Introducing the need to study young people in contemporary Italy (original) (raw)
Related papers
Italian Youth in Context. An analysis through multiple dimensions, 2020
Italy is not a country for young people. This book provides a unique and in depth collection of empirical and theoretical material that leads to this preposition, investigating the living conditions of young people in today’s Italy. We aim to discuss the categories commonly used to depict youth in Italy, whilst taking into account the multifaceted and complex reality in which they have to cope in the present, as well as imagine and plan their future. In particular, the volume considers the coexistence of specific characteristics of the Italian scenario and more recent trends characterizing late capitalist societies. Amongst others, these include the compelling spread of neoliberal-inspired regulations, the impoverishment of the middle classes and heightening conditions of vulnerability and uncertainty. Through this book, we aim to disentangle the impact of global trends on Italian youth and discuss the specific configurations that are produced within this context. Within the existing international research on Italian youth, contributions have been published by prominent Italian scholars mostly in articles and edited volumes. The themes that have been addressed relate to specific aspects of youth, from culture (for instance, see Varriale, 2016) to political cultures (Mammone and Veltri, 2010; Cento Bull, 2000; Garau, 2015) or school-to-work transitions (Pastore, 2017) and youth unemployment (Leonardi and Pica, 2015). However, to date there has been no single edited collection targeting Italian youth per se. In addition, the Italian case tends to feature extensively within comparative research, in contrast to other countries, perhaps increasingly so due to the more collaborative projects being pursued across Europe in recent years. Yet, we strongly believe that a specific focus on the multiple aspects of the conditions faced by young Italians is an important add-on to the existing international scholarships in the field. In order to complete such a project, we invited authors to embed debates regarding young people in Italy within the international literature, with the aim of offering a precise account of the internal mechanisms that have so far seldom circulated outside Italy. The result is a composite and unprecedented collection, in terms of issues covered, methods and theories used. To account for our approach, the structure of this introductory chapter is threefold: first, we introduce the rationale of this book project, its ambitions, and whence it derives, discussing the main issues that guided us in composing the collection and in developing the main analytical frame of reference. Second, we describe the book’s tri-partite structure. In doing so, we present the structural contexts in which youth in Italy live and act and how they resonate – and differ – from other cases in Europe. Third, we present our overarching interpretations of the youth condition in Italy that emerged through the chapters and propose a debate that goes beyond the national boundaries. Although this interpretation is emerging from an insider’s perspective, we are confident that it will link to international debates in a structured way.
Introduction: Italian Youth in Context: An Analysis Through Multiple Dimensions
Italian Youth in International Context Belonging, Constraints and Opportunities (Edited by Valentina Cuzzocrea, Barbara Giovanna Bello, Yuri Kazepov), 2020
Italy is not a country for young people. Why? This book provides a unique and in-depth collection of empirical and theoretical material providing multiple answers to this question whilst investigating the living conditions of young people in Italy today. By bringing together a variety of approaches and methods, the authors of this collection analyze Italian youth through the lenses of three dimensions: ‘Activism, participation and citizenship’, ‘Work, Employment and Careers’ and ‘Moves, Transitions and Representations’. These dimensions are the analytical building blocks for challenging stereotypes and unveiling misinterpretations and taken-for-granted assumptions that portray young people in Italy as selfish, ‘choosy’, and unwilling to make sacrifices, commit and manage an independent life. These prejudices often underplay the role of constraints they are facing in the transition to adulthood. Studying Italian youth, therefore, not only allows us to capture their peculiar characteristics but also to reflect more broadly on the conceptual toolbox we need in order to understand contemporary youth more generally. By doing so, the volume aims to contribute to international discussion on the youth condition in Europe.
ITALIAN JOURNAL OF SOCIOLOGY OF EDUCATION, 2021
Historically youth transitions have been a central feature of how youth studies have conceptualized and theorized the notion of youth. This special section aims to continue and contribute to the reimagining of transitions in a complex and ever-changing world. What is interesting to note is that social acceleration processes have an impact on people’s lives. This impact involves many aspects of personal and social life, and, compared to the previous era, the speed of these changes has visibly increased. What emerge from current debate on youth is the pressure to be part of a mechanism that predisposes people to be constantly active, without having the possibility to stop and reflect, or simply to enjoy the moment they are living. In this sense, Italy is a particularly relevant case as it shows the multifaceted and complex reality with which young people have to cope nowadays when imagining and planning their future. Stemming from these data and considerations, this special issue of IJSE aims at investigating the multifaced nature of youth transitions, using the Italian setting as fertile ground. Its main goal is to bring together research and analyses on educations policies, experiences and interventions dealing with life transitions and adulthood by collecting contributions that examine the situation in Italy, comparing it with other similar or contrasting settings to delineate the state of the art and research gaps on youth transition studies in a controversial high-speed society.
Italian Young People Through the Lens of Youth Policies
Sociální studia / Social Studies
Previous attempts to classify youth policies emphasised the importance of the underlying "concept of youth", which sustains and legitimises specific policy measures. The aim of this study is to identify, through a bottom-up approach, the main orientations which characterise recent youth policies in Italy. Twelve documents (published from 2012 to 2016) at the national, regional and local levels are analysed through content analysis. Four main policy orientations emerge, each characterised by a different representation of young people and solutions/aims. Representing young people as talents often implies an orientation toward skill development; seeing youth as a resource is often associated with the promotion of their possible contribution to the society. Negative representations of youth (as vulnerable and as problems) characterise protective solutions. Each approach is characterised as well by specific risks, strengths and supporting institutions. A useful framework for the analysis of youth policies at the national and international levels is discussed.
Socio-Demographic Vulnerability: The Condition of Italian Young People
Social Indicators Research, 2010
For a kind of inertia effect, today the Italian welfare state protects the older too much and, on the contrary, it does not counter sufficiently the new risks associated with other phases of life. Not much seems to be implemented in favour of Italian young people who, as a matter of fact, seem to suffer a lot from the present changes: young people remain longer in the parental home and postpone setting up their own independent life to a most advanced age. In order to understand the situation of vulnerability increasingly widespread among young people, it seemed more and more necessary an in-depth analysis of the reasons and the subjective status of the discomfort that affects young people because of a delayed transition into adulthood. Therefore, we studied the self-perceived vulnerability situation experienced by Italian young people in different spheres of their life. The aim was to understand what is the subjective status that prevents young people from planning an adult life, having a partner and possibly having a child. In particular our analysis tries to bring together theoretical and methodological methods in the measurement of socio-demographic vulnerability concept. In order to do that, we employed the Multiple Correspondence Analysis, using data provided by the Italian Multipurpose Survey, carried out in 2003 and named ''Household and Social Actors''. Keywords Socio-demographic vulnerability Á Risk Á Young people Á Multiple correspondence analysis 1 Introduction People are exposed to a wide set of risks coming from acts of nature or by human action (United Nations 2001). Since the mid-90s a lot of experts (Saraceno 1986; Castel 1997; Ranci 2007, 2004) have pointed out how the nature of social risks has changed. Social risks
In transition … Where to? Rethinking Life Stages and Intergenerational Relations of Italian Youth
Societies, 2019
This article wants to contribute to the ongoing debate within youth studies about the frameworks and concepts that inform research on the meanings of and transitions into adulthood. It aims to contribute to debates about the changing nature of life stages and the need for new conceptual categories and definitions of adulthood and of intergenerational relations. Thus, the first question that drives our reflections is: How do the radical transformations implied in the transition to adulthood pathway change the metaphors used to describe it, the ways of defining adulthood itself, and the scope for mutual recognition amongst different generations? Indeed, intergenerational relationships acquire more complexity in a framework in which a) structural factors like the precarisation of the labour market and the aging population heighten reciprocal interdependence and b) changes in the life-course patterns distance the different generations, especially in terms of biographical sense-making. These theoretical reflections arise from empirical work done in Northern Italy, with thirty-something people who are struggling with a prolonged and de-standardised transition process, negotiating “new adult roles”, particularly in the field of parenthood). This complex transition is significant and widespread in Italian context that, as part of the group of Southern welfare states, has low levels of welfare provision and high reliance on the family as a form of support.
Second-generation youth in Italy and their path to adulthood. Who is supporting them?
Journal of Adult and Continuing Education, 2018
In Italy, 9.2% of school students come from a migrant family. Of these, 55.3% were born in Italy itself. With the data revealing a situation in which these young, second-generation migrants face educational disadvantages that lead to structural inequality and social injustice, we ask: which adults are supporting them during their education? We present results from a qualitative study that, to date, has involved 25 young adults from migrant families. The data highlight the importance of primary and secondary agents of socialisation, though they more clearly decry the isolation that ‘differentness’ brings. The institutional context (schools, job market, welfare/citizenship policies) generates unintentional segregation that leads to social exclusion. In Italy, two issues come to the fore: (a) the inadequacies of the school system (curriculum, teacher training, support of L2 acquisition) and (b) citizenship laws that penalise second-generation migrants.