Student activism in Bologna (Italy): old fractures, emerging alliances, and the use of depoliticization as a repressive strategy

The city of Bologna hosts the oldest European university. In Italy, it is renowned for being the university town par excellence and for its very active civic and political scene. The combination of these two elements has made Bologna a fertile territory for student participation that has followed a path that is woven with the history of the city since the Second World War. This chapter discusses emerging changes in student activism in Bologna since the years of the 2008 economic crisis. Based on qualitative data collected between 2012 and 2019, the analysis sheds light on new alliances developing between the students and local inhabitants on political struggles concerning housing, work, welfare, and the use of public assets. These alliances have the potential to heal and strengthen the difficult relationship between the city’s inhabitants and the students. However, local institutions’ attempts to depoliticise youth activism hinders the recognition of students as “full citizens” of Bologna.