Enchanted realism: Representations of self-fulfilment among Italian youth after the pandemic

Abstract

Our aim in this article is to analyse youth aspirations for self-fulfilment through work in the interplay between individualization and self-entrepreneurship. Theoretically, we discuss the main approaches of individualization and self-government in contemporary youth studies. Empirically, we focus on urban youth in the post-pandemic context, in the Italian city of Milan, paying specific attention to the transformation of their aspirations and social relations after the experience of the lockdown. We highlight the rise of a new form of self-narration that we define ‘enchanted realism’. Such self-narration tries not to completely give up hopes of self-fulfilment in the face of the challenges of the neoliberalist socio-economic environment, but at the same time, it resizes the myth of the entrepreneurial self by unveiled doubts and fears of inadequacy, paving the way to less self-referential attitudes.