YOUTH AND YOUTH GROUPINGS, DISCOMFORT AND CONFLICT, DEVIANT BEHAVIOR

This research, encouraged and funded by the Municipality of Suzzara, aims to analyze the aggregation dynamics involving the youngest residents of this unique area of ​​Lower Mantua. Due to its demographics and socioeconomic, political, and cultural history, this area has long been characterized by a series of social changements that are atypical for a municipality of just 18,000 inhabitants, resembling those of the metropolises of central and northern Italy (consider the large-scale migrations from Southern Italy in the late 1960s, and the more recent ones from North Africa, Eastern Europe, India, and Pakistan). In this context, the lifestyle and future plans of young people are of considerable importance, and these aspects sometimes intersect with behaviors that reflect a new and complex social unease, to the point of giving rise to deviant or even criminal behavior.

The research, divided into four phases, aims to explore these dimensions through initial 30 in-depth interviews with individuals whose profession, aptitude, and interests involve working closely with young people (e.g., teachers, youth center managers, cultural center and library staff, socio-educational workers, specialized healthcare personnel, social cooperative staff, municipal police, juvenile and local social services, SERT (a drug addiction treatment center), representatives of foreign communities and various ethnic groups, and local spiritual and religious leaders). Subsequently, workshops will be held in various secondary schools (the Istituto Manzoni, a high school, and the Scuola Arti e Mestieri, a vocational school), to gain insight into the perspectives of young people on the topics covered in the study.

Finally, the research aims to offer the municipal administration of Suzzara some operational and implementation suggestions to improve opportunities for young people, aggregation and integration practices in a very multicultural and multiethnic context, also hypothesizing the birth of a "restorative city", a context that is able to care for people even in the presence of events that could undermine the harmony and most solid relationships of the social context – as recently happened, with the youngest among them.

Head of Research

Susanna Vezzadini – Dipartimento di Scienze Politiche e Sociali – UNIBO

Other members

Stefania Crocitti – Dipartimento di Scienze Giuridiche – UNIBO