A Italian Youth and the learning of history. Cultural resistances and pedagogical perspectives

Sociologists who have recently been interested in the condition of youth have emphasized the function that the relationship with history has in the construction of social identities of young people. This article, using analytical concepts and categories common to sociologists of action, analyses the relationship of Italian youth with history and particularly of the youth living in the regions of southern Italy. The author highlights the link between the learning of history and the construction of youth identities, focusing on the function of different collective national and regional memories in the formation of a critical historical consciousness. The methods and educational strategies through which one may seek to encourage young people's critical learning of history outline the salient elements of innovative pedagogies of history and trace working assumptions to think about educational policies in relation to the multiple and heterogeneous processes of development of contemporary societies.