The Third Sector Reform in Italy: an Opportunity for Matching Social Innovation and Youth Policies?

What is it about?

European social innovation and youth policies should promote a new balance between economic development and social cohesion, reducing inequalities and vulnerability. But are they are succeeding? It is still a bad moment to be young in Europe, especially in southern European countries. European strategies seem to be fed by a “cruel optimism”: they are based on the erroneous assumption that more education and training can secure employment, income and personal development. Despite that, there is a space for the activation of the youngsters at the level of the Third sector and social movements, which promote practices of social innovation. We observe that in Italy, the recent Third sector reform testifies that institutions are trying to recognize emerging grass-root practices which combine social involvement, professional fulfillment and political action in order to respond new societal challenges. We may think of social enterprises and professional volunteering as a way to combine social and political participation with the activation in the job market in times of crisis. Nonetheless, the Covid-19 pandemic showed the limits of social innovations strategies. They are the result of a step back of institutions in their ability to guarantee protection and equality for all, thus the youngsters may be one of the biggest losers of the recent crisis.

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Photo by Ross Findon on Unsplash

Photo by Ross Findon on Unsplash