Suchergebnisse

Even before the Covid-19 pandemic, young people had a peculiar position in Italian public and institutional discourses. On the one hand, their complex living conditions nourished preoccu-pations and calls for intervention to save an "endangered" social group. On the other hand, young people's behaviours were constantly placed under scrutiny as potentially dangerous for themselves and society. Through an analysis of public and institutional discourses on youth and youth policies elaborated during the pandemic, the article analyses the interplay of these competing narratives in political and policy choices during the Covid-19 emergency exploring how young people's (un)deservingness has been framed. In doing so, the article asks what understanding of youth sustains recent institutional choices in terms of resources distribution and what institutions have learnt on (and from) young people during the pandemic.

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.

Aiming at contributing to a better understanding of the current developments, paradoxes and ways to deal with youth political participation in Europe, the main research question of the PARTISPACE project is: How and where do 15- to 30 year-old young people participate differently across social milieus and youth cultural scenes and across eight European cities (framed by different national welfare, education and youth policies)? In relation to this research question, this report was intended to delineate the overall social, political, institutional and cultural framework in which the project PARTISPACE is placed and to identify the main starting points for the development of the forthcoming fieldwork. In so doing, the report has outlined the scenario of youth participation in the eight countries involved in the PARTISPACE project.

The PARTISPACE study aims at undertaking a comparative analysis of youth participation or their involvement and engagement in decisions 'which concern them and, in general, the life of their communities' (European Commission, 2001a: 8). The central research question of the project is how and where 15- and 30 year-old young people do participate differently across social milieus and youth cultural scenes and across eight European cities (framed by different national welfare, education and youth policies). What styles of participation do they prefer, develop and apply and in what spaces does participation take place? Answers to these questions could improve the understanding of the complexities and contradictions of youth participation – on the side of policy makers as well as on the side of young people – and thereby help empowering young people in participating in society, renovating also concepts, definitions and discourses on what (youth) participation is, could and should be. The eight European cities in which we conduct the study are Bologna (IT), Eskisehir (TK), Frankfurt (DE), Gothenburg (SE), Manchester (UK), Plovdiv (BG), Rennes (FR) and Zurich (CH). They do not represent but secure contrasting contexts of young people's growing up as well as differing orientations towards Europe. Although embedded in different national and local contexts, these eight cities are comparable in terms of dimension and relevance in the respective country. This ensures a sufficient provision and diversity of participatory settings without being too close to representative national government institutions and umbrella structures.