Introduction

This introduction presents an overview of the key concepts discussed in the subsequent chapters of this book. The book analyzes the relationships among self-identity, neoliberal globalization, the body, difference, culture, and inequalities, and highlights the importance of reflective biography to construct a coherent, positive self. It explores critical public pedagogies to contest today’s neoliberal educational system of schooling, media, and popular culture. The book emphasizes the fragile, vulnerable, cultural nature of identity, advocating for the struggle against the erasure of a social justice agenda in the contemporary, global neocolonial times. It provides a snapshot of ethnic minoritized young people’s self-representations in fitness and health, displaying their visual storytelling and visions of the self, as well as how they negotiate, challenge, and subvert the media’s dominant narratives of the white ideal body. The book describes teachers to create a pedagogical space in school that disrupts negative racialized imagery of the body.