Youth condition, student movements, generations, and sociological critique. A theoretical discussion based on a case study

This article presents a two-fold analytical structure: it offers a critical reflection on both the findings from an in-depth case study I conducted on three Italian student organisations and their mobilisations over the last decade in particular, and also explores two pivotal concepts in youth studies (i.e. generationsand the transition to adulthood), in the broader framework of a critical approach to the impact of global neoliberal policies on the youth condition, focussing on neoliberal education, welfare and work policies in particular. In this framework, the concept of the political economy of generations provides a privileged standpoint from which to examine the current, precarious condition of young people in their de-standardised transitions to adulthood. Analysing the political engagement, mobilisations and protests (mainly, even if not exclusively, against neoliberal reforms) of these student movements, viewed as generational units, also contributes to defining the conceptual and empirical context of the article.