Re: cliques

Jay Lemke (JLLBC who-is-at CUNYVM.CUNY.EDU)
Fri, 03 May 96 20:35:00 EDT

My thesis about young people's cliques was not specifically
about causes or even motivations, but about the conditions under
which these cliques seem rather inevitable. If there were
no adult exclusion, there might still be cliques, but I don't
think they would have quite as many of the negative features
that were commented on.

So far as actual motivations go, I think that only some of the
impetus toward cliques comes from a resistance to or counter-
rejection of adult social networks. I think some age-graded
networks are not unlikely, but the problem arises when such
networks take on a disproportionate role. Our age is not all
that WE are, but adult society makes age a critical variable
to an exceptional extent, as males make gender a more decisive
issue than it might otherwise be, or heteros make sexual
orientation more significant, etc. JAY.

JAY LEMKE.
City University of New York.
BITNET: JLLBC who-is-at CUNYVM
INTERNET: JLLBC who-is-at CUNYVM.CUNY.EDU