Fluctuating futures: coming of age in the biggest social housing neighbourhood in Milan

Abstract

This article – part of a six‐year ethnographic research project – aims to deconstruct and ‘decolonize’ essentialized notions of adolescence and youth, primarily through the application of the category of intersectionality. The research focuses on a series of educational initiatives implemented in San Siro, one of Milan's largest public housing neighbourhoods, where half of the population comprises large families with migratory backgrounds, mainly from North Africa. Following a prolonged period of youth policy vacuum, San Siro has recently re‐emerged in public discourse due to the national and international success of a local group of rappers, which simultaneously contributed to a surge in social fear. In response to this fear, public institutions decided to allocate new funding for youth welfare. The research, conducted among a group of teenagers within and outside of schools, as well as within some social services, demonstrates the fluctuating attachments these young people have to their neighbourhood and their varying aspirations towards the future. Their narratives suggest a relativistic construction of the notions of adolescence and youth that can account for the diversity that characterizes San Siro, between individual agency and structural constraints.