Abstract

Hegemonic representations of «us» are never appeased and in order to remain so they require the daily silence of consenting glances. This paper aims to show how through focus groups with local young people and children of migration it is possible to sense the tension in these dominant representations and reflect on how otherness can be negotiated. The text is structured in three main sections. In the first section, research on the self representations of young people in the Veneto is presented, clarifying the theoretic assumptions and the methodological framework of the study. In the second part the conflictual process of signification of the images produced or chosen by the young participants is described and the processes of identification and differentiation which emerge in the different phases of the group's discussion are illustrated. In the final part I sustain that seeing is a social practice, and that in the focus groups used for the photovoice young people can express disagreement with hegemonic representations of otherness and end up seeing others and also themselves in ways other than those in which they «normally» see themselves and appear.