Youth and Unconventional Political Engagement

This book analyses the relationship between youth and participation, looking specifically at those repertories of involvement that are commonly clustered under the concept of unconventional political participation. The author focuses on the connections between youth practices of participation and youth conditions in contemporary society. Drawing from the analysis of three ethnographic case studies conducted on experiences of youth participation in Italy and Sweden, the circumstances and the reasons leading young people to express their political ideas through forms of engagement located outside the realm of formal politics are explored. The book seeks to bring back the specificities of contemporary youth at the centre of the analysis of youth practices of participation, highlighting their often overlooked socio-historical and generational 'situatedness'.

Youth and Unconventional Political Engagement will be of interest students and scholarsacross a range of disciplines, including youth studies, political science, and sociology.

Forges theoretical links, through empirical illustrations, between the changing and changed social condition of young people in Europe and their actions through 'unconventional participation' Presents material from participant observation and biographical interviews Addresses employment difficulties, problems of access to housing, and social marginalisation

Autorentext
Ilaria Pitti is Marie Skodowska-Curie Fellow at the Centre for Studies on Civic Engagement, Örebro University, Sweden and holds a visiting position at the University of Bologna, Italy.

Inhalt

1. Introduction.- 2. Unconventional Political Participation: An Overview.- 3. Young People and Unconventional Political Engagement.- 4. What do We Want? We Want Everything!: Young Swedish Activists and the Union of Citizens.- 5. If Not Now, When?: Young Italian Activists and the Occupied Social Centre.- 6. We Will Never Be What You Want Us to Be: Young Football Fans and the Ultras Centre.- 7. Unconventional is the New Conventional? Conclusive Reflections.