Enzo Colombo

Different But Not Stranger: Everyday Collective Identifications among Adolescent Children of Immigrants in Italy

This article deals with the problem of the future of the second generation in Italy. After a brief overview of the main perspectives currently adopted to theorise the future of the second and subsequent generations, the Italian situation is introduced. Our objective is to see whether and how the observations made especially in contexts with a long tradition of immigration, where migration processes are now culturally and institutionally embedded, can be useful to understand the Italian situation, characterised by recent immigration flows. The empirical basis to the paper is a set of interviews and focus groups with 105 young people of migrant origin in Milan. Analysis of their narratives reveals six self-identifications which we describe as ethnic enclave, mimicry, crisis, transnational, hyphenated and cosmopolitan.

Practices of Difference: Analysing Multiculturalism in Everyday Life

The considerations we wish to make here arise from a profound dissatisfaction with the current debate on multiculturalism. We perceive that there is a growing gap between the main ways of reading and interpreting the presence of difference in contemporary society and what we see, hear and at times experience in our fieldwork. We are comforted by the fact that in recent times various authors, representing a range of different intellectual perspectives and academic environments, have taken a similar stance, lamenting the lack of reciprocal intertwining between theories and studies (Baumann 1999; Beck 2004; Sarat 2002; Wise 2006).

Citizenship and multiple belonging. Representations of inclusion, identification and participation among children of immigrants in Italy

Abstract This article aims to explore how children of immigrants enrolled in higher secondary schools in Milan conceive and speak about citizenship. It illustrates how the formal, participatory and identity dimensions of citizenship come to be articulated in a complex and changeable way in relation to discourses and contexts. In particular, it attempts to look more closely at the transformations of belonging, which today seems to be composed of different layers that underline different aspects: admittance stresses the universalistic claim to be equal, to not be excluded on the basis of discrimination or prejudice; identification conserves a particularistic and essentialist meaning, it stresses the importance and the ‘unavoidableness’ of difference; involvement regards lifestyles, everyday relations, it confers importance on the possibility to participate on behalf of a specific interest and have a stake in a communitys life and future. Therefore, citizenship assumes different meanings when discourses shift from one layer to another.

Multiculturalisms: An overview of multicultural debates in western societies

This article examines how debates about multiculturalism evolved in western societies. In the first part, it presents the different meanings of the term ‘multiculturalism’ when it applies to diverse types of cultural difference within society: native and sub-state national groups, discriminated groups within society and immigrants. Highlighting the polysemy of the term, three theoretical approaches to multicultural issues are introduced and critically discussed: multiculturalism as a normative issue, as an (anti) ideology and as a feature of current societies. In its central part, the article considers the different criticisms that, since the beginning of the 21st century, have called for a retreat from multiculturalism, which is accused of being a failure and which is blamed for promoting social fragmentation, parallel lives and terrorist groups. In order to assess the validity of the alleged multicultural backlash, the article analyses some important trends in current research on multicultural policies, attitudes and identities. Finally, it presents the increasing interest in the analysis of ‘everyday multiculturalism’, highlighting the processes through which cultural difference is produced and negotiated in daily interactions in urban contexts.

A generational attitude : young adults facing the economic crisis in Milan

Abstract For almost 10 years there has been talk of the economic crisis affecting the European area, with more evident effects in the Mediterranean countries. Yet the expression ‘economic crisis’ has become too wide and blurred to be useful for describing how the current socio-economic conjuncture is affecting different categories of young people in different ways. Precariousness and reduced job opportunities, with their consequences for social mobility, constitute only the more explicit and raw evidence of the lived experience of the crisis among young people. Although families remain the all-solving institution, the consequences of the crisis are diversified according to the economic, cultural and social capital of each individual, to gender and generation position, and to subjective and contextualized perceptions. This article presents research conducted to investigate how young people living in the urban area of Milan locate, react, readapt and reinvent themselves in the present economic context by analysing their aspirations, expectations and practices. We develop a comparative analysis of the main structural bias (gender, education, social class position) in order to shed light on the effects and perceptions of the crisis among young people in the city of Milan.

Nuovi italiani. Forme di identificazione tra i figli di immigrati inseriti nella scuola superiore

New Italians. Forms of identification emerging from students with migrants origins in Italian higher schools - This article discusses the future of the second and third generations in Italy by developing a generational perspective. Through the adoption of a constructionist theoretical approach, informed by works on globalization and the new social movements, it tries to advance beyond the limits of theories and observations at time of fordism, based on concepts of either assimilation or integration. The paper presents an on-going research on students of foreign origins who attend high schools in Milan. By doing so, it focuses on the specificity of the Italian situation and it highlights new and innovative forms of identification, as they are changing alongside current ideas of belonging, membership, citizenship and difference. Hence, the actual experience of the second and third generations, and their new forms of identification, emerge as a useful starting point to understand some peculiarities of the contemporary world. Keywords: Second Generation, Social Movements, Social Integration, Immigration in Italy, Education.

Reflexividade e escrita

This article intends to focus on the notion of reflexivity, approaching the significance to contemporary experience. Unlike traditional reflexivity, equivalent to virtue and modern reflexivity, equivalent to self-reflection and inner dialogue, this article proposes the notion of “constructionist reflexivity” to highlight the recursive process of inclusion of social products in the factuality of reality. In the second part, the article sets into question the concept of “constructionist reflexivity” as an instrument for describing social reality, with special reference to the sociological writing. As a final point, it suggests three main dimensions to develop a form of constructionist reflective writing: listening, criticism and responsibility.

Globalizing the Classroom: Innovative Approach to National and International Learning

This essay examines an innovative approach to teaching across international and cultural boundaries and evaluates the experience in a course on Globalization, Social Justice, and Human Rights, co-taught collaboratively by faculty from different campuses and countries since 2011. This course was created to address unmet needs in the traditional higher educational systems. These include, but are not limited to, lack of cross-cultural and interdisciplinary collaboration among students, faculty, and institutions. Although economies, polities, environments, and human societies are experiencing great connections across the globe, educational systems continue to be modeled on nineteenth century assumptions and structures. In this course, faculty teach at their respective universities but use an online platform to allow for cross-campus communication. In addition to the classroom rooted in a physical place, a major component of student work is to interact online with students on other campuses, including undertaking collaborative group work across borders. A shared core syllabus can be modified by institution to satisfy local needs. In this essay, we examine the following: the history and logistics of this course; the facilitators and barriers in its implementation, including the use of technology; the role of language and communication; and the mechanisms necessary for faculty to adopt such a collaborative, global effort to local curricular guidelines. We also address the benefits of the course for students, including exposure to global diversity (culture, worldviews, and pedagogy); developing teamwork skills such as leadership and flexibility; accepting and accommodating diverse educational needs/approaches; and promoting interdisciplinary communication and collaboration. Finally, we assess the challenges for faculty in designing and managing a course across different time zones and academic calendars, facilitating transnational group service learning projects, and the greater time demands required to coordinate and monitor students’ online interactions. Our objective is to help improve and encourage innovative approaches to teaching globalization, social justice, and human rights.

Multiculturalismo quotidiano. Verso una definizione sociologica della differenza

Living with and confronting diversity is becoming a daily condition of western societies. We are testimony of a quick diffusion of a greater sensitivity for individual and collective specificity, which is transformed in a central rhetorical tool for both the formulation of new demands of inclusion and for the claim of rights and privileges. The sociological discussion about difference was often totally absorbed by the debate about multiculturalism. But, this debate often remains narrowly limited either to normative issues - philosophical perspective, theory of justice - or to pragmatic issues - social policy, affirmative action. In both these perspective a specific sociological point of view is missed. They lack a specific interest to catch how difference is presented in actual empirical contests, how social actors use it in everyday relationships to make sense both of their actions and their realities. Also when it is used as an analytical tool, the concept of difference seems confuse, compelled into the dichotomy «essentialism» versus «radical social construction». In order to overcome this narrow dichotomy, the article proposes a more specific and sociological definition of difference. A definition able to highlight the character of situated resource for interaction, communication, identity and self-esteem difference is assuming in the contemporary societies. Stressing its aspects of situated resources allows an anti-essentialist but deeply rooted in everyday life description of contemporary forms of representation of and confrontation with difference. The concept of «everyday multiculturalism» is introduced to put in evidence situations and contests in which the constant presence of otherness needs an active work of «domestication» of reified differences produced on the macro level. A mundane work that takes place in situation where power, capability and resources are differently distributed, not shared in condition of equity and equality.

The Contradictory Place of Civic Education in the Italian Education System

Currently, in many Western societies, young people are often depicted as ‘lacking’. Most media, political discourses and social research tend to describe them as characterized by uncertainty—towards the future, personal relationships and professional tracks (Bauman, 1995; Beck, 1992; Means, 2015), disinterest—towards politics and public life (Jowell & Park, 1998; Kimberlee, 1998; Macedo, Alex-Assenhoh, & Berry, 2005; Putnam, 2000) and resignation—accepting the status quo without striking forms of protest, dissent or rebellion (Arthur & Davies, 2008; Beaumont, 2010; Harris, Wyn, & Youness, 2010; Levine, 2007).