Academy Fellow

Professor Andy Bennett has had a significant impact on thinking and practice nationally and internationally at the intersections of the sociology of youth and sociology of music, producing work that is discipline-defining over more than 25 years. As well as having a significant impact in sociology, Bennett’s work has influenced cognate fields such as ageing studies, cultural geography and cultural and media studies. Leading the paradigm shift to the post-subcultural turn, his work is widely valued for its innovation, originality and insight. The highly influential article ‘Subcultures or Neo-Tribes?’ (Sociology 1999) defined new directions in the field and remains a central scholarly resource for ongoing critical debates among the global community of youth culture scholars. Bennett is also renowned for his groundbreaking research on how music genres including hip hop, electronic dance music and rock, are locally reinterpreted through inscription of dialect, customs and other everyday sensibilities into their textual and sonic meanings. More recent work in this field has also examined the historical and heritage dimensions of music, space and place. Similarly, Bennett’s work on the impact of digital technology on music scenes has critically shaped thinking on how social bonds underpinning music scenes hybridise face-to-face with online interactions in a trans-local and trans-temporal context. The impact of this work led to a collaboration between Bennett and acclaimed US sociologist Richard A. Peterson on the highly influential anthology Music Scenes – Local, Translocal, Virtual. The tri-partite model of scenes presented in this book has become a staple conceptual framework in sociological research on music scenes in an international context. Bennett’s prominence in music scenes research has attracted ARC funding, collaborations with European partners and led to contract research with partners including Live Music Office and City of Gold Coast. Bennett’s groundbreaking work in the sociology of music and ageing is the first to apply the concept of cultural ageing in the study of popular music. In more recent years, Bennett’s work on DIY (do-it-yourself) music and associated cultural production, his co-founding of the journal DIY, Alternative Cultures and Society and major biennial conference KISMIF (Keep it Simple, Make it Fast) has had a major influence on the growth and development of academic research on DIY cultures in a global context.

Professor of Cultural Sociology, Griffith University

Fellow of the Academy of Social Sciences (AcSS) (UK)

1. Bennett, A. (2026) ‘The Legacy of Resistance Through Rituals’, Crime, Media, Culture. Special Issue: 50^th Anniversary of Resistance Through Rituals, 22(3).

    DOI: 10.1177/17416590261417217

2. Bennett, A. (2026) ‘Youth Culture, Ageing and Identity’, in J. Twigg and W. Martin (eds) Routledge Handbook of Cultural Gerontology, 2^nd Edn. London: Routledge.

3. Bennett, A., Sofija, E., Green, B., Guerra, P. Howard, F. and Oliveira, A. (2025) ‘It’s Like a Hug’: Examining the Role of Music-making for the Well-being of Youth During the COVID-19 Pandemic’, Journal of Youth Studies, 28(5): 828 – 844.

4. Bennett, A. (2025) ‘Critiquing Subculture: Scenes, Lifestyles, Tribes’, in S. Threadgold and D. Muggleton (eds) Subculture in the 21^st Century. London: Routledge.

5. Bennett, A. (2022) Popular Music Heritage – Places, objects, images and texts. Basingstoke: Palgrave-Macmillan.