“TOXIC BODIES” AND THE ECOLOGY OF BEAUTY IN A RURAL AREA OF SICILY

This article, starting from an ethnographic study on the “Fascia trasformata of the province of Ragusa” , explores how in an area that is deeply compromised from an environmental point of view and subjected to serious forms of isolation and exploitation, education for beauty and social justice can positively affect the lives of the children, boys and girls who live there. The article dwells on the ‘toxic bodies’ of children, described as places where material and symbolic forces intertwine, bearing signs of social and environmental injustice. In such contexts, education becomes a key tool for rethinking the relationship between human and non-human suggesting that the ecological and social crisis is not irreversible and that there are signs of change through the agency of young people.