Keeping it in the family: the absence of young Italians from the public piazza

Abstract

The author analysed autobiographies written by university students, comparing his impressions with the results of studies on young people carried out by Italian sociologists. The picture that he pieced together of this generation “without fathers or teachers”, and of the related responsibilities of the previous generation, is far from encouraging. The modern generation of young Italians nurtures values pivoting on the family and on self-fulfilment, and acts within spheres of friendship and sentiment at short radius. The rest of the social world is mediated, experienced through films, internet and holidays. The universalist attitude has been supplanted by a widespread and rooted particularism. The collective dimension that transcends the experience of the individual and his reference group has lost relevance.