As you say it's a borderline issue because culture is an anthropological concept, whereas counterculture is a sociological one. Counterculture doesn't simply identify with the first - it's not simply opposed, but expresses a common identity that isn't included in the dominant culture but may not be totally against it. The relative superficiality of this version of culture as against the anthropological version is more than symbolic - hence we get our rebellions commodified and sold back to us so frequently. Taussig is a good guide, along with Hedbdige. Some of the work on punk subculture is quite sophisticated 're: the ambivalent connections between counterculture and commercialization - I've done a couple of pieces on the Clash in the aesthetic economy and the tensions between culture and creativity, and could give you some other refs if this line interests you - Miklitsch's "From Hegel to Madonna" is a classic of critical cultural theory in my view.

I do agree with the basic line of reasoning ptoffered by Stephen Linstead.

Counterculture mainly refers to people, especially the young men resist, revolt and rebel the main stream culture, and it is a kind of subculture. i think the online language is a kind of counterculture. 

Counterculture is itself a name which spells framing and basically resembles the fingerprints and two profiles plus en face police photograph. The counter in culture is a signal that inequalities cannot be swept under the ideological carpet nor sweetened with consumption. Madonna is not countercultural but cynically commercial (funny, yes). The best study nowadays is the study of pot-smoking hippies from Frisco joining the Silicon Valley upstarts and making the ICT cum Wikileaks revolution happen... and best analysis is in two novels by Thomas Pynchon's 'Bleeding Edge" and 'Against the Day"

One practical example: Mao Zedong started his counterculture, the socalled Cultural Revolution, fighting the traditions like Confucius. But for this he even used sayings of Confucius himself, not realizing this and thus contradicting himself. There is a PhD-Thesis on that published in German.

Mao Zedong had nothing to do with counterculture. He was firmly rooted in traditional culture of rich upper layer of Chinese peasants combined with the ruthless organizational culture of the Chinese communists. Confucius was but one of the ideological alibis. Great mix, but Mao rivals Hitler and Stalin in terms of genocide head count. 

A counter culture is constructed in opposition to a currently hegemonic culture.  Those who form a counter culture coalesce around collective criticism of mainstream norms, values, and beliefs.  For an excellent case study, see Theodore Roszak's book, The Making of a Counter Culture.

I was going to suggest Dick Hebdige's book, Subculture: The Meaning of Style also, but I see it was already suggested. That book set the framework for studying Punk Rock, and subsequently the study of Hip-Hop, both youth sub-cultures.

If you are looking for contemporary examples of counterculture, my work 'Ritualisation in online games', which also touches on subversive ritualisation in online games can, perhaps, be of some help.

Francesco:  You did not really say much about the area you are working on. This made  it harder for me to specify references that would be helpful.  I have found all of the references below to be helpful.  Perhaps you will as well. Good luck, Bruce

References

Arnold, D. O., Editor (1970). The Sociology of Subcultures. Berkeley, CA: The Glendesscoy Press.

Cohen, A. K. (1955). Delinquent Boys: The Culture of the Gang. New York: The Free Press.

Ingersoll, Virginia H. and Guy B. Adams. 1992.  The tacit organization.  Greenwich, CT: JAI Press.

Turner, B. A. (1972). Exploring the Industrial Subculture. New York: Herder & Herder.

Yinger, J. M. (1982). Countercultures. New York: The Free Press.

Hello,

I think you may have a lot on cultural studies from Gramscies and subcultural studies like A.K Cohen Delinquents boys , Andy Bennett and Theodore Roszak,1969, The Making of a Counter Culture , John Milton Yinger (1960) in  American Sociological Review The counter culture of organisation: Towards a cultural studies of representations of working andM Parker - Consumption, Markets and Culture, 2006 - Taylor & Francis. Have look to Philip Bourgeois, In search of respect, (a book about portorican inner drug and street culture).

Thanks to everybody for the generous and very interesting answers. I will see the references suggested and surely go back to Gramsci. I think I'll quote from the answer of Slawek Magala - "Counterculture is itself a name which spells framing and basically resembles the fingerprints and two profiles plus en face police photograph. The counter in culture is a signal that inequalities cannot be swept under the ideological carpet nor sweetened with consumption" - in the book I am writing in Italian ("Cultura/controcultura"). I think Mao Tse Dong and the Cultural Revolution is an excellent example Thomas Heise highlighted, notwithstanding all the shadows and ambiguities of the matter (it would be important the opinion of Tiping Su about this). Mao Zedong was "counterculture" and at the same time he wasn't. Like Bob Dylan. Dylan debuted in the countercultural scene of New York at the beginning of the Sixties. Granted that "folk revival" can be considered "counterculture". But Dylan wasn’t satisfied with folk revival. He refused it and looked for more profound and authentic  "culture" (genuine Blues, Keltic traditions à la Robert Graves, etc.). He wanted “more” culture…  that way he invented new culture: this is the crux of the matter.

Hi Francesco,

as an inspiration, Greil Marcus' "Lipstick Traces"  (and other books by him) might serve well; especially, when thinking counterculture through Bob Dylan. And Stuart Hall might sharpen the political aspect of the term counterculture and its place in society.

Hello

One advice. You must see it as a process that may take many routes. Some of it results from different identities among people who acculturate in a new society

Good kuck

Prof Andy Bennett's work is a great source. I have really enjoyed the work of George McKay who provides vivid and insider accounts of  countercultures, networks and movements which have remained largely unrecorded.

Of course the counter-culture relates to and identifies with the culture. It derives from society and from the current culture. However, we can not confuse the concepts. During the 50s, most of the youth of the United States begin to protest against the established social patterns. But what were these patterns? To answer this question, we must touch on the theme of the Cold War. With the world divided into two powers at war, the USSR and the USA, there was a big push in the industry, created by the mutual fear between the two countries. At that time, even the constant state of paranoia, the quality of life has improved with the advent of the technological revolution.

With the modernization of agriculture, rural workers migrate to the city increasing urbanization. The productivity of farm products reaches its peak and advances in medicine increase life expectancy. What was once considered a luxury, like television, radio, records, hygiene products, among others, becomes commonplace. Within this panorama, there is a great improvement in education. The entry into major universities no longer just for privileged people, so that young people have more time to devote to study. However, this benefit youth is the one who starts to challenge the culture of their parents, as the consumer society and the association of wealth to the individual's well-being.

Thus, young people create their own identity and that creates a big gap between the two generations. In the 50s, the famous beatniks (Beat Generation) arise: William Burroughs, Jack Kerouac and Allen Ginsberg. Through their work and lifestyle, these outsiders intellectuals defended extremely libertarian values. At the same time, the rock'n'roll arises, influenced by black music. Idols as Chuck Berry, Bo Diddley, Jerry Lee Lewis, Elvis Presley, Carl Perkins, Esquerita and Bunker Hill begin to influence the teens with their wild and dance songs. However, it was in the 60s that the counterculture movement made history. The rock before more tied to the fun begins to gain protest lyrics sung by stars such as Bob Dylan, Joan Baez and the Rolling Stones. Youth groups organized to protest the Cold War arise. It is the time of the strikes, protests, demonstrations and the individual's release in the pursuit of "paradise now". Is the emergence of hippies, youth groups living in communities, met wore hair, psychedelic clothes and fought peacefully for harmony between humans. Their main motto was "peace and love" and, among other ideals, they were in favor of drug use, sexual revolution and mysticism.

In 1969, the hippies make Woodstock happen, an outdoor festival that brought together thousands of people and introduced the world to musicians like Ravi Shankar, Grateful Dead, Creedence Clearwater Revival, Janis Joplin, Joe Cocker, Sly & the Family Stone, The Who , Jefferson Airplane and Jimi Hendrix. Thus, the counterculture emerges from culture and often tends to become itself in culture.

The historian Eric J. Hobsbawm, in his now classic Age of Extremes, set the context of what he titled "Cultural Revolution": "Youth culture has become the matrix of cultural revolution in the broadest sense of a revolution in the ways and customs, the means to enjoy the leisure and the commercial arts, which increasingly formed the atmosphere breathed by urban men and women. Two of its features are therefore relevant. It was both informal and antinomian time, especially in personal conduct issues. Everyone had to "be on yourself" with a minimum of external constraint, although in practice peer pressure and fashion impose uniformity so as soon as possible, at least within the peer group and subcultures. "

Many thanks to everybody, for all yours important suggestions. 

Cold War, Counterculture and The postmodern condition (Lyotard):

We shall overcome by Joan Baez was still "modernity" and Blowin' in the wind by Bob Dylan was already "postmodern"?

Dear Francesco, thnx for the quote. Padova is where Copernicus had studied and where St. Anthony deals in lost and found. Reason to visit, I guess.

History is not just one damned thing after another, but a clear thread of progress it ain't either. First, the cultural revolution of Mao is being repeated as we exchange these pleasantries right now - but this time it is not against bourgeois traitors but against corruption of communist top managers who commercialize with some sidekicks for themselves (a few thousand of top shots had been executed so far as "tigers" of corrupt marketization). This is not a repetition as a farce but it means that a certain mechanism is stronger than the socialism-capitalism divide of the Cold War and the present top guy  .

Second, the difference between Baez and Dylan is not in allegiance to a modernist or a postmodernist camp. Baez was politically committed, which made her a modernist in the weak sense of being related to the modernist top conflict between socialist left and liberal right, while Dylan was already fitting into the late-Cold War or a post-Cold War cultural climate.Anyway, I would skip the modernist post-modernist labels altogether.

 Good luck with your book!