Abstract
This chapter focuses on youth and its relationship with unconventional participation as it has been portrayed in literature. The chapter aims to highlight how sociological studies have, since the very beginning, conceived unconventionality as an intrinsic character of youth practices of political engagement. Referring to a life-course perspective, youth studies have frequently explained the youth preference for unconventional political behaviour as just a consequence of a series of characteristics distinguishing youth as a life phase, such as physical vigour and the need for experimentation. In line with the book’s general intention to actualise the existing understanding of unconventional political engagement, the chapter presents the choice to analyse youth unconventional political behaviours through a generational approach and clarifies the basic concepts of generational location, generational consciousness, and generational unit. In order to frame the analysis of the three case studies presented in the following chapter, an interpretation of young people’s contemporary conditions in terms of social peripheralisation is discussed.
This is a preview of subscription content, log in via an institution to check access.
Access this chapter
Tax calculation will be finalised at checkout
Purchases are for personal use only
Notes
- 1.
According to Kassimir (2006), both the academic attention devoted to and the “separation” of youth engagement from the broader analysis of participation are in part moved by an acknowledgment of the potentiality of youth involvement, but they are also guided by the idea that young people as political actors are “incomplete and not (yet) capable of fully responsible action and rational judgment” (Kassimir 2006, p. 20). In this perspective, the same behaviours are described as innovative and as not (yet) fully developed, implying a specific relation between them and the coming-of-age stage of life.
- 2.
The in-depth presentation of the three case studies on which the following chapters are based should be considered as an attempt to avoid this risk, acknowledging and emphasising the existence of different “ways of being young”.
References
Abrams, Philip. 1982. Historical sociology. Cornell: Cornell University Press.
Ambrosi, Elisabetta, and Alessandro Rosina. 2010. Non è un paese per giovani. L’anomalia italiana : una generazione senza voce. Venezia: Marsilio.
Ariès, Philippe. 1962. Centuries of childhood: a social history of family life. New York, NY: Vintage Books.
Arnett, Jeffrey. 2000. “Emerging adulthood. A theory of development from the late teen through the twenties.” American Psychologist, 55(5):469–480.
Ayllón, Sara. 2015. “Youth poverty, employment and leaving the parental home in Europe.” Review of Income and Wealth, 61 (4):651–76. https://doi.org/10.1111/roiw.12122.
Bessant, Judith, Rys Farthing, and Rob Watts. 2017. The precarious generation. A political economy of young people. New York: Routledge.
Bettin Lattes, Gianfranco. 1999. “Sul concetto di generazione politica.” Rivista italiana di scienza politica, 1(23):1–19. https://doi.org/10.1426/1639.
Blatterer, Harry. 2010. “The changing semantics of youth and adulthood.” Cultural Sociology 4 (1):63–79. https://doi.org/10.1177/1749975509356755.
Borghi, Vando. 2002. Vulnerabilità, inclusione sociale e lavoro: contributi per la comprensione dei processi di esclusione sociale e delle problematiche di policy. Milano: Franco Angeli.
Brake, Michael. 1995. Comparative youth culture: the sociology of youth cultures and youth subcultures in America, Britain and Canada. London: Routledge.
Burnett, Judith. 2010. Contemporary adulthood: calendars, cartographies and constructions. New York: Palgrave Macmillan.
Cavalli, A. 1980. “La gioventù. Condizione o processo?” Rassegna italiana di sociologia, 21(4):519-542.
Chisholm, Lynne. 2002. Mannheim revisited: youth, generation and life-course. Paper presented at the ISA XV World Congress of Sociology, Brisbane, Australia, 7–13 July.
Chisholm, Lynne, Siyka Kovacheva, and Maurizio Merico. 2011. European youth studies. Integrating research, policy and practice. Innsbruck: EYS Consortium.
Coleman, James S. 1981. The adolescent society. Westport, CT: Greenwood Press.
Côté, James E. 2014. Youth studies: fundamental issues and debates. Basingstoke: Palgrave Macmillan.
Cuconato, Morena, Patricia Loncle, Virginie Muniglia, and Andreas Walther. eds. 2012. Youth participation in Europe. Beyond discourses, practices and realities. Bristol: Policy Press.
Dahl, Robert A. 1985. A preface to economic democracy. Berkeley: University of California Press.
Dalton, Russel J. 2008. The good citizen. How a younger generation is reshaping American politics. Washington: CQ Press.
Eliasoph, Nina, and Paul Lichterman. 2014. “Civic action.” American Journal of Sociology 120(3):798–863. https://doi.org/10.1086/679189.
Farthing, Rys. 2010. “The politics of youthful antipolitics: representing the ‘issue’ of youth participation in politics.” Journal of Youth Studies 13 (2):181–95. https://doi.org/10.1080/13676260903233696.
Finnegan, William. 1999. Cold new world. Growing up in a harder country. New York: Random House.
Furlong, Andy. 2009. Handbook of youth and young adulthood. London: Routledge
Furlong, Andy, Dan Woodman, and Johanna Wyn. 2011. “Changing times, changing perspectives: reconciling ‘transition’ and ‘cultural’ perspectives on youth and young adulthood.” Journal of Sociology 47 (4):355–70. https://doi.org/10.1177/1440783311420787.
Ginsborg, Paul. 1998. Storia d’Italia, 1943–1996: famiglia, società, stato. Torino: Einaudi.
Guidi, Riccardo. 2014. “Youth policies in Europe. Big changes after the big crisis? an explorative analysis.” SocietàMutamentoPolitica, 6(10):241-264. https://doi.org/10.13128/SMP-15414.
Hall, Stuart, and Tony Jefferson. eds. 2006. Resistance through rituals: youth subcultures in post-war Britain. London and New York: Routledge.
Harris, Anita, and Johanna Wyn. 2009. “Young people’s politics and the micro-territories of the local.” Australian Journal of Political Science 44 (2):327–44. https://doi.org/10.1080/10361140902865308.
Henn, Matt, and Mark Weinstein. 2006. “Young people and political (in)activism: why don’t young people vote?” Policy & Politics 34 (3):517–34. https://doi.org/10.1332/030557306777695316.
James, Allison. 2011. “To be(come) or not to be(come): understanding children’s citizenship.” The Annals of the American Academy of Political and Social Science 633 (1):167–79. https://doi.org/10.1177/0002716210383642.
Kaase, Max, and Alan Marsh. 1979. “Political action: a theoretical perspective.” In Political action: mass participation in five western democracies edited by Samuel H. Barnes and Max Kaase. Beverly Hills: Sage.
Kassimir, Ron. 2006. “Youth activism. International and transnational.” In Lonnie R. Sherrod, ed. Youth Activism: An International Encyclopedia. London: Greenwood Press, pp. 20–28.
Kreckel, Reinhard. 1992. “The concept of class. Its uses and limitations in the analysis of social inequality in advanced capitalist societies.” In On social differentiation. A contribution to the critique of Marxist ideology, edited by Stanislav Kozyr-Kowalski and Andrzej Przestalski. Poznan: Adam Mickiewicz University Press.
Leccardi, Carmen (2005). “Facing uncertainty. Temporalities and biographies in the new century.” Young. Nordic Journal of Youth Research, 13(2), 123-146.
Levi, Giovanni, and Jean-Claude Schmitt. eds. 1997. A history of young people in the West. Cambridge, MA: Harvard University Press.
Loader, Brian D., Ariadne Vromen, and Michael A. Xenos. 2014. “The networked young citizen: social media, political participation and civic engagement.” Information, Communication & Society 17 (2):143–50. https://doi.org/10.1080/1369118X.2013.871571.
Mannheim, Karl. 1952 Essays on the sociology of knowledge. Collected Works. Ed. Paul Kecskemeti. London: Routledge.
Marcuse, Herbert. 1972. Counterrevolution and revolt. Boston: Beacon Press.
Martelli, Alessandro. 2013. “The debate on young people and participatory citizenship. Questions and research prospects.” International Review of Sociology 23 (2):421–37. https://doi.org/10.1080/03906701.2013.804289.
Mascherini, Massimiliano, Anna Ludwinek, Stefanie Ledermaier, and European Foundation for the Improvement of Living and Working Conditions. 2015. Social inclusion of young people. Luxembourg: Publications Office.
Melucci, Alberto. 1996. “Youth times and social movements.” Young, 4(2): 3–14.
Nazio, Tiziana. 2008. Cohabitation, family and society. Routledge Advances in Sociology. London: Routledge.
Norris, Pippa. 2003. Young people and political activism: from the politics of loyalties to the politics of choice?. Keynote at the Council of Europe’s Symposium on Young People and Activism. Strasbourg, 27–28 November.
O’Reilly, Jacqueline, Werner Eichhorst, András Gábos, Kari Hadjivassiliou, David Lain, Janine Leschke, and Seamus McGuinness. 2015. “Five characteristics of youth unemployment in Europe: flexibility, education, migration, family legacies, and EU policy.” SAGE Open, 5 (1):21–58. https://doi.org/10.1177/2158244015574962.
Percy-Smith, Barry, and Nigel Thomas. 2009. Handbook of children and young people’s participation. New York and London: Routledge.
Pickard, Sarah, and Judith Bessant, eds. 2018. Young people re-generating politics in times of crises. Cham: Palgrave Macmillan.
Pitti, Ilaria. 2017. “What does being an adult mean? Comparing young people’s and adults’ representations of adulthood”. Journal of Youth Studies, 20(9): 1225–1241.
Schizzerotto, Antonio, Ugo Trivellato, and Nicola Sartor. 2011. Generazioni diseguali: le condizioni di vita dei giovani di ieri e di oggi: un confronto. Bologna: Il Mulino.
Sloam, James. 2016. “Diversity and voice: the political participation of young people in the European Union.” The British Journal of Politics and International Relations 18 (3):521–37. https://doi.org/10.1177/1369148116647176.
Swartz, Sharlene, and Arnot Madeleine. 2013. Youth citizenship and the politics of belonging. London: Routledge.
Torney-Purta, Judith, and Jo-Ann Amadeo. 2011. “Participatory niches for emergent citizenship in early adolescence: an international perspective.” The Annals of the American Academy of Political and Social Science 633 (1):180–200. https://doi.org/10.1177/0002716210384220.
Van Gennep, Arnold. 1909. The rites of passage. Chicago: University of Chicago Press.
Vassallo, Francesca, and Pauline Ding. 2016. “Explaining protests in the aftermath of the great recession in Europe. The relevance of different economic indicators.” Partecipazione e Conflitto, 9(1):101-126. https://doi.org/10.1285/i20356609v9i1p101.
Vromen, Ariadne, Michael A. Xenos, and Brian Loader. 2015. “Young people, social media and connective action: from organisational maintenance to everyday political talk.” Journal of Youth Studies 18 (1):80–100. https://doi.org/10.1080/13676261.2014.933198.
Walther, Andreas. 2006. “Regimes of youth transitions. Choice, flexibility and security in young people’s experiences across different European contexts.” Young. Nordic Journal of Youth Research, 14(2) 119–139.
Wierenga, Ani. 2011. “The sociology of youth, the future, and the holy grail”. Youth Studies Australia 30(3): 40–46.
Woodman, Dan, and Johanna Wyn. 2015. Youth and generation: rethinking change and inequality in the lives of young people. London: Sage.
Author information
Authors and Affiliations
Rights and permissions
Copyright information
© 2018 The Author(s)
About this chapter
Cite this chapter
Pitti, I. (2018). Young People and Unconventional Political Engagement. In: Youth and Unconventional Political Engagement. Palgrave Macmillan, Cham. https://doi.org/10.1007/978-3-319-75591-5_3
Download citation
DOI: https://doi.org/10.1007/978-3-319-75591-5_3
Published:
Publisher Name: Palgrave Macmillan, Cham
Print ISBN: 978-3-319-72136-1
Online ISBN: 978-3-319-75591-5
eBook Packages: Social SciencesSocial Sciences (R0)