This thesis explores how second and 1.5-generation migrants of Peruvian origin living in Turin identify themselves. The results show that second and 1.5-generation migrants have complex and multi-identities. They see themselves as Italians, Peruvians, Turinese, citizens of the world and Latinos/as and are mostly categorized as Peruvians, Italians and foreigners. From the study emerged that place of birth and age at arrival are crucial variables that affect their self-identification, while phenotype and language play an essential role in their ascribed identity. Nevertheless, second and 1.5-generation migrants are challenging the mainstream and traditional idea of what it means to be Italian connected to appearance. Italian citizenship is not an essential factor that influences their identity, even though it has the function of validating a pre-existing identity. This study contributes to increasing the academic knowledge regarding the identity of a specific group of youth of migrant origin living in a defined place.

This thesis presents an ethnographic account of the everyday meanings and processes associated with the idea of ‘community’ within the London neighbourhood of Kilburn. In policy and popular discourse, community is cast both as somehow able to unite people across difference, and as under threat from the proliferation of difference, which is seen as impeding mutual understanding, cooperation and belonging. Within scholarly writing, ‘community’ is often challenged as too archaic, too rigid or too ambiguous a concept to provide sufficient analytical leverage or to work as a normative ideal. Against this background, my PhD takes a look the neighbourhood of Kilburn, where amidst significant diversity, tropes of community are still widely used. I investigate how residents imagine various forms of community in relation to diversity, as well as the connections and discontinuities between these various imaginings. I draw on 16 months of ethnographic fieldwork, following over a dozen community projects and groups, tracing informal local networks and getting to know residents individually. My ethnography ranges from community cafes, to religious youth groups, to urban ‘gangs’, to government-led urban regeneration projects. Despite the variation in how different individuals imagined ‘community’, there was a shared view of community as a space which facilitated the bridging of difference and the construction of shared moral projects. These spaces did not exist sui generis. Rather they were opened up through the balancing of two traits: fixity and fluidity. Fixity involved defining community in terms of a clearly identifiable and familiar set of boundary markers, which serve to give it an ‘objective’ existence. Fluidity involved suspending this attempt to define community in terms of the familiar, once people were involved, in order to allow for new, shared understandings and values to emerge. The first two chapters unpack this balancing of fixity and fluidity. Chapter 1, traces inclusion and exclusion in a range of community projects, and Chapter 2 looks at tropes of race and ethnicity, examining how such ideas might be treated as simultaneously fixed and fluid. . The two chapters unpack the transformational power of community. Chapter 3 looks at a community centre for young Muslims, as well as at a local community radio station, and argues that community spaces have the potential to foster an ethic of continual openness to difference. Chapter 4 looks at a group of ‘street youth’ and their diverse views of success, and argues that community can act as a collective repository of future potential, allowing community members to transform their ethical trajectory within their own lives. The final two chapters look at contestations over community. Chapter 5 looks at clashing uses of public spaces and argues that such spaces are often read in highly fixed ways, and as lacking the potential for community-like negotiations. Chapter 6 looks at local regeneration projects and contrasts the ways in which community is valued locally, to the ways in which it is valued by state and market actors. The thesis concludes by emphasizing the necessarily plural, dynamic, contested and grounded nature of the idea of community described here.

This two phase study explored perspectives of play according to children and parents of Somali heritage and primary school practitioners, in a city in South West England. In an addition to the considerable research base concerning play, this study investigated the frequently overlooked cultural dimension of play and how this affects the education of Somali heritage children in England. The broader contentious concern of play’s role in Early Years and Primary education was also explored. A mixed methods pragmatic approach was employed in this study. In Phase One, a photograph sorting activity based on the Activity Apperception Story Procedure by Howard (2002), was used to enable the participation of young children and participants for whom English is not their first language. Established via this activity were definitions of play and work according to children and parents of Somali heritage and primary school practitioners. Exploratory Data Analysis was applied to examine this data. In Phase Two, a focus group design was used, with discussions drawing on cross-cultural conceptions of play (Gaskins, Haight & Lancy, 2007; Göncü, Tuermer, Jain & Johnson, 1999). This enabled the exploration of how parents of Somali heritage and primary school practitioners perceive play’s relationship to children’s development and learning, with consideration for their own experiences of childhood. Focus group data was analysed using thematic analysis, supported by the Cultural Historical Activity Theory framework. The findings of this study highlight shared and individual definitions of play, competing benefits of play and the cross-cultural importance of play being intrinsically motivated. Implications for practice centre on the need to recognise play as part of unique cultural milieus at a practitioner, school, educational psychology service and policy level.

This study explores the engagement with music among second-generation migrants in Sweden in connection to their cultural identity and sense of belonging. First, a theoretical frame is developed that illustrates how music practices can contribute to the creation of ‘sense of place’ and ‘sense of belonging’ and how they are linked to ‘collective memory’ and ‘cultural identity’. Consequently, it is also explained how all this can be understood from a ‘generational perspective’. A qualitative approach has been chosen for this study and semi-structured interviews with 9 emerging adults living in Sweden, were conducted. The main results show that there is a high engagement with music among second-generation migrants in Sweden, many of them possessing a broad repertoire of favorite songs and genres. Mainly, it is through listening to the music coming from the home countries of their parents that they can express and navigate their cultural identities. Such kind of music carries meanings and mediates collective experiences and memories which can be passed on from one generation to the next one. These practices are important for second-generation migrants in terms of their sense of belonging to certain groups with which they can identify and feel connected to. In this sense, such kind of music helps them make sense of themselves in the world and in connection to others.