I had to read the book ‘Outsiders’, by Howard Becker, for the course ‘Knowledge in the digital world’. In this book Howard Becker explains sub-cultures, deviance and the labelling theory. A sub-culture is a group that has different norms and views than the main culture they live in. If those different norms and views are seen as inappropriate to the main culture, the sub-culture will be labelled as deviant and the members of this sub-culture become outsiders. According to Becker, a part of the labelling theory is the concept of a deviance career. Not everyone who is labelled as deviant has to remain deviant, but if you are labelled as deviant it becomes more likely that you will take deviant paths, because that is what the society expects from you.

I do not see myself as a member of one particular sub-culture. I listen to different music styles, I do not dress in a particular way, I am not a part of a sports team and so on. The only sub-culture I really feel I belong to is the ‘Limburg’ culture. Limburg is a province in the Netherlands, located in the south. We have our own traditions, language and festivities (such as Carneval). I am a proud ‘Limburger’ and proud to be part of this sub-culture. This feeling has only increased since I moved to Tilburg. Here I learned that Limburg is often seen as the outsider province of the Netherlands. This is because of its different traditions and a person from Limburg, especially me, speaks Dutch with a very strong accent. This makes me sometimes feel like an outsider to the rest of the Netherlands. But I also see myself as a proud Dutch citizen and it is not that Limburg is not accepted by the rest of the Netherlands, so I do not believe that the entire Limburg Culture is a deviant sub-culture.

I do not particularly label certain sub-cultures as deviant. I think that that is because of the high acceptance in our present society. There are still certain taboos in our society, such as drug addicts, who are even after all those years, since Howard Becker wrote ‘Outsiders’, labelled as outsiders. I only label sub-cultures as deviant, if they harm themselves or others with their interests, such as perverts and drug addicts.

Howard Becker wrote the book ‘Outsiders’ in 1963. Our society has changed enormous throughout the years. People nowadays have more acceptance for people who are seen as ‘different’. Especially the Netherlands, where I grew up, has a multi-coloured and -cultured society with a high level of acceptance. Being different is becoming a good thing. People do not hide their interests anymore, but show them to the world. Outsiders are becoming insiders. This viewpoint is something Howard Becker is not familiar with. For example he labels homosexuality as a crime. He puts homosexuals and drug addicts in the same sentence and context. This viewpoint about homosexuals would make Howard Becker an outsider (or deviant) in the year 2017.