ITALIAN JOURNAL OF SOCIOLOGY OF EDUCATION

The current youth condition reveals differences and inequalities related to issues regarding teaching, training and educational paths. Youth work is an area of unconventional intervention in which the non-formal educational approaches adopted are useful for addressing critical issues relating to the current delay in the stages of transition to adulthood. The postponement of life goals is typical of the Italian Mediterranean context and, in particular, of the Campania region, which represents the difficulties associated with the Southern areas. This study provides an overview of the perspectives of policies and issues dealt with in the debate that has developed over the last decade among scholars, professionals and policy-makers. The focus is on the challenge of educational policies aimed at supporting the creation of a personal and social identity and the identification of trajectories of growth of young people in the various spheres of realisation of one’s life (education, work, family and social dimensions). The empirical part presents the results of a research study on the conception and prospects of development of youth work, providing the points of view of key actors of the strategic context and of the world of operators whose task is to implement youth policies at the national level and in the Campania region.