Youth culture is more fragmented than ever before. We have moved from a world where youth tribes were rigid and divisive to a world where sub-cultures rise and fall with incredible speed. Music and fashion remain as key outward expressions of these groups, but rather than existing within a rigid structure there now appear to be 'centres of gravity' around certain cultural properties.

We wanted to explore today's youth tribes and their relationships with each other. Moreover, we wanted to talk to young people and describe tribes in the language of today's youth rather than conduct more traditional cluster and segmentation analysis.

Secondly, we wanted to identify which cultural properties act as these new centres of gravity and to demonstrate their ability to cut across tribes and bring different communities together.

Finally, we wanted to explore the role of TV within this new structure and it's ability to act as a social glue.

A broad mix of methodologies were used, ranging from an online forum of carefully recruited people representing a diverse mix of backgrounds, lifestyles and interests and interviews with leading industry specialists. In addition, we commissioned a team of young journalists to pinpoint the most potent current social glues.

The findings from Youth Tribes was so rich and diverse, we decided to commission a website www.uktribes.com, that could really bring each of the tribes to life, and really flesh out their loves, hates, aspirations and attitudes.

If you would like to see the presentation that accompanies the website, or would like more information please contact: Richard Helyar () or Steph Matthews ()