STUDI DI SOCIOLOGIA - 2019 - 2

This study investigates new forms of marginality through the most recent theoretical acquisitions developed within youth studies. In particular, we analyse youth marginality as a product of individualisation contradictions. This perspective considers marginality as lack of participation and as a specific case of epistemological fallacy theory. This approach is confirmed by the results of a case study on immigrant and Italian adolescents, which show that individualisation is produced by the systemic conditions of society.

The papers explores whether, besides the secondary effects produced by Eramsus experience, some unintended effects also arise, with the risk of producing or enhancing potential social inequalities among European youngsters. To explore these dimensions we used opinions obtained via 2 focus groups conducted on young Italian people; those who took part in Erasmus programme and those, friends of the first group, who did not. The results emerged highlight that a shift from side effects to unintended effects can be envisaged: 1) the lack of awareness of the effects that the Erasmus experience has had on their openness to the public sphere; 2) the skills acquired are inhibited by the sense of powerlessness in the face of difficulties to apply them in their home contexts; (3) the openness to cosmopolitanism gained during mobility clashes with the difficulty of non-Erasmus students to understand these changes, putting them both in front of the perception of an «augmented» otherness.

The aim of this paper is to explore the connection among Italian Millennials, Social Networks and Social Inclusion, drawing mainly from a national survey conducted by Istituto G. Toniolo «Rapporto Giovani» in 2017. The analysis will be centered on the ways in which Italian Millennials use Social Networks, with a peculiar focus on the «high uses» of Facebook&Co. By «high uses» we mean usages that are non-ludic but related to political/civic engagement or dedicated to self empowerment through social capital construction and enhancement. Data collected show us that Italian Millennials have a controversial relationship with participation tout-court and neither Social Networks seem to offer alternative chances of engagement. At the same time Italian Millennials, driven mainly by a ludic perception of Social Networks, underestimate also the chance to use them to enhance their social capital. However, analyzing data distributed by occupational condition, we find significant differences between Neets and Student-workers, with the second ones more attracted by «high uses». This evidence leads to the hypothesis of a «Social divide», that is a difference in the capability to use Social Networks in order to improve one’s own social condition.

In Southern European countries, the long-lasting economic crisis has worsened the already difficult school-to-work transition among new generations, as highlighted by the increasing number of NEETs. The process of work socialisation itself has weakened and young people have been pushed to take on the burden and develop a sort of «auto-socialisation». The European Youth Guarantee Programme (YG) claims to be a successful strategy to improve NEET activation and employment, by promoting individual and professional youth empowerment. But does the YG programme offer a real chance of work socialisation? Work socialisation is intended here as a «capacitating process», capable of taking into account both individual, social and institutional responsibilities in shaping work and life opportunities for young. Focusing on the implementation of YG at the local level in Italy, the paper investigates to what extent the programme actually accomplishes these objectives.

On average, and taking into account population size, income inequality increased by 11 per cent in developing countries between 1990 and 2010. A significant majority of households in developing countries – more than 75 percent of the population – are living today in societies where income is more unequally distributed than it was in the 1990s. Evidence shows that, beyond a certain threshold, inequality harms growth and poverty reduction, the quality of relations in the public and political spheres and individuals’ sense of fulfilment and self-worth. There is nothing inevitable about growing income inequality; several countries have managed to contain or reduce income inequality while achieving strong growth performance. Income inequality cannot be effectively tackled unless the underlying inequality of opportunities is addressed1. Because Latin America suffers the most from low levels of employment and high levels of inequality, it might be useful to adapt existing scholarship about income inequality to Latin American countries.

The political participation of second-generation youths is still an unexplored subject. The present empirical research has two main objectives: to study whether and how the second-generations in Italy manage to have their voice heard in the development of the policies concerning them, and to examine in depth the role that institutional players and those from the third sector have in support of their struggles. The present qualitative research, carried out between January 2017 and January 2018, has highlighted some new dynamics of activism and the paths of empowerment of the young activists involved. However, the investigation showed a structural weakness of the movements of the young adults and a lack of leaders capable of representing independently the requests forwarded by the second-generations. The role of other players, both institutional and from civil society, in supporting their activism remains preponderant and essential.

The paper investigates the role of religion among a group of adolescents (11-15-year-old) surveyed in Italian multicultural schools. The multicultural classrooms (with over 30% of pupils with ethnic background) may be interpreted as social spaces for inter-ethnic coexistence, open to ethnic and religious diversity. We rely on a sample of 1,040 students enrolled in lower secondary education in Lombardy in 2011 on which we investigate religiosity, conceptualized as consisting of religious belonging and religious practice. The investigation questions are: does religiosity hamper horizontal relationships with classmates and vertical relationships with teachers? What consequence does the religious practice produce on educational achievement, and more in general on school integration? On average, religious students tend to report a higher level of integration (positive relationships with peers/teachers) compared to non-religious students, even after controlling for a wide set of covariates. In addition, they gain higher marks. Furthermore, these positive results are similar among Italian and non-Italian students: for future research, this evidence suggests that religiosity of students with an immigrant background could be considered as a resource for their educational integration, especially when schools are more welcoming towards religious diversity.