This invaluable addition to Springer's Explorations of Educational
Purpose series is a revelatory ethnographic account of the visual
material culture of contemporary youths in North America. The author's
detailed study follows apparently dissimilar groups (black and Latino/a
in a New York City after-school club, and white and Indigenous in a
small Canadian community) as they inflect their nascent identities with
a sophisticated sense of visual material culture in today's globalized
world. It provides detailed proof of how much ethnography can add to
what we know about young people's development, in addition to its
potential as a model to explore new and significant avenues in pedagogy.
Supported by a wealth of ethnographic evidence, the analysis tracks its
subjects' responses to strikingly diverse material ranging from
autobiographical accounts by rap artists to the built environment. It
shows how young people from the world's cultural epicenter, just like
their counterparts in the sub-Arctic, construct racial, geographic and
gender identities in ways that are subtly responsive to what they see
around them, blending localized characteristics with more widely shared
visual references that are now universally accessible through the Web.
The work makes a persuasive case that youthful engagement with visual
material culture is a relational and productive activity that is
simultaneously local and global, at once constrained and enhanced by
geography, and possesses a potent and life-affirming authenticity.
Densely interwoven with young people's perspectives, the author's
account sets out an innovative and interdisciplinary conceptual
framework affording fresh insights into how today's youth assimilate
what they perceive to be significant.
Supported by a wealth of ethnographic evidence, the analysis tracks its
subjects' responses to strikingly diverse material ranging from
autobiographical accounts by rap artists to the built environment. It
shows how young people from the world's cultural epicenter, just like
their counterparts in the sub-Arctic, construct racial, geographic and
gender identities in ways that are subtly responsive to what they see
around them, blending localized characteristics with more widely shared
visual references that are now universally accessible through the Web.
The work makes a persuasive case that youthful engagement with visual
material culture is a relational and productive activity that is
simultaneously local and global, at once constrained and enhanced by
geography, and possesses a potent and life-affirming authenticity.
Densely interwoven with young people's perspectives, the author's
account sets out an innovative and interdisciplinary conceptual
framework affording fresh insights into how today's youth assimilate
what they perceive to be significant.
Supported by a wealth of ethnographic evidence, the analysis tracks its
subjects' responses to strikingly diverse material ranging from
autobiographical accounts by rap artists to the built environment. It
shows how young people from the world's cultural epicenter, just like
their counterparts in the sub-Arctic, construct racial, geographic and
gender identities in ways that are subtly responsive to what they see
around them, blending localized characteristics with more widely shared
visual references that are now universally accessible through the Web.
The work makes a persuasive case that youthful engagement with visual
material culture is a relational and productive activity that is
simultaneously local and global, at once constrained and enhanced by
geography, and possesses a potent and life-affirming authenticity.
Densely interwoven with young people's perspectives, the author's
account sets out an innovative and interdisciplinary conceptual
framework affording fresh insights into how today's youth assimilate
what they perceive to be significant.
