La partecipazione giovanile in Campania. L’impatto del digitale in tempi di emergenza pandemica

The paper addresses the issue of online youth participation through the analysis of the incidence of the Covi-19 pandemic. The theme of youth participation is a transversal theme that intertwines different theoretical perspectives and different fields of sociology: from the sociology of groups, to political science, to the sociology of the media. Participation theories have very ancient origins. The first considerations on the subject are already encountered in ancient Greece through the works of Aristotle and Plato, and their development reaches the reflections of Marx and Tocqueville which focus on participation both in terms of civil participation and associations, but also of associations of sector. In this part of the paper it was decided to adopt the theoretical point of view of Gallino (1978) with reference to his definition of participation. The identification of the different types of equity investments was then made, referring to the data published by ISTAT. The concept of youth participation was thus reinterpreted through different areas that focus attention on civil and political participation, sector associations, and cultural play. After developing a general framework of the different kind of participation, the work focuses on the analysis of the new generations and their digital participation. In this section, we focused on online participatory dynamics through some specific social network platforms, bringing attention to the main movements that have taken shape in recent years, such as the sardine movement. The latter is a clear example of how grassroots movements, which are based on the participation of civil society and disseminated on digital platforms, are the forms of participation that the new generations prefer. Reference was made to e-governance and e-participation, but also to J.Van Dajik's (2020) discussion of the network society. Through the articles of Sorice (2020), the relationship between the transformations of the public sphere has been assessed in the light of the social process that is defined as "platforming". Reference was also made to Castells (2006) and Leone et al. (2016/2019) with regard to the way of use of young people and above all for the updates of the latest research on the subject of youth participation. Subsequently, we focused on the online participation methods of associations, third sector bodies and civil society in the most difficult period of the pandemic. The relational dynamics, due to covid and its restrictions, have drastically changed. Aspects of relationality that were previously considered normal, are currently a significant cause of danger. In this regard, through the references to the publications of Fotino and Corposanto (2020), an attempt was made to analyze the elements that characterized the period of the pandemic: the concept of health, that of restriction and the lockdown. The research carried out is presented in the fourth chapter of this paper. The questionnaire developed for the analysis of the participation of the provincial coordination of Salerno was adopted, and it was subjected to groups of young people in the Campania region. Subsequently, interviews were carried out, consisting of adaptations of items from the questionnaire, subjected to a reasoned sample of presidents of the forums in the Campania region and the analysis of the three project case studies carried out by NGOs was subsequently carried out, to highlight three further participatory methods. .. [edited by Author]