Italian Youth in International Context: Belonging, Constraints and Opportunities

259 Pages·2020·6.59 MB·English

by  Valentina Cuzzocrea (editor), Barbara Giovanna Bello (editor), Yuri Kazepov (editor)

Italian Youth in
International Context
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.
Valentina Cuzzocrea is assistant professor (tenure track) in sociology at the
University of Cagliari (Italy). In 2018, she co-edited with B.G. Bello the special
issue ‘Making space for youth in Contemporary Italian Studies’ in Journal of
Modern Italian Studies.
Barbara Giovanna Bello is postdoc in sociology of law at the University of
Milan (Italy). She is a trainer in the area of human rights, lawyer and mediator.
Her research interests cover intersectionality, antidiscrimination law, legislative
effectiveness and youth. In 2018, she co-edited with Valentina Cuzzocrea the
special issue ‘Making space for youth in Contemporary Italian Studies’ in Journal
of Modern Italian Studies.
Yuri Kazepov is professor of international urban sociology and compared wel-
fare systems at the University of Vienna (Austria). His fields of interest are urban
governance, citizenship and urban quality of life and social policies in compara-
tive perspective.
Youth, Young Adulthood and Society
Tracy Shildrick, Newcastle University, UK
John Goodwin, University of Leicester, UK
Henrietta O’Connor, University of Leicester, UK
The Youth, Young Adulthood and Society series approaches youth as a distinct
area, bringing together social scientists from many disciplines to present cutting-
edge research monographs and collections on young people in societies around
the world today. The books present original, exciting research, with strongly
theoretically- and empirically-grounded analysis, advancing the field of youth
studies. Originally set up and edited by Andy Furlong, the series presents inter-
disciplinary and truly international, comparative research monographs.
Youth in the Digital Age
Paradox, Promise, Predicament
Edited by Kate C. Tilleczek and Valerie M. Campbell
Modernization as Lived Experiences
Three Generations of Young Men and Women in China
Fengshu Liu
Italian Youth in International Context
Belonging, Constraints and Opportunities
Edited by Valentina Cuzzocrea, Barbara Giovanna Bello and Yuri Kazepov
Brazilian Youth
Global Trends, Local Perspectives
Edited by Cláudia Pereira
Complexities of Researching with Young People
Edited by Paulina Billett, Matt Hart and Dona Martin
For more information about this series, please visit https://www.routledge.com/
Youth-Young-Adulthood-and-Society/book-series/YYAS
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(CC BY-NC-ND 4.0)
First published 2020
by Routledge
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and by Routledge
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© 2020 selection and editorial matter, Valentina Cuzzocrea,
Barbara Giovanna Bello and Yuri Kazepov; individual chapters, the
contributors
The right of Valentina Cuzzocrea, Barbara Giovanna Bello and Yuri
Kazepov to be identified as the authors of the editorial material,
and of the authors for their individual chapters, has been asserted in
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British Library Cataloguing-in-Publication Data
A catalogue record for this book is available from the British Library
Library of Congress Cataloging-in-Publication Data
Names: Cuzzocrea, Valentina, editor. | Bello, Barbara Giovanna,
editor. | Kazepov, Yuri, editor.
Title: Italian youth in international context : belonging, constraints
and opportunities / edited by Valentina Cuzzocrea, Barbara Giovanna
Bello and Yuri Kazepov.
Description: Milton Park, Abingdon, Oxon ; New York, NY :
Routledge, 2020. | Series: Youth, young adulthood and society |
Includes bibliographical references and index.
Identifiers: LCCN 2019054833 (print) | LCCN 2019054834 (ebook) |
ISBN 9781138488571 (hardback) | ISBN 9781351039949 (ebook)
Subjects: LCSH: Youth--Italy--Social conditions. | Youth--Political
activity--Italy.
Classification: LCC HV799.I8 I83 2020 (print) | LCC HV799.I8
(ebook) | DDC 305.2350945--dc23
LC record available at https://lccn.loc.gov/2019054833
LC ebook record available at https://lccn.loc.gov/2019054834
ISBN: 978-1-138-48857-1 (hbk)
ISBN: 978-1-351-03994-9 (ebk)
Typeset in Times New Roman
by Lumina Datamatics Limited
Contents
List of figures vii
List of tables viii
List of contributors ix
Acknowledgements xiv
Introduction: Italian youth in context – an analysis through
multiple dimensions 1
VALENTINA CUZZOCREA, BARBARA GIOVANNA BELLO AND YURI KAZEPOV
PART I
Activism, participation and citizenship 21
1 Young people and politics in Italy in times of populism 23
ELISA LELLO
2 When millennials protest: Youth activism in Italy 41
MASSIMILIANO ANDRETTA AND DONATELLA DELLA PORTA
3 Discourses and practices of citizenship among young people
of different ethnic backgrounds living in Italy 58
CINZIA ALBANESI, ELVIRA CICOGNANI AND BRUNA ZANI
4 Strategy, performance and gender: An interactionist
understanding of young activists within the Italian
LGBT movement and the Catholic countermovement 76
ANNA LAVIZZARI
vi Contents
PART II
Work, employment and careers 93
5 The social investment challenge and young Italians 95
LARA MAESTRIPIERI
6 The synchrony of temporary young workers: Employment
discontinuity, income discontinuity and new social
inequalities in Italy 112
SONIA BERTOLINI AND VALENTINA MOISO
7 Young graduates’ access to the labour market:
Cumulative or trade-off effects between occupational
level, contracts and wages 129
MARIANNA FILANDRI AND TIZIANA NAZIO
8 When age is academically constructed: The endless status
of ‘young researchers’ in Italy 150
ROSSELLA BOZZON, ANNALISA MURGIA AND CATERINA PERONI
PART III
Moves, transitions and representations 169
9 Young Italians: Individualization, uncertainty
and reconquesting the future 171
CARMEN LECCARDI
10 Pathways towards adulthood in times of crisis: Reflexivity,
resources and agency among young Neapolitans 185
ANTONELLA SPANÒ AND MARKIETA DOMECKA
11 From South to North: Internal student migration in Italy 200
DALIT CONTINI, FEDERICA CUGNATA AND ANDREA SCAGNI
12 Becoming an adult in the new millennium: How the
transition to adulthood has changed 219
MONICA SANTORO
Afterword 235
ALESSANDRO CAVALLI AND KEN ROBERTS
Index 240
Figures
2.1 Age cohorts by types of protest actions used in the past 46
2.2 Age cohorts by motivations for protesting 50
2.3 Network embeddedness of the different generations 52
2.4 Most important channels of information across generations 52
2.5 Age cohorts by type of organizational membership 53
7.1 Typology of occupational positioning based on skills,
contract and wage 135
7.2 Predicted probability of being in a fixed-term, high-wage
or skilled job by unemployment duration 136
7.3 Predicted probability of being in a fixed-term, high-wage or
skilled job by continuity in employment 137
7.4 Difference in probabilities for each occupational status
as compared to being students 139
7.5 Share of occupational outcomes by social class of origin and
living arrangements 141
8.1 Mean entry age to the position of assistant professor
and associate professor in the Italian university (1989–2015) 152
11.1 Stages of the educational career under study and data 202
11.2 Typology of student–graduate migration behaviour
by geography 212
11.3 Mobility group composition by social background
and high-school type 214
Tables
1.1 Trust in institutions, political orientation and attitudes towards
immigration (%) 30
1.2 Orientations on the role of the parties, the institutional
structure, political efficacy and the government by technicians (%) 33
2.1 Age cohorts across types of demonstrations 45
5.1 Demography and labour market access in Italy by generation, 2017 97
5.2 Indicators on labour market integration of youth, percentages
by country, 2017 98
5.3 Indicators on productive system, ALMPs and education,
by country 99
5.4 Apprentices in higher-education track, Province
of Milano – 2012/2015 103
5.5 Supported NEET in Youth Guarantee programme,
2014–2017 (update 28 June 2017) 105
8.1 Academic research staff. Italy 2010 and 2015 153
11.1 Probability of university enrolment 205
11.2 Probability of enrolling into a northern or central
university. High-school leavers from southern regions 207
11.3 Dropout probability 208
11.4 Choices after university completion 210
11.5 Probability of belonging to each mobility group by high-school
type and final-exam mark 213
11.6 Mobility group composition by high-school type
and final-exam mark 213
Contributors
Massimiliano Andretta is associate professor at the Department of Political
Science of the University of Pisa. His recent publications include: ‘Protest in
Italy in Times of Crisis: A Cross-Government Comparison’ (in South European
Society and Politics, 2018), and with D. della Porta et al., Legacy and Memory in
Movements: Justice and Democracy in Southern Europe (2018).
Cinzia Albanesi is associate professor of Community Psychology at the
University of Bologna. She is a member of the Italian team of the project
CATCH-EyoU and of the Board of the Italian Community Psychology Society
(SPICO). Her research interests include youth active citizenship, participatory
action research, community development, health promotion, service learning in
higher education and university-community partnership.
Sonia Bertolini is associate professor at the University of Turin, where she
teaches Sociology of Work. Her research interests concern youth labour mar-
ket entry; female labour market participation; labour market flexibilization and
transition to adult life; sociology of professions. She has published ‘Giovani
senza futuro? Insicurezza lavorativa e autonomia oggi in Italia’ (2018). She is
PI of the Italian team of European project ‘Social Exclusion of Youth in Europe:
Cumulative Disadvantage, Coping Strategies, Effective Policies and Transfer’
(EXCEPT), funded by H2020.
Rossella Bozzon is a member of the ERC Starting Grant project SHARE –
‘Seizing the Hybrid Areas of Work by Re-presenting Self-Employment’. Her
research interests include welfare state and labour market transformations, non-
standard employment relations, demographic dynamics, gender inequalities and
quantitative methods.
Alessandro Cavalli taught as full professor in sociology at the University of
Pavia. He has directed the journal Il Mulino and many research projects for the
IARD Institute over several decades. He has been on the board of many national