Tracey Reynolds

Editorial introduction: young people, social capital and ethnic identity

Abstract British empirical analyses investigating the relationship between ethnicity and social capital tend to highlight the views and experiences of adult minority ethnic individuals. In contrast the experiences of young people remain an under developed, but growing, research area. Our interest in this special issue stems from the desire to promote young peoples voices in public and policy debates, particularly those from minority ethnic groups and communities, and to bring to the fore their experiences. Drawing on empirical research conducted in the Caribbean, England, Finland, Italy and Northern Ireland, the collection of articles explores the social capital of young people across diverse ethnic and cultural settings. We draw on theories of ethnicity and social capital to explore the ways in which they might be utilised as social resources by young people. We consider how ethnicity and cultural belonging might be regarded as both positive and negative forms of social capital among young people. We also critically reflect on ideas about social capital and ethnicity to assess the extend to which new forms of identities, networks and participation are emerging in the real life contexts of young people belonging to cultural and ethnic minority communities.

‘Non-Normative’ Family Lives? Mapping Migrant Youth’s Family and Intimate Relationships across National Divides and Spatial Distance

In this chapter, questions of ‘non-normative’ lives are addressed globally by mapping the intimate and family lives of migrant youths engaged in relationships across distance and transnational spaces. Whilst there has been much pioneering research in the academic field of family studies reframing debates by problematising and critically interrogating normative understandings of intimacy in family relationships, we argue that what lies at the heart of much analysis is the implicit assumption that ‘doing families’ and intimate relationships is primarily practiced within a structure of co-presence and within the boundaries of the nation-state. For migrants with family members geographically dispersed across the globe, however, doing families and intimacy usually involves them transcending these nation-state boundaries, and crossing cultural divides and spatial distances. Yes, this aspect of family, intimacy and relational life is often overlooked and marginalised in family studies debates including among those commentators that critique heteronormative family models (for example, Weeks et al., 2001; Folger, 2008; Taylor, 2009).

Migrant mothers’ creative interventions into racialized citizenship

ABSTRACT Racialized migrant mothers are often cast as marginal to theoretical and political debates of citizenship, yet by taking seriously the contributions to cultural and caring citizenship they make, we challenge the racialized boundaries of citizenship. Drawing on theories of enacting citizenship, that is, challenging hegemonic narratives of who can legitimately claim to contribute to citizenship, we explore migrant women’s mothering through participatory theatre methods. Through analysis of participatory action research (PAR) with migrant mothers in London, we emphasize the significance of embodied and affective meanings for challenging racialized citizenship. The theatre methods allow participants to develop collective subjugated knowledges challenging racialized, gendered and classed stratifications of rights, burdens and privileges of caring citizenship. This draws attention to the important role of creativity of the self as an aspect of both cultural and care work for understanding racialized migrant mothers’ citizenship.

Participatory theatre for transformative social research

Reflecting on the transformative potential of participatory theatre methods for social research, the article draws on a project with ethnically diverse migrant mothers in London. The research reframes the experiences and practices of socially and ethnically marginalized migrant mothers as active interventions into citizenship. We also challenge recurring public discourses casting migrant mothers as threats to social and cultural cohesion who do not contribute but instead draw on the resources of the welfare state. We highlight how participatory theatre methods create spaces for the participants to enact social and personal conflicts. It also validates migrant mothers’ subjugated knowledges of caring and culture work creating new forms of citizenship. By enacting different versions of collective stories, the theatre sessions therefore become rehearsals for socio-political transformations.