Young Roma in today’s Italy often live in precarious and segregated housing conditions, experience difficulties in entering the labour market, have a lower average level of educational achievement than their non-Roma peers and are at risk of early marriage. Growing up in this context presents huge challenges but adolescents can be supported through empowerment interventions with an individualized approach.
Growing up Is Not a Private Matter opens by presenting the scientific debate on public policy, participation and peer education for minority youth, questioning the different approaches that have been implemented in the countries involved, with particular attention to the Italian context. The second part discusses methodological approaches, while the third and final section provides a detailed analysis of the research results. The text intends to offer the public a structured theoretical analysis in dialogue with both national and international literature, exploring the complex and interlinked processes of research and intervention.
Greta Persico is a research fellow in Sociology at the University of Bergamo. Her research topics include local policies and social work targeting Roma minorities and migrants; housing and cohousing for vulnerable groups; peer education; and visual methods in action research.
Ulderico Daniele is professor on contract of Cultural Anthropology at the University of Bergamo and at IED in Milan. He carried out ethnographic fieldwork with Roma groups since 2004 analysing social and cultural changes focusing on adolescence and on power relations.
Cristiana Ottaviano is an Associate Professor at the University of Bergamo, where she teaches Sociology of Cultural Processes. Her academic work covers socio-cultural and educational processes, with a specific focus on vulnerability, generativity and intergenerational relationships, with a gender-sensitive approach.