Balancing Acts ─ Youth Culture in the Global City

In this timely examination of children of immigrants in New York and London, Natasha K. Warikoo asks, Is there a link between rap/hip-hop-influenced youth culture and motivation to succeed in school? Using ethnographic, survey, and interview data in two racially diverse, low-achieving high schools, Warikoo analyzes seemingly oppositional styles, tastes in music, and school behaviors and finds that most teens try to find a balance between success with peers and success in school.

"Considers through a new lens the impact of peer status on educational achievement for whites, Indians, and blacks. Never has expertise on second-generation immigrants, racial and ethnic boundaries, youth culture, cultural consumption, and education been so skillfully brought together."---MICHELE LAMONT, author of The Dignity of Working Men: Morality and the Boundaries of Race, Class, and Immigration

"Balancing Acts rightly highlights children's agency in negotiating the presssure of diffrent identities and offers several most valuable recommendations."---BHIKHU PAREKH, author of Rethinking Multiculturalism

"Breaks new empirical ground and brings much need conceptual clarity to the sociological study of culture, identity, and the schooling of the children of immigrants in the two defining global cities of our era."---MARCELO M. SUAREZ-OROZCO, editor of Latinos: Remaking America

"This provocative and timely book offers a refreshing perspectives on the relationship of second-generation immigrants and youth culture. Warikoo makes a bold argument regarding peer culture, status, and academic achievement that is sure to take current discourse in a whole new direction."---GILBERTO Q. CONCHAS, author of The Color of Success

Natasha K. Warikoo is Assistant Professor at Harvard University Graduate School of Education.