Nicola De Luigi

La vulnerabilità dei giovani nel mercato del lavoro italiano : dinamiche e persistenze

L’obiettivo di questo contributo e esaminare se e come si e modificata negli ultimi decenni la posizione dei giovani nel mercato del lavoro italiano. A partire dall’esame di alcuni indicatori generali e dalle risultanze delle piu rilevanti indagini empiriche, l’analisi si e focalizzata sui piu importanti nodi critici che ormai da alcuni decenni rendono il mercato del lavoro italiano un luogo decisamente poco accogliente per i giovani. Innanzitutto, l’attenzione si concentrera sulle cosiddette barriere all’ingresso e sulla durevole presenza, tra le giovani generazioni, di preoccupanti aree di inattivita. In secondo luogo, sara evidenziata la persistente differenza tra giovani uomini e giovani donne, nonche il resistente divario territoriale presente nel nostro paese. Infine, sara presa in esame la forte concentrazione fra i giovani delle forme di lavoro atipiche introdotte a partire dalla seconda meta degli anni Novanta e il ruolo ancora determinante della famiglia per affrontare la fase di transizione al lavoro. Se ne deduce che i meccanismi di funzionamento del mercato del lavoro italiano, con le sue differenziazioni territoriali e il forte dualismo generazionale e di genere, non possono risolvere, senza importanti e mirati interventi esterni, il problematico rapporto tra i giovani e il lavoro nel nostro paese.

Attitudes and Practices of Parents: Disadvantage and Access to Education.

This article focuses on different ways in which socially disadvantaged parents engage with their children’s educational experiences, and provides evidence of the role they play in opening or narrowing their children’s access to education. Disadvantaged parents are usually associated with weak or difficult educational trajectories for their children, because of their lower level of economic, cultural, and social capital. Nevertheless, this association does not operate as an automatic mechanism. Indeed, against a backdrop of persisting inequalities, research data show a plurality of intraclass and intragroup dynamics, with disadvantaged parents having diverse ways of avoiding blaming processes, saving dignity, and acting as proactive agents for their children’s educational career.

New Forms of Solidarity and Young People: An Ethnography of Youth Participation in Italy

Drawing from the findings of the European project ‘Partispace,’ this chapter analyses three solidarity initiatives promoted by youth leftist groups in Bologna (Italy). Materials were collected through an ethnographic study that included in-depth interviews with young activists. This material highlights the connections between the initiatives of these groups, their objectives and practices, in the context of the global financial crisis. The analysis shows that these initiatives, while seeking to mitigate the problems faced by vulnerable groups (i.e. migrants, refugees and the homeless), were also fuelled by practices of self-help aimed at responding to the unheeded ‘generational needs’ of the young people themselves. The projects emerge as ‘laboratories of political resistance’ where strategies for collective action based on mutual help and self-empowerment are experimented with and enacted.

Patterns of Gambling Activities and Gambling Problems Among Italian High School Students: Results from a Latent Class Analysis

This study aims to provide an estimate of the prevalence of gambling among Italian adolescents and a description of their patterns of gambling activities (PGAs) using a latent class analysis on 13 different types of games. A nationwide sample of 10,959 Italian high school students was recruited in 2013. We assessed problem gambling using the South Oaks Gambling Screen: Revisited for Adolescent (SOGS-RA) scale. Approximately half (50.6%) of students reported gambling at least once in the previous year; 5.0% of them were problem gamblers and 9.1% were at-risk gamblers according to their SOGS-RA scores. Eight PGAs were identified, among which heavy players (1.7% of students) could be classified as problem gamblers and broad skill players (2.0%) and lotteries & sports players (2.4%) as “at-risk” players. These high-risk classes were consistently associated with risky behaviours in terms of substance use, school performance, money spent on gambling and family environment; the other five classes identified low-risk players associated with safe behaviours. To the best of our knowledge, this is the first study to identify PGAs among Italian adolescents. Problem gamblers are not a homogeneous group in terms of patterns of gambling activities and are associated with different risk factors, among which environmental factors, such as parents’ gambling attitude and behaviour, deserve special attention. The acknowledgment of such patterns and risk factors could be useful in developing sensible public policies addressing prevention strategies and regulatory instruments.

The finish line is far away and the last part is the hardest: Women and pensions in Italy

The article analyses gender differences in the retirement age in Italy, focusing on two main factors: educational attainment and family structure, the latter referring to the burden of caring activities within the family and to the partners employment status. Aiming to identify some regularities in womens retirement patterns and to highlight differences emerging in comparison to men, a Heckman selection model with maximum likelihood estimates has been applied, focusing on 2006 and 2012 data of the European Labour Force Survey, which include an ad hoc module on retirement. Analysis confirm that female retirement age exceeds that of men and grows as the level of education decreases, despite the correction for the sample selection. Therefore, educational attainment affects mens and womens retirement behaviours in a different way. Family care affect womens and mens retirement age in the same manner: the presence of economic dependent children delays labour market exit, while elderly living in the household have an opposite effect. Lastly, the analysis suggests that Italian womens retirement age strongly correlates with their partners employment status.

Retirement in a Context of Strong Institutional Uncertainty and Territorial Diversities: The Case of Italy

Italy’s demographic structure has changed greatly over the last 50 years: a diminishing number of workers have to support the pensions of a growing number of retirees. Therefore, several reforms aimed at reorganizing the pension system followed one another, affecting the set of opportunities available to individuals. Given the structure of the labor market, retirement decisions in Italy have been strongly differentiated by gender and from a regional point of view (center-north vs south). However, recent changes in pension policies have increased the risk of social inequalities across generations, with younger cohorts benefiting from a far less generous system, with a lower substitution rate and being forced to extend their working careers.

Overeducation nel mercato del lavoro italiano: una questione di genere?

L’overeducation (OE) e un fenomeno controverso, sia come concettualizzazione sia come misurazione. Numerosi studi evidenziano che la sua diffusione e in crescita tra i giovani laureati. L’area disciplinare sembra giocare un ruolo significativo nel determinare il rischio di OE. Le aree tecnico-scientifiche evidenziano performance migliori di quelle umanistico-sociali e questa gerarchia rispecchia la distribuzione di genere tra le discipline accademiche. Il paper intende verificare, in un campione di laureati italiani intervistati nel 2007, a 3 anni dal conseguimento della laurea, se e in quale misura l’influenza dell’area disciplinare sulla probabilita di sperimentare una condizione di OE a tre anni dalla laurea interessi allo stesso modo maschi e femmine. Infine, si propone di testare l’ipotesi che le performance universitarie e le credenziali post-laurea possano modificare l’effetto dell’area disciplinare.