The grounding concept of this book is that youth are active agents in creating cultural
practices and social spaces. Drawing from disciplines including anthropology sociology
education and cultural studies the chapters examine practices that youth who are members of
traditionally marginalized groups develop through engagement in the varied contexts of their
everyday lives. Each chapter treats communities' language communication and interaction
patterns and culturally derived practices as valuable resources youth bring to the tasks and
situations they negotiate across time and space. The combination of chapters that fall within
traditions of social and cultural foundations with those that fall within disciplinary
learning-focused approaches sets this book apart. Across the chapters notions of youth as
active agents in the production of knowledge selves and practice are illuminated by focusing
on how youth participate in construction of assemblages of historically derived practices
evolving relations of power discourses and new social cultural forms and practices. The book
also includes the editor's responses to the two main sections of the work a
conversation-in-writing aimed at making explicit both what ties the chapters within the
sections together and the broader implications of the combined and unique contributions.
