’Sempre un po’ provvisoria e permanente’. Giovani cosmopoliti tra progetti di vita e tempi-spazi della metropoli

Difficulties in figuring out the cultural transformations produced by globalization processes have convinced many scholars – anthropologists as well as sociologists – to take again into account the interpretative category of cosmopolitanism. The rediscovery of this category also affects youth studies, that in many recent analysis look at the cosmopolitanism as one of the traits of the youth conditions in global societies. Starting from such approach, the present article aims to point out, through the concept of cosmopolitanism, some socio-cultural characteristics of a group of young men and women with foreign origins temporarily residing in Milan. Thanks to the analysis of their narrations referred to their time-space experiences and biographical projects, the article aims to shed light on the qualitative traits that characterize their specific international geographical mobility also in consideration of a gender perspective. By a high sensitivity to social change, the young people of the research appear to be perfect interpreters of contemporary historical and social transformations.