Scenes of (dis)order—A Grounded Theory Analysis of Generational Ambivalence in Punk

Scenes are now considered to be ‘juvenile societies’ that are very heterogeneous in terms of age. This is especially true for scenes that have existed for many decades. In youth culture/scene research, however, the question of inter- and transgenerational negotiations has only been marginally addressed so far. Therefore, building on a three-year grounded theory study on punk zines, the article outlines 1) the value of the generation concept for the representation of scene (hi)story and 2) the ambivalent, tense (inter- and transgenerational) relations that are documented along elementary scene negotiations on (contentious) topics such as music and politics. The authors argue for the consideration of complex generational references in order to gain a more differentiated understanding of scene developments, as well as the exploration of scene media as an alternative to dominant ‘oral history’ representations.