"Identity in movement": exploring identities through narration

Abstract

This article aims to describe the educational project "Identity in movement", which involved a group of adolescents frequenting the youth centre "I Cortili" of the social cooperative Villaggio del Fanciullo, in the Cirenaica district of Bologna. The project engaged the adolescents in a research path on the theme of identity, based on the intertwining of reflective moments and encounters with people and places of the neighbourhood and the city. The main objective of the project was to promote in the participants the development of a gaze capable of recognising the complexity and dynamism of their own and other people's identities: a gaze that does not represent oneself and others in a simplifying manner, using only a few attributes and distinctive characteristics, but which is instead trained to take into consideration the multiple dimensions and changes of which each life path is composed.