The tricks of juvenile transgression. Challenging adults: Styles of deviance and existential commitment

From an adolescent perspective, deviance can be a thrilling moment. The normative pluralism of youth socialization in the city involves young people moving from one institution to another (family, school, recreation and sport playgrounds, youth groups, etc.). In so doing, they experience the ecological continuity of the asymmetrical protocol of deference toward adults. They learn that they must obey. Mirroring this duty of compliance, transgression yields interactional powers of redefining the meaning and outcomes of the classroom: not work but enjoyment. Thus, challenging adults is a style of deviance. It draws exhilaration from volte-face, the sense of adventure and audacity. Transgression is also an existential commitment, in which school becomes a moral space for the dramaturgy of self in which to establish one’s rank in the juvenile hierarchy.