Mediterranean Youth, Mobility and/or Ecological Strategy of Resistance

The Mediterranean area is historically a space of migration, original cultural creation (Cassano), and cultural pluralities, centrifugal and centripetal forces that expel and attract people and characterize populations (Matvejević). Currently, the region is a critical space where climate change, economic crises, war conflicts, and migration flows converge.

From this starting point, the paper aims to analyze some strategies implemented by young Italians and compare them with the dynamics of previous generations. We examine two current trends: one that pushes a significant young Italian portion to emigrate and the other that leads another group of young people to remain. First, we compare the traits of the generations involved in the migration phenomenon during the 1960s and 1970s with those of the current generation using secondary data. Thus, the differences are identified between strategies that characterized the migration project in the past and how they characterize it now. Next, the analysis focuses on young people who remain in their territory. Their actions aim to promote activities to revitalize local communities, enhancing the culture and environmental heritage of the Mediterranean.

The results show a generation in which two different generational units are configured (Mannheim, Chisholm). There are two groups of individuals. They belong to the same demographic cohort and are in a unique generational location, as they share a similar historical and social context but choose two different action strategies in this Mediterranean area. In the first case, one identifies an action of resilience sustained by a centrifugal force that adapts to the conditions of the social system and leads outward from the area. In the second case, one identifies an action of resistance sustained by a centripetal force that aspires to promote the characteristics of the local community from the existing environmental and cultural resources.