Ethnic enclave or transcultural edge? Reassessing the Prato district through digital mapping

Abstract

Relations between Italy and other countries – such as China – are often imagined within a binary frame that essentialises national and ethnic communities and fails to recognise the complex transcultural ramifications of an increasingly globalising world. This is particularly problematic when studying those social and cultural spaces that Ilaria Vanni (2016) has described as transcultural edges. These are marginal spaces of transition and encounters between different cultures and societies, which have the potential to create new, innovative and productive ecosystems. We argue that one such space is Prato, an industrial town near Florence, well known for its textile district, and host to one of the largest Chinese communities in Europe. Significant academic attention has been devoted to the Chinese community in Prato, including studies of its social and economic impact on the host local community and the textile industry. Most of these studies tend to isolate the Chinese community from the ethnic complexity of the area, within a binary frame that fails to acknowledge the large presence of other migrant groups and the reciprocal permeability and transculturation between the Chinese community, the Italian community, and other ethnic groups. As part of a larger project, a group of scholars is currently digitally remapping Prato, to include quantitative and qualitative geolocalised information collected through a multidisciplinary method that includes ethnography, media analysis, translation studies, transcultural studies, and digital participatory action research. Through a brief description of the aims and characteristics of this research project, the paper will discuss the importance of rethinking the relationship between Italy and China, and between Italians and Chinese, within a more complex and nuanced transcultural frame.

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.…”

Prato: The Social Construction of an Industrial City Facing Processes of Cultural Hybridization

“…Several studies reviewed in this chapter refer to this concept Chaminade et al 2009;Dei Ottati 2009, 2014Fioretti 2002;Lan 2015;Milanesi et al 2016). Though, a dominant thematization is that looking at the transformation of the district, as a consequence of the decline of the textile industry (Adamo 2016;Bellandi et al 2018;Chaminade et al 2009; Dei Ottati 2009) and the expansion of the Chinese community (Ceccagno 2015;Lan 2015;Ricatti et al 2019;Verdini and Russo 2019).…”

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

“…The scholarly literature on Prato to date has focused on the social and economic contribution of Chinese migrants, who represent 59.17% of the total foreign population (Ufficio di Statistica, 2020), as well as on their ability to move from an initial subordinate position within the local garment industry to a leading one in the fast-fashion sector (Baldassar et al, 2015;Ceccagno, 2003Ceccagno, , 2017Johanson et al, 2009). While these studies have contributed a vast collection of important information about the transnational history and impact of migration in Prato, engaging with the complexity of such a diverse city requires the adoption of transcultural frameworks that move beyond binary and essentialized understandings of ethnicity to engage with the permeability between different linguistic and cultural groups (Ricatti et al, 2019). This is of particular importance when discussing how young migrants and children of migrants experience their sense of belonging.…”