Sport, social inclusion and the logic of assimilation in Prato (Italy)

Abstract

In this article we discuss the extent to which sport might effectively encourage processes of integration and civic participation in Prato, one of the most multicultural cities in Italy. A discourse analysis of recent policies that aim to foster social inclusion of migrants and their children through sport in the city and in the broader region of Tuscany is conducted in the first half of the article; this is followed by the analysis of qualitative interviews and focus groups with city councillors, sport operators and educators. Framed by theories of transculturation, we argue that sport may provide great opportunities for intercultural communication and transcultural socialization – mostly in its informal manifestations and in some of the more progressive and innovative public initiatives carried out in the city. Yet we also suggest that processes of social inclusion through sport promoted at a policy level are often hindered ‘on the ground’ by assimilationist attitudes and practices.

Youth in the City: Fostering Transcultural Leadership for Social Change

“…The public conceptualisation of Prato as a city shaped mostly by industrial and business practices also contributed to the lack of attention to the city's rich history of creative processes of transculturation and exchange (Dutto & Del Bono, 2020). Engaging with the complexity of such a diverse city thus requires the adoption of transcultural frameworks that move beyond binary and essentialised understandings of ethnicity to engage, instead, with the permeability between different linguistic and cultural groups (Ricatti et al, 2019) and the importance of informal processes of transculturation (Ricatti et al, 2021). This is of particular importance when considering how young migrants and children of migrants, whose own sense of belonging is "not easily captured by either immigrant identity approaches or frameworks of hybridity" (Raffaetà et al, 2016, p. 435), can lead creative processes of transculturation and shape new and more complex understandings of superdiverse urban ecosystems.…”