes and group rituals.
It is also important to take into account the insufficiency of the social experience of adolescents, their not quite developed criticality of consciousness with a significantly increased social activity and desire for independence and self-sufficiency. Consideration should be given to the need of adolescents to communicate with an exemplary group of peers for them, and the desire to become like them.
To all this is often added the lack of employment in interesting useful work for them at school and outside it, the lack of prestigious communication and positive incentives for active and emotionally intense activity, the impossibility of self-determination and self-expression by the available means.
A negative influence on adolescents is exerted by families who are completely absorbed in obtaining material means of subsistence or striving only for enrichment, with low spiritual needs and little social activity. This has become especially evident in recent years, which have revealed many of the shortcomings of our lives. It is necessary to find a common language with informals, to understand the problems that interest them, to know the history of specific youth groups, their positive and negative sides. In discussions with informals, one should recognize and respect the equality of the parties, and show tolerance. This is especially necessary at the present time, when an increasing number of middle and high school students are expressing dissatisfaction with the existing forms of extracurricular and out-of-school work.
EMO /pink/ "emo boy, emo boy, emo pink sucks." Clothes pink and black preferably in a box. They are dissatisfied with their lives, they cut their veins with a red pencil, they go and boast: “Yesterday I cut my veins.” They cry constantly. Dull faces and black circles under the eyes.
GOTHS Walk only in black clothes, hair color is also black. Decorate with silver jewelry.
Young men also use cosmetics: a light foundation is applied to the face, the eyes are outlined with a black outline. Favorite place for walking is a cemetery, because. people annoy them, and there they can sit quietly and think about the affairs of life. If there is a crypt in the cemetery, then they spend their parties there.

Along with officially registered (registered) public youth associations, informal youth associations (IMOs) are widespread in modern society. A distinctive feature of informal associations is the lack of official, for example, state registration; their self-organization (originally); spontaneous (based on the desire and mutual agreement of the group members) the emergence of group-wide symbols, rules, norms, values and goals of the group's life.

NMO should be distinguished from such related formations as an informal group and an informal grouping. The association of a small number of adolescents based on the proximity of age and territorial community (for example, a yard company or classmates) is called informal group.

An informal group is characterized by friendly relations between its members, high variability and personal freedom of group members in the process of joint activities, the choice of which is carried out by common agreement of the majority of the guys (“Ah, let's go to the cinema!”, etc.). etc.), socially positive orientation of activity. informal grouping- a concept more often used to refer to informal groups of asocial orientation. It is characterized by the presence of a more or less clearly expressed motive for collecting (drinking alcohol, sorting out relations with a neighboring group, "shaking off" money from passers-by, etc.).

Informal youth association- a kind of cultural trend, which includes a large number of young people, existing for several decades, often of an international character. The orientation of NMO is represented by a wide range: from clearly asocial groups white power- white power (nationalist movement) to completely harmless and law-abiding beatniks (a variant of the modern development of the hippie movement).

Various NMOs have their own ideology, specifics of typical activities, clothing symbols, slang, etc. Informal youth associations as peculiar elements of the cultural environment of society (the so-called subculture) is a phenomenon that arose in the 50-60s. XX century. The most famous movements of those years were the movements of hippies, mods, majors, teddy boys. For example, teddy boys are a subculture of working youth that appeared in the 1950s. against the background of a relative increase in living standards, in conditions of "abundance" and economic recovery.

These are the first post-war dandies, people from the working class with an unfinished secondary education, unable for this reason to get well-paid positions or working specialties that require high qualifications. They simply copied the style of behavior and clothing of the youth of the upper strata of society. The typical tad wore a loose-fitting jacket with a velvet collar, pipe trousers, rubber platform boots, and a drawstring tie.

A little later, at the end of the 60s and 70s, movements of rockers, punks, etc. arose. These youth movements were a kind of countercultural formations that opposed the official state system of norms and values. Along with asocial formations in the same historical period, pro-social youth associations also developed quite actively. (Greenpease, various religious movements, etc.).

During the last decade of the XX century. a new trend has emerged and is gradually developing in the field of non-formal youth associations. It consists in the following. If NMOs of the “classical” period (hippies, punks, etc.) were groups that were quite clearly formed according to an ideological principle that determined all the parameters of their life: from the specifics of clothing to the peculiarities of interpersonal communication, slang, etc. , then in recent decades there has been a gradual transition of "informal belonging" from the basic form of life to the form of leisure, hobbies, a way to establish communication with peers. For the majority of modern non-formals, their belonging to one group or another is not a way of life at all, but just a global hobby to one degree or another, often not affecting the main life.

This is easy to follow by analyzing the main informal groups (groups) of young people that are currently widespread in society. "Ravers", "Grunge", "Metalists" are often no longer specific youth communities, but rather layers in the youth environment, all the informality of which is often limited to bright clothes and paraphernalia (rings, chains, badges, etc.). .P.).

For the current state of the informal youth sphere, it is much more characteristic not to have a variety of pronounced groupings, but to confront the general mass of informals (“nefors”) - young people who have a certain hobby (music, technology, etc.) and the so-called "gopniks" - teenagers who do nothing special in life, do not stand out from the general mass. At the same time, the obvious growth of nationalist youth and adolescent organizations, either informal or hiding behind the sign of “patriotic” activity, poses a particular social danger.

Belonging to one or another informal group is practically an obligatory element of the process of socialization in adolescence.

It is by entering one or another group of peers that a teenager has the opportunity to master models of interpersonal communication, “try on” various social roles. It is well known that children and adolescents, due to various reasons, who did not have the opportunity to constantly communicate with their peers (disability, psychological characteristics of the personality, life in a place remote from people, etc.), almost always in a later age, they experience difficulties in creating a family, in relationships with co-workers, intrapersonal problems, etc.

The psychological basis for the emergence of adolescent youth groups (groups) is one of the leading behavioral reactions of this age period - the reaction of grouping with peers.

The process of entry (adjacency) of the vast majority of adolescents into one or another informal youth group can be reflected as a process of consistent satisfaction of basic human needs: the need for self-affirmation and communication (see Diagram 1).

It should be especially noted that the informal environment of communication is sometimes the only area of socialization for a teenager (especially for a teenager of the "risk group"). Often, having complex relationships in the family or not regularly attending any out-of-school institution, a teenager is forced to join a particular group (group), automatically accepting the system of its norms and values, which is not always socially positive.

For a very large number of adolescents, the value orientations and moral principles preached by the referentially significant group are personally significant, and this significance far exceeds "family" and "school" norms and values in the adolescent's mind. This is what largely explains the low effectiveness of educational measures of influence on a difficult teenager: in his mind, an objectively negative action committed by him is not such, since it is approved from the point of view of the reference group (for example, rudeness towards to a teacher at school or disrupting a lesson may not be assessed by him at all as “bad behavior”, but as a “heroic feat” supported by peers).

One of the features of modern youth groups is their location outside the main institutions of socialization (schools, clubs, etc.). Groups (groupings) most often gather either on a territorial basis (yard company) or on the principle of proximity of interests (fans of a football club, etc.). Based on this, it turns out to be quite problematic to attract such groups to “official” social and pedagogical institutions.

An attempt to solve this problem led to the emergence in the United States in the early 30s. XX century of the so-called street social work, which is currently one of the most widespread and promising forms of interaction with informal youth groups in the world. Street workers - street workers carry out socio-pedagogical activities directly in places where young people spend their time, trying to establish contact with the guys, provide timely assistance and support.

In our country, the activities of street social workers began in the second half of the 90s. XX century. Recently, the work of social educators in informal groups under the so-called cover has begun to develop. A social educator enters a youth "party" as a legal member, participates in its life, at the same time trying to collect the information necessary for work, quietly help one of the guys, redirect (if possible) the activity of this group into a positive channel.

One of the leading areas of work with informal groups (groupings) of pre-school institutions is, on the one hand, the development on its basis of various types of activities that are attractive and popular among the youth (rock clubs, fan clubs, etc.) and, on the other hand, organizing and holding a series of events and actions in the microsociety aimed at attracting young people (holidays, competitions, discos, etc.).

The so-called youth music clubs have recently become a widespread form of work with the informal communication environment of children, providing them with the opportunity for regular communication and quickly becoming the main hangout place for most.

Of great importance in the socio-pedagogical activities carried out with youth groups is the process of constantly monitoring the so-called group dynamics, i.e. timely detection of the fact of the emergence of a group, the establishment of the most frequent places for "hanging out" of children, the numerical and demographic composition (a small group - 3-5 people or a grouping of 10-12 or more), the nature of the orientation of the group ( asocial/prosocial).

Quite often, the key to determining the strategy for further work with a group is to determine the type of its informal leader (physical or intellectual). It is also important to establish the totality of the basic moral, ideological and other values that guide this group in their lives.

The main areas of social and pedagogical activity in the field of informal youth groups are:

Prevention of the expansion of the number of informal groups of asocial, criminogenic orientation by eliminating the possibility of creating a youth group under the leadership of an adult who has illegal convictions (for example, one who has returned from places of deprivation of liberty), as well as by reorienting the group for socially approved activities (creation of temporary jobs, change of the informal leader of the group, etc.);

Finding opportunities for providing (material, etc.)

the existence of an informal group of a positive orientation (offering various options for employment, socially useful activities, physical education and sports, mastering martial arts, etc.), for example, creating a group on the basis of an amateur musical group that performs on an official basis.

Questions and tasks

1. You have been contacted by a teenager's parents for advice. It turned out that their son had been associated with the "Satanists" sect for about six months. This worries them. Suggest possible solutions to this problem.

2. You were approached by the mother of an eight-year-old boy. According to her, her son is being terrorized by a group of older teenagers (teasing, beating without visually observable consequences, taking away money, etc.). Your actions?

3. A teenager came to you for help. Taking part in gambling, he lost a large sum of money. The mother is raising her son alone (it is practically impossible to pay the amount of the debt from the family budget). The teenager is put "on the counter", the amount of debt increases. There are threats of physical violence and material damage. What will you decide?

There are a number of youth public organizations of a positive orientation. All of them have great educational opportunities, but recently the number of informal youth associations of the most diverse orientations (political, economic, ideological, cultural) has sharply increased; among them there are many structures with a pronounced anti-social orientation.

In recent years, the now familiar word “informals” has flown into our speech and taken root in it. Perhaps, it is in it that the vast majority of so-called youth problems are now accumulating. Informals are those who get out of the formalized structures of our lives. They do not fit into the usual rules of conduct. They strive to live in accordance with their own interests, and not those of others, imposed from outside.

A feature of informal associations is the voluntariness of joining them and a steady interest in a specific goal, idea. The second feature of these groups is rivalry, which is based on the need for self-affirmation. A young man strives to do something better than others, to get ahead of even the people closest to him in some way. This leads to the fact that within the youth groups are heterogeneous, consisting of a large number of micro-groups, uniting on the basis of likes and dislikes. They are very different - after all, those interests and needs are diverse, for the sake of satisfying which they are drawn to each other, forming groups, currents, directions. Each such group has its own goals and objectives, sometimes even programs, peculiar “membership rules” and moral codes.

On the basis of psychological and pedagogical criteria, teenage informal formations can be conditionally divided into musical, sports, philosophizing, political:

Musical informal youth organizations.

The main goal of such youth organizations is listening, learning and disseminating favorite music.

Among the "musical" non-formals, such an organization of young people as metalworkers is most famous. These are groups united by a common interest in listening to rock music (also called "Heavy Metal"). The most common groups playing rock music are Kiss, Iron Maiden, Metallica, Scorpions, and domestic ones - Aria, etc. In heavy metal rock there are: the hard rhythm of percussion instruments, the colossal power of amplifiers and the solo improvisations of the performers that stand out against this background.

Another well-known youth organization is trying to combine music with dance. This direction is called breakers (from the English. break-dance - a special type of dance, including a variety of sports and acrobatic elements that constantly replace each other, interrupting the movement that had begun). There is another interpretation - in one of the meanings, break means "broken dance" or "dance on the pavement." The informals of this trend are united by a selfless passion for dancing, the desire to promote and demonstrate it in literally any situation.

The Beatles fall into the same section - a trend in the ranks of which many parents and teachers of today's teenagers once flocked. They are united by their love for the Beatles, its songs and its most famous members - Paul McCartney and John Lennon.

Informals in sports.

Outwardly, the fans are easy to distinguish. Sports hats in the colors of your favorite teams, jeans or tracksuits, T-shirts with the emblems of "their" clubs, sneakers, long scarves, badges, homemade posters with wishes for success to those they support. They are easily distinguished from each other by these accessories, gathering in front of the stadium, where they exchange information, news about sports, determine the signals by which they will chant slogans in support of their team, and develop plans for other actions.

Philosophizing informal groupings.

Hippies stand out among them. Outwardly, they are recognized by sloppy clothes, long uncombed hair, certain paraphernalia: obligatory blue jeans, embroidered shirts, T-shirts with inscriptions and symbols, amulets, bracelets, chains, sometimes crosses. The Beatles ensemble and especially its song "Strawberry Fields Forever" became a hippie symbol for many years. Hippie views are that a person should be free, first of all, internally, even in situations of external restriction and enslavement. To be liberated in the soul is the quintessence of their views. They believe that a person should strive for peace and free love. Hippies consider themselves romantics, living a natural life and despising the conventions of the "respectable life of the burghers." Striving for complete freedom, they are prone to a kind of escape from life, avoiding many social duties. Hippies use meditation, mysticism, drugs as a means to achieve "discovery of oneself."

The main principles of the hippie ideology became the freedom of man. Freedom can be achieved only by changing the inner structure of the soul; the liberation of the soul is facilitated by drugs; the actions of an internally uninhibited person are determined by the desire to protect their freedom as the greatest treasure.

Political informal organizations.

This group of informal youth organizations includes associations of people who have an active political position and speak at various rallies, participate and campaign.

Among the politically active youth groups, pacifists, skinheads and punks stand out.

Pacifists approve of the struggle for peace; against the threat of war require the creation of a special relationship between the authorities and the youth.

Skinheads are an aggressive current of informal youth organizations. They consider themselves true patriots of their homeland, wage an irreconcilable war against people of another race, organize pogroms. Skinheads wear black clothes, forged army boots with white lacing, Nazi symbols, and cut their hair short.

Currently, there are about 300 informal organizations in Russia with a total number of about 3 million people. According to the Prosecutor General's Office, there are about 200 extremist associations of up to 10,000 people. The bulk of their participants are young people aged 16 to 25, students of secondary vocational and higher educational institutions.

Youth informal associations. Formal and informal groups, their characteristics Youth movements and informal groups

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