Youth in the City: Fostering Transcultural Leadership for Social Change

When considering the impact of migrants’ creative practices within superdiverse urban environments and their ability to both represent and engender linguistic, cultural and social change, there is a tendency to rigidly demarcate and separate the crucial roles played by artists, researchers, educators, students and activists. Furthermore, little consideration is usually given to the development of transcultural and multilingual youth’s ability to lead and engender such changes. The focus tends to be on the impact of the final artistic product, rather than on the impact of the complex participatory processes through which many of these artistic products have been developed. Drawing from the transdisciplinary work we conducted for our Youth in the City initiative (YITC), this chapter challenges these prevailing assumptions. Using the La Nostra Prato project (2019–2020) as an illustrative example, we suggest an alternative model for understanding and engendering social and cultural change: one that focuses on the transdisciplinary and transcultural processes through which young people in superdiverse urban contexts develop leadership skills through creative practices. In loving memory of Salvatore Iaconesi, who taught us the meaning and power of facing the world with a sense of “meraviglia”.