The cultural symbolisation of disordered and deviant behaviour: young people's experiences in a Welsh rural market town

Global and national developments have brought into question traditional ways of asserting identity, as it is argued that society becomes increasingly homogenised. At a local level, communities have responded to such change (global meets local) by asserting identity through processes that have a direct bearing on their everyday lives. In the context of a market town in rural North Wales, the conceptual value of rurality and a cultural identity embedded in the landscape is no longer the primary marker that it was once perceived to be. Concepts of 'traditional community' and local (Welsh) culture are believed to be under threat from the in-migration of people from other areas. Local people have responded to such a change by utilising categories of criminal, deviant or disordered behaviour as signifiers which may determine one's cultural belonging and identity. It is a response that cuts across the whole community, and young people are one group, where this response is evident in terms of disordered and deviant behaviour. (C) 2002 Elsevier Science Ltd. All rights reserved.