Social inclusion seems increasingly subject to the ability to consume. In this context, consumption practices emerge as rituals of social practice, moments of sharing of meanings and the exchange of services of identification. In a more meaningful way, these transformations touch the younger generations who have by now incorporated into their own lives the uncertainty involving family, training and employment.
The adaptation strategy favoured by young people is to seize the opportunities of the moment in order to create plural memberships and fluid relationships. Nowadays, consumption is one of the first social experiences which new generations go through outside of classic socialisation. It has become one of the foundations of their identity structure in which to experiment with forms of sociability and the creation of memberships.
The practices of consumption therefore rise to a privileged sphere of sharing and code of communication in processes of the recognition of self and of similar others. In particular, consumption in its communicative function offers unexpected opportunities for insertion to the specific population of second-generation young people, regarded as paradigmatic of the contemporary youth population.
The research will therefore investigate the following: consumption practices which define areas of self-recognition and/or recognition of similar others for young people residing in Locarno; identifications offered and meanings assumed by the various consumption practices of second-generation young people; the way in which consumer practices enable the creation of ties of belonging (either different from or complementary to those of other areas such as training, work, and networks of family, community and association); and the types of connections woven together.
In terms of methodology, the secondary analysis of available data makes it possible to quantify the juvenile population resident in Locarno, and specifically to characterise second-generation young people from former Yugoslavia, Turkey and Portugal. The qualitative survey helps to detect consumption practices which create recognition, as well as to investigate the meanings attributed by these young people to such practices – and their role alongside classic areas – in the creation of multiple memberships.
The research project – financed by the Swiss National Foundation for Scientific Research (DORE) and directed by Professor Christian Marazzi – is being carried out in collaboration with the Swiss Rescue Worker – Ticino (SOS – Ticino).
Project Title: Processes of the Creation of Memberships in Practices of Consumption by Second-Generation Young People
Director: Christian Marazzi
Department: Department of Business and Social Sciences
Duration of the Project: 2009-2010
Funding Organisations: FNS (DORE)