Contemporary Youth Culture at the Margins of Marseille and Milan: Gangs, Music, and Global Imaginaries

Abstract

In this article, we will compare Marseille and Milan, as well as the social (and digital) practices of young people living in two neighbourhoods: LaFab in the third district—one of the poorest areas of the French city—and San Siro—one of the largest social housing areas of the Italian one. These young people were born in France and Italy, but their parents are mostly of African origins. This comparative analysis is carried out at three interdependent levels: the youth policies, the ethnographic study of young people practices, and the imaginaries they (re)create. In conclusion, we will show how social exclusion intersects with spatial marginalisation and how, in the two cities, groups of young people (through music production, ngo projects, or illicit drug-trafficking networks) have developed glocally-oriented strategies to create self-determination and creativity spaces as an alternative to such structural obstacles.