The article analyses the participation of young people in emerging social movements, focusing on the experience of the Italian Non Una Di Meno (NUDM) movement combatting male violence against women. Challenging scholarly assumptions of growing youth apathy in democracies, the analysis reveals high levels of participation on the part of the younger population engaged in gender-related struggles. Hit by both conservative and austerity policies associated with the economic and political crisis, feminist and LGBTQI (lesbian, gay, bisexual, transgender, queer, and intersexual) Millennials reacted by increasing their involvement in contentious politics. In the protest arena, they have crossed paths with older generations, activating processes of exchange, but also intergenerational tensions. Based on original qualitative data from ten semi-structured interviews with movement activists in Florence and Bologna, this piece of research sheds light on the role of young people in the birth and evolution of NUDM, and the relationship between different generations of activists within this movement. More specifically, it explains continuities and discontinuities between veterans and younger activists’ sources of theoretical inspirations, organizational models and mobilization resources, strategic priorities and action repertoires. Millennials embrace intersectional feminism and queer theory; opt for grassroots, horizontal organizing; adopt a conflictual attitude towards the state, and dialogical, introspective dynamics within the movement. Intergenerational disagreements especially relate to sex work, and surrogate motherhood.
AllonF. (2014). The feminization of finance. Australian Feminist Studies, 29, 12-30.
2.
ArmingeonK.SchädelL. (2015). Social inequality in political participation: The dark sides of individualisation. West European Politics, 38, 1-27.
3.
BaumanZ. (1997). Postmodernity and its discontents. Cambridge, MA: Polity.
4.
BennettL.SegerbergA. (2013). The logic of connective action: Digital media and the personalization of contentious politics. Cambridge, England: Cambridge University Press.
5.
CammaertsB.BruterM.BanajiS.HarrisonS.AnsteadN. (2014). The myth of youth apathy: Young Europeans’ critical attitudes toward democratic life. American Behavioral Scientist, 58, 645-664.
6.
CasaliniB. (2017). A materialist analysis of contemporary feminist movements. Anthropological Theory, 17, 497-517.
7.
CavallariR.RobionyS. (2017). Se Non Ora Quando? Da Di Nuovo a Libere [If Not Now, When? From Again to Free Women]. Rome, Italy: Castelvecchi.
8.
ChiaramonteA.EmanueleV. (2014). Bipolarismo addio?: Il sistema partitico tra cambiamento e de-istituzionalizzazione [Goodbye bipolar system? Change and de-institutionalization in the party system]. In ChiaramonteA.De SioL. (Eds.), Terremoto elettorale: le elezioni politiche del 2013 [Electoral earthquake: The political elections of 2013] (pp. 233-262). Bologna, Italy: Il Mulino.
9.
CohenC. J.KahneJ.BowyerB.MiddaughE.RogowskiJ. (2012). Participatory politics: New media and youth political action. Chicago, IL: MacArthur.
10.
ContiF. (2013). La secolarizzazione inconsapevole. Laicità e dimensione pubblica nell’Italia contemporanea [The uncoscious secularization. Secularism and public dimension in contemporary Italy]. Memoria e Ricerca, 21, 45-65.
11.
CrouchC. (2011). The strange non-death of neo-liberalism. Cambridge, MA: Polity.
12.
della PortaD. (2016a). Late neoliberalism and its discontents: A comparative conclusion. In della PortaD. (Eds.), Late neoliberalism and its discontents in the economic crisis: Comparing social movements in the European periphery (pp. 261-296). Cham, Switzerland: Palgrave Macmillan.
13.
della PortaD. (2016b). Late neoliberalism and its discontents: An introduction. In della PortaD. (Eds.), Late neoliberalism and its discontents in the economic crisis: Comparing social movements in the European periphery (pp. 1-38). Cham, Switzerland: Palgrave Macmillan.
14.
della PortaD.MattoniA. (2014). Patterns of diffusion and the transnational dimension of protest in the movements of the crisis: An introduction. In della PortaD.MattoniA. (Eds.), Spreading protest: Social movements in times of crisis (pp. 1-18). Colchester, England: ECPR Press.
15.
EarlJ.MaherT. V.ElliottT. (2017). Youth, activism, and social movements. Sociology Compass, 1, 1-14.
16.
FedericiS. (2012). The reproduction of labor power in the global economy and the unfinished feminist revolution. In FedericiS. (Ed.), Revolution at point zero: Housework, reproduction, and feminist struggle (pp. 91-113). Oakland, CA: PM Press.
17.
FraserN. (2013). Fortunes of feminism: From state-managed capitalism to neoliberal crisis. New York, NY: Verso.
18.
FraserN.BhattacharyaT.ArruzzaC. (2019). Feminism for the 99%. London, England:Verso.
19.
GallegoA. (2015). Unequal political participation worldwide. Cambridge, England: Cambridge University Press.
GarbagnoliS.PrearoM. (2017). La croisade «anti-genre»: Du Vatican aux «manifs pour tous» [The «anti-gender» crusade: From the Vatican to «manifs pour tous»], Paris, France: Textuel.
22.
GoldstoneJ. A. (2015). Demography and social movements. In della PortaD.DianiM. (Eds.), The Oxford handbook of social movements (pp. 146-158). Oxford, England: Oxford University Press.
23.
HennM.WeinsteinM.ForrestS. (2005). Uninterested youth? Young people’s attitudes towards party politics in Britain. Political Studies, 53, 556-578.
24.
JurisJ. (2012). Reflections on #occupy everywhere: Social media, public space and emerging logics of aggregation. American Ethnologist, 39, 259-279.
25.
KimberleeR. (2002). Why don’t young people vote at general elections?Journal of Youth Studies, 5, 85-97.
26.
LoaderB. D. (Ed.). (2007). Young citizens in the digital age: Political engagement, young people and new media. London, England: Routledge.
27.
LoaderB. D.VromenA.XenosM. A. (2014). The networked young citizen: Social media, political participation and civic engagement. Information, Communication & Society, 17, 143-150.
28.
MiesM. (2014). Housewifisation–globalisation–subsistence–perspective. In van der LindernM.RothK. H. (Eds.), Beyond Marx: Theorising the global labor relations of the XXI century (pp. 209-237). Chicago, IL: Haymarket.
29.
Non Una Di Meno. (2017). Abbiamo un piano. Piano femminista contro la violenza maschile sulle donne e la violenza di genere [We have a plan. Feminist plan against male violence over women and gender violence]. Retrieved from https://drive.google.com/file/d/1r_YsRopDAqxCCvyKd4icBqbMhHVNEcNI/view
30.
OikonomakisL.RoosJ. E. (2016). A global movement for real democracy? The resonance of anti-austerity protest from Spain and Greece to occupy Wall Street. In AnceloviciM.DufourP.NezH. (Eds.), Street politics in the age of austerity: From the indignados to occupy (pp. 227-252). Amsterdam, The Netherlands: Amsterdam University Press.
31.
PavanE.MainardiA. (2018). Striking, marching, tweeting: Studying how online networks change together with movements. Partecipazione e Conflitto, 11, 394-422.
32.
PeroniC. (2014). Gender violence and sexism in Italy: Norms, control and sexuality. La camera Blu. Journal of Gender Studies, 10, 73-85.
33.
PirottaN. (2015). L’esperienza italiana della rete “Donne nella crisi”: Aspetti politici e campagne tematiche [The Italian experience of the “Women in the crisis” network: Political aspects and thematic campaigns]. Retrieved from http://www.ifeitalia.eu/spip.php?article865
34.
PrearoM. (2015). La naissance de la formule « LGBT » en France et en Italie: Une analyse comparative des discours de mobilisation [The birth of the « LGBT » formula in France and Italy: A comparative analysis of mobilization discourse]. Cultures & Conflits, 97, 77-95.
35.
Se Non Ora Quando. (2011). Invito alla donne italiane a partecipare a una giornata nazionale di mobilitazione domenica [Invitation for Italian women to participate in a national day of mobilization on Sunday] (Full text reported in R. Cavallari and S. Robiony, Se Non Ora Quando?: Da Di Nuovo a Libere, Chapter 2, Castelvecchi 2017). Rome, Italy: Author.
36.
SergiV.VogiatzoglouM. (2013). Think globally, act locally? Symbolic memory and global repertoires in the Tunisian uprising and the Greek anti-austerity mobilizations. In FominayaC. F.CoxL. (Eds.), Understanding European movements: New social movements, global justice struggles, anti-austerity protest (pp. 220-235). London, England: Routledge.
37.
SloamJ. (2013). Voice and equality: Young people’s politics in the European Union. West European Politics, 36, 836-858.
38.
StreeckW. (2014). Buying time: The delayed crisis of democratic capitalism. London, England: Verso.
39.
StreeckW. (2016). How will capitalism end? Essays on a failing system. London, England: Verso.
VogiatzoglouM. (2016). Turbulent flow: Anti-austerity mobilization in Greece. In della PortaD. (Eds.), Late neoliberalism and its discontents in the economic crisis: Comparing social movements in the European periphery (pp. 99-129). Cham, Switzerland: Palgrave Macmillan.
42.
WattenbergM. (2006). Is voting for young people?Harlow, England: Longman.
43.
WhittierN. (1997). Political generations, micro-cohorts, and the transformation of social movements. American Sociological Review, 62, 760-778.
44.
WhittierN. (2013). Generational and cohort analysis. In SnowD. A.della PortaD.KlandermansB.McAdamD. (Eds.), The Wiley-Blackwell encyclopedia of social and political movements. Chichester, England: Blackwell. doi:10.1002/9780470674871.wbespm098
45.
XenosM. A.VromenA.LoaderB. D. (2014). The great equalizer? Patterns of social media use and youth political engagement in three advanced democracies. Information, Communication & Society, 17, 151-167.
46.
ZambelliE.MainardiA.HajekA. (2018). Sexuality and power in contemporary Italy: Subjectivities between gender norms, agency and social transformation. Modern Italy, 23, 129-138.
