Navigating political emotions and agency among Italian youth in the post-pandemic urban landscape

ABSTRACT This study explores attitudes toward civic involvement in public life in the post-pandemic context, informed by recurring political emotions among young individuals between 16 and 26 years of age living in the metropolitan area of Milan and its hinterland. Drawing on 66 in-depth interviews conducted between 2022 and 2024 with young participants, the article traces the political emotions of this generation of under-30s in response to multiple crises and unpacks how the latter shape youth preferences with regard to civic action. Focusing on the gray area of occasional activists, the article highlights how the multiple crises of recent years have exacerbated feelings of exceptionalism, impotence, and intergenerational injustice, which are translated into a preference for individualistic approaches to social change. At the same time, the study unpacks how this socio-historical conjuncture encourages new forms of voluntarism driven by compassion and motivated by widespread sensitivity to social justice, gender issues, and climate change.