Imagining and Acting As the 'other': Cultural Diversity and Navigating Social Boundaries Among Youth in Coventry

The paper draws on 18 months of ethnographic research exploring cultural practices among two youth groups in Coventry, UK. The groups in question are different in their socio-economic backgrounds and cultural profiles. One group consists mainly of White British middle-class youth who participate in weekly physical theatre workshops run by the city’s physical theatre, while the other comprises young people from a culturally diverse youth club, located in one of the city’s most socio-economically disadvantaged neighbourhoods. Our research explores how young people from different ethnic and class positions imagine, experience and express cultural diversity. The theatre group embraced the City of Culture discourse on inclusivity, engaging in performative and charity projects that depicted the experiences of disadvantaged ‘Others’ (e.g., refugees, migrants, and homeless individuals). Arguably, these middle-class youth utilize diversity a means of socializing into a more refined liberal identity. In contrast, the young people attending the youth club, who often come from culturally diverse and/or migrant backgrounds, encountered challenges related to stigmatisation, everyday/institutional racism and the imposition of stereotypical perceptions of the 'Other'. They employed various strategies to engage creatively with these projected images, both by internalising them and resisting them through role-playing scenarios such as playing ‘the bad, the gang member, portraying themselves as tough individuals involved in illicit activities or ridiculing the working class stereotypes projected to them. While the youth clubs serves as public spaces/sites for 'throwntogetherness, we explore how young people from different social, economic and cultural backgrounds perceive each other, make sense of social segregation and engage with discourses on cultural diversity. Through play, how they construct and resist cultural repertoires and narratives shaped by institutions, policies, and practitioners.