New Forms of Solidarity and Young People: An Ethnography of Youth Participation in Italy

Abstract

Drawing from the findings of the European project 'Partispace', this chapter analyses three solidarity initiatives promoted by youth leftist groups in Bologna (Italy). Materials were collected through an ethnographic study that included in-depth interviews with young activists. This material highlights the connections between the initiatives of these groups, their objectives and practices, in the context of the global financial crisis as experienced in Italy. The analysis shows that these initiatives, while seeking to mitigate the problems faced by vulnerable groups (i.e. migrants, refugees, and the homeless), were also fuelled by practices of self-help aimed at responding to the unheeded 'generational needs' of the young people themselves. The projects emerge as 'laboratories of political resistance' where strategies for collective action based on mutual help and self-empowerment are experimented with and enacted.

Youth multidimensional political activism between singularization and mutualism: the case of Up network

“…Within the main cycles of mobilization of the past twenty years there is not only a culture critical of the consequences of capitalism and the commodification of life, but also a growing attention to the joint of equality and singularity, with a reconceptualization of the common and the idea of solidarity, in a context of flexibility, uncertainty and complexity. In particular, individualistic culture is considered not only as a form of depoliticization but also as a cultural common-sense that must be addressed with a new conception of sociality, sociability and social relationships within innovative organizational processes of political organization (Alteri et al 2016;Bosi, Zamponi 2019;Cuzzocrea, Mandich 2015;De Luigi et al 2018). Hence, different patterns of social relations at the local level underlie mutual dependencies and interconnections at a systemic level.…”

Youth and Unconventional Political Engagement

“…In the attempt to counteract the effects of the 2008 economic crisis and of the following austerity measures implemented by the Italian government in terms of increased economic uncertainties and cuts in public services (De Luigi et al 2018), social centres have progressively focused their initiatives on the access to material resources and services. Popular gyms, canteens, libraries, restaurants, breweries, and organic markets proposing goods at affordable prices, as well as medical and legal help-desks offering free advices or proper services have been started within many Italian social centres (Cellamare and Cognetti 2014;D'Alisa et al 2015).…”

“…In the story of "Lucha", the young activists' participation develops in relation to a series of practical needs and difficulties concerning employment and the access to services at affordable prices. Through participation, young people seek, in fact, to find a solution to their problems while engaging for the common good (De Luigi et al 2018). However, the processes of re-appropriation and re-elaboration emerging in the unconventional participation practices of the young activists appear to be linked to their specific youth condition also for other reasons, providing further elements of reflection on the features of contemporary youth unconventional political engagement.…”

La politisation des jeunes et le fonctionnement associatif : exemples de deux associations locales faiblement institutionnalisées

“…Un certain nombre de travaux ont permis d'établir le fait que les populations de jeunes tendent à avoir, encore plus que celles des adultes, une attitude distanciée vis-à-vis de la chose politique traditionnelle et favorisent des formes de mobilisation politiques éloignées des modalités d'expressions politiques classiques comme le vote ou l'inscription dans des partis politiques (on peut se référer, entre autres, à Muxel, 2001Muxel, ,2018Pleyers et Glasius, 2013;Becquet, 2014;Gallant et Garneau, 2016;Pickard et Bessant, 2018). Dans une autre perspective, d'autres travaux ont analysé les raisons politiques de l'adhésion associative et les types de processus de politisation qu'elles engendrent (ou pas) (voir, en particulier, Vermeersch, 2004;Duchesne et Hamidi, 2001;Hamidi, 2010;Simonet, 2010;Pruvost, 2015;De Luigi, Martelli et Pitti, 2018, Poisson, 2018. Enfin, une troisième entrée a consisté à mettre en évidence les liens qui sont éventuellement susceptibles de se nouer entre associations et action publique (voir notamment Battegay et Boubeker, 2001;Fung, 2003;Hamidi, 2016).…”