Chapter 6 - Individualised but Not Individualist: Young People’s Experiences of Sociation and Cooperative Individualisation in Milan

Summary

Introduction

Young Italian adolescents born in the early years of the twenty-first century – usually identified as ‘Generation Z’ – have grown up amid constant crises. The economic recession generated by the explosion of the subprime mortgage crisis and the failure of major US banks in 2008, the increasingly evident negative effects of climate change, the experience of the pandemic caused by the onset of the SARS-CoV-2 virus and the severe restrictive measures implemented by the government to limit its spread, and recently the geopolitical turbulence linked to Russia's assault on Ukraine and the Israeli reaction to the Hamas terrorist attack: these compose a scenario of uncertainty, and they generate specific forms of anxiety in terms of sensitivity and emotions (Scribano 2021; 2022). Furthermore, the growing pervasiveness of information and communication technology, the importance assumed by social media, the centrality and novelty of the forms and languages of online communication and the transformations that information technology has introduced into daily life in the sphere of work and interpersonal relationships configure a set of experiences that potentially constitute the basis for a new generational identification (Mannheim 1952). Following Karl Mannheim, it is possible to hypothesise the configuration of a specific generational collocation, such as the sharing of unique experiences, which cannot be adequately understood, described and faced by referring to the conceptual and communicative baggage developed by previous generations (Colombo and Rebughini 2019).

Adopting a generational perspective to interpret the experience of contemporary youth requires developing a heuristic tool that makes it possible to highlight the discontinuities with respect to the experience of previous cohorts; discontinuities that entail a search for a new lexicon and new interpretative tools, and the development of a new relationship with oneself, others and reality which involves the tendency to act, think and feel according to specific and recognisable methods or lifestyles.

The chapter analyses how the injunctions to be autonomous, active and creative – characteristic of an individualised society – are internalised and elaborated by young people living in the Milan area of northern Italy. The data presented are based on a nearly 10-year research project, conducted from 2015 to 2023, that involved around 100 young people aged between 18 and 30 (Colombo, Rebughini and Leonini 2017; Colombo, Leonini and Rebughini 2018; Colombo and Rebughini 2021; Colombo Rebughini and Domaneschi 2022).