ABSTRACT
This chapter describes and assesses the impact of four participatory photography laboratories on youth living in the marginalised suburbs of four Italian cities.
The curiosity and involvement of children and adolescents in the process have increased their active participation, leveraging different learnings, such as raising self-awareness, promoting commitment and responsibility, and fostering democratic participation. By becoming active participants, children and adolescents were able to inspire their sense of responsibility and derive the awareness of the value of their reflections, choices, and actions, leading them to understand that being agents of change is also in their power.
The merging of three different disciplines, such as design, art, and pedagogy, allowed for the development of activities with a multidisciplinary approach capable of addressing the varied needs of its participants. On the one hand, the role of design was to structure an iterative process that facilitated and supported youth through various uncertain phases. The role of analogue photography, on the other hand, was to approach a mechanical and non-immediate process of creation. Finally, the role of pedagogy was to provide educational objectives to adequately guide and maximise the youth's experience in the laboratories.
