Creativity and Enterprise: The Agency (A Manchester Case)

Abstract

Focusing on The Agency, a project of Contact Theatre in North Manchester, the chapter uses records of a conversation between the two authors as well as detailed fieldnotes as the starting point for reflection on the nature of ‘youth participation’ which The Agency nurtures and supports. It shows how entrepreneurship can be and is being seized by young people who see the possibility of making a difference both for themselves as individuals and for their own communities. Young people are identified as protagonists of their own practice, becoming involved, with the support of facilitators, in both self-development and community development and, thus, we argue in new forms of cultural democracy in which relational practice that challenges the shaming of marginalised communities is at the fore. Historic and contemporary forms of working-class culture offer a powerful lens through which new anti-racist forms of community and cultural democracy emerge. For this to happen, recognition and resourcing are each essential.

Citation

Vickers, S. and Batsleer, J. (2022), "Creativity and Enterprise: The Agency (A Manchester Case)", McMahon, G., Rowley, H. and Batsleer, J. (Ed.) Reshaping Youth Participation: Manchester in a European Gaze, Emerald Publishing Limited, Leeds, pp. 157-172. https://doi.org/10.1108/978-1-80043-358-820221010