In developing a concept of normative strain, this paper presents the results of work undertaken in outer urban Pathum Thani province to the immediate north of rapidly expanding Krungthep (Bangkok), Thailand. The work focused on the life crises to which junior high school students are vulnerable and revealed desires for workable solutions limited by restrictions on thought and action. The paradox of attempting to find crisis resolution from within the normative grid of school, family and social relationships, the site and source of the crises, emphasised strain endemic to this grid.

Groups of young people at three High Schools participated in brainstorming activity focused on “the best and worst of teenage life”. Encompassing themes based on phrases used by the participants were identified using a phenomenological analysis.

Themes were represented as stories and played as improvised dramas (Replays) by the young people. These Replays aimed to express the critical effects of strain and then, with audiences following performance, to explore methods of averting the crises portrayed. Not surprisingly, many methods explored by young peers were restricted to normative frameworks.

The concept of normative strain is built upon theories classically linked to criminology. It places these concepts of strain, anomie and deviance, and their interactions within a broader sociological framework. The work described in this paper uses recent conceptual development of strain theory beyond criminology to focus on the role of normative constraints in the aetiology of strain.

Dr. Garry Fry focusses on the Sociologies of Youth, Otherness and Position. Since 2015 he has been a visiting research fellow at ANU and Visiting Professor at Thammasat University in Thailand where he has led a major research project investigating the analytic and social action potential of Replay, a qualitative research procedure he has developed.