Concerning youth engagement in institutionalised settings, academic and institutional discourses have clearly stressed the need to ‘train’ young people to participation. Activism in grass-root social movements organizations (SMOs) is, on the contrary, often interpreted as a ‘call’ that needs only commitment and impetus to be fulfilled. While not dismissing the relevance of passion and spontaneity in informal civic and political practices of participation, the chapter starts from the assumption that activism requires specific skills and competencies to be performed in an efficient way and discusses two mechanism through which these skills are acquired in daily interactions between activists. Practices of ‘mimesis’ – reflexive imitation of others’ behaviours – and ‘sharing’ – intimate moments of confidentiality between activists - are explored as experiences of informal learning through which young people acquire ‘political imagination’. The chapter draws on data collected between 2015 and 2019 through participant observations and biographical interviews conducted with young activists participating in two left-wing SMOs in Italy and Sweden.

Ilaria Pitti (2022). Mimesis and sharing: learning political imagination in everyday interactions. Cham : Springer [10.1007/978-3-030-92514-7].

Mimesis and sharing: learning political imagination in everyday interactions

Ilaria Pitti
2022

Abstract

Concerning youth engagement in institutionalised settings, academic and institutional discourses have clearly stressed the need to ‘train’ young people to participation. Activism in grass-root social movements organizations (SMOs) is, on the contrary, often interpreted as a ‘call’ that needs only commitment and impetus to be fulfilled. While not dismissing the relevance of passion and spontaneity in informal civic and political practices of participation, the chapter starts from the assumption that activism requires specific skills and competencies to be performed in an efficient way and discusses two mechanism through which these skills are acquired in daily interactions between activists. Practices of ‘mimesis’ – reflexive imitation of others’ behaviours – and ‘sharing’ – intimate moments of confidentiality between activists - are explored as experiences of informal learning through which young people acquire ‘political imagination’. The chapter draws on data collected between 2015 and 2019 through participant observations and biographical interviews conducted with young activists participating in two left-wing SMOs in Italy and Sweden.
2022
Youth Participation and Learning. Critical Perspectives on Citizenship Practices in Europe
123
137
Ilaria Pitti (2022). Mimesis and sharing: learning political imagination in everyday interactions. Cham : Springer [10.1007/978-3-030-92514-7].
Ilaria Pitti
File in questo prodotto:
Eventuali allegati, non sono esposti

I documenti in IRIS sono protetti da copyright e tutti i diritti sono riservati, salvo diversa indicazione.

Utilizza questo identificativo per citare o creare un link a questo documento: https://hdl.handle.net/11585/879113
 Attenzione

Attenzione! I dati visualizzati non sono stati sottoposti a validazione da parte dell'ateneo

Citazioni
  • ???jsp.display-item.citation.pmc??? ND
  • Scopus ND
  • ???jsp.display-item.citation.isi??? ND
social impact