Research focussed on social capital and democratic development in the Italian Regions contributed to identify a deep geographical divide in terms of citizens' civic engagement. The virtuous communities of central and northern Italy are distinguished by higher rates of associationism, electoral participation and interest toward social issues. On the other hand, the south of the country seems to be largely entangled in the networks of amoral familism and cronyism, hampering the development of a flourishing civil society and efficient political structures. Unfortunately, most part of the social capital measurement indices adopted in the literature are not able to grasp howmuch of the citizens' public effort is actually driven by democratic principles and good intentions toward the common good. The active citizenship construct has been designed to meet these needs but, to date, there are no projects focussed on the assessment of this construct in the italian scenario. Starting from this lack of knowledge, the present study aims to: 1) quantify the level of active citizenship expressed by Italian adolescents; 2) verify the persistence of the North-South divide; 3) identify which kind of predictors actively contribute to explain this geographical gap. In order to reach these goals, a two-step analytic procedure has been settled.The first step aims to definethe ICAA latent construct (Youth active citizenship index) and tests its validity and invariance across a statistically representative sample of 8th grade Italian students (2nd Order Confirmatory Factor Analysis CFA). Seven 1st order latent dimensions are considered: attitudes towards citizenship norms, students' perceived self-efficacy, attentiveness, intended civil engagement, extra-parliamentary activism, electoral and conventional political activities. The measurement and the structural invariance of the ICAA construct are tested over different sub-samples of students defined by sex, ethnicity and geographical origin (multi-group mean and covariance structures analysis, MG-MACS). The idea is to evaluate whether the construct internal coherence and its latent factors means are somehow affected by a set of individuals' ascribed characteristics or by the respondents' geographical origins.Surprisingly, students living in Southern Italy achieve a significantly higher mean score for most of the 1st order latent factors, developing the same robust surplus in the overall ICAA latent mean. The second part of the study focuses on the determinants of this unexpected geographical divide. Four different groups of predictors are considered: individual and family characteristics; school characteristics and resources; contextual factors. The analysis - based on multiple linear regression models (OLS) and fixed effects models (FE) - shows that the number of civic activities carried out by students and the civic behavioral patterns adopted within the Province of residence contribute in reducing the active citizenship geographical spread. Data are extracted fromthe third International Civic and Citizenship Education Study database (ICCS 2009), a survey edited by IEA that counts 3,366 participants in Italy.Environmental variables come from Italian census data merged with the ICCS 2009 survey at the Province level.

La ricerca sul capitale sociale e lo sviluppo democratico nelle Regioni italiane ha contribuito ad individuare profondi divari territoriali nell'impegno civico dimostrato dai cittadini. Le comunità virtuose del Centro-Nord si distinguono per alti tassi di associazionismo, partecipazione elettorale e interesse per le questioni sociali. L'area del Mezzogiorno, invece, appare invischiata nelle reti del familismo amorale e del clientelismo, con evidenti ripercussioni negative sul dinamismo della società civile e l'efficienza delle strutture politiche. Sfortunatamente, le misure di capitale sociale adottate in letteratura non sono in grado di cogliere quanta parte dell'impegno profuso dai cittadini derivi dal rispetto dei principi democratici e sia effettivamente indirizzato al raggiungimento di obiettivi comuni. Il costrutto di cittadinanza attiva nasce per rispondere a tali esigenze, ma, ad oggi, non si ha traccia di progetti volti alla sua misurazione all'interno del contesto italiano. Per far fronte a tali lacune, il presente studio si propone di: 1) quantificare il livello di cittadinanza attiva espresso dagli adolescenti italiani; 2) verificare la persistenza del divario Nord-Sud; 3) individuare le principali determinanti del divario geografico. Il progetto è suddiviso in due distinte fasi di analisi empirica. In primo luogo, si procede alla definizione operativa e la stima del costrutto latente di II ordine ICAA (Indice di Cittadinanza Attiva degli Adolescenti). Vengono individuate sette dimensioni latenti di I ordine: atteggiamenti verso le norme di cittadinanza, self-efficacy percepita, coinvolgimento personale, intenzioni di partecipazione attraverso forme di impegno civile, attività elettorali, attività politiche convenzionali e attivismo extra-parlamentare. La validità fattoriale del costrutto viene testata su un campione statisticamente rappresentativo di studenti italiani all'ottavo grado di istruzione (2nd order CFA). La valutazione dell'invarianza di misura e l'invarianza strutturale, invece, è svolta su diversi gruppi di studenti suddivisi per genere, origine etnica e macro-area di residenza (multi-group mean and covariance structures analysis, MG-MACS). Lo scopo è verificare se la coerenza interna del costrutto ICAA e le sue medie latenti sono in qualche modo affette dalle caratteristiche ascritte o dalla provenienza geografica degli intervistati. L'analisi comparativa offre un risultato in netta controtendenza con la letteratura preesistente: gli studenti del Mezzogiorno ottengono punteggi medi di ICAA significativamente più alti rispetto ai coetanei del resto d'Italia. La seconda parte dello studio si concentra sull'analisi delle possibili determinanti di questo inaspettato divario, considerando quattro diversi blocchi di predittori (caratteristiche individuali e familiari; disposizioni e competenze personali; dimensione esperienziale; fattori ambientali). Le analisi, realizzate attraverso modelli di regressione lineare multipla (OLS) e ad effetti fissi provinciali (FE), mostrano che le uniche variabili in grado di ridurre significativamente lo scarto geografico sono rappresentate dal numero di esperienze civiche vissute dagli studenti e dai modelli di comportamento civico adottati nella Provincia di residenza. I dati sono estratti della terza indagine internazionale promossa dalla IEA per lo studio dell'educazione civica e alla cittadinanza (ICCS 2009), che conta 3,366 partecipanti per l'Italia. Le variabili ambientali sintetizzano informazioni di tipo censuario aggregate a livello provinciale.

(2015). Adolescenti e cittadinanza attiva. I divari territoriali nel contesto italiano. (Tesi di dottorato, Università degli Studi di Milano-Bicocca, 2015).

Adolescenti e cittadinanza attiva. I divari territoriali nel contesto italiano

GEROSA, TIZIANO
2015

Abstract

Research focussed on social capital and democratic development in the Italian Regions contributed to identify a deep geographical divide in terms of citizens' civic engagement. The virtuous communities of central and northern Italy are distinguished by higher rates of associationism, electoral participation and interest toward social issues. On the other hand, the south of the country seems to be largely entangled in the networks of amoral familism and cronyism, hampering the development of a flourishing civil society and efficient political structures. Unfortunately, most part of the social capital measurement indices adopted in the literature are not able to grasp howmuch of the citizens' public effort is actually driven by democratic principles and good intentions toward the common good. The active citizenship construct has been designed to meet these needs but, to date, there are no projects focussed on the assessment of this construct in the italian scenario. Starting from this lack of knowledge, the present study aims to: 1) quantify the level of active citizenship expressed by Italian adolescents; 2) verify the persistence of the North-South divide; 3) identify which kind of predictors actively contribute to explain this geographical gap. In order to reach these goals, a two-step analytic procedure has been settled.The first step aims to definethe ICAA latent construct (Youth active citizenship index) and tests its validity and invariance across a statistically representative sample of 8th grade Italian students (2nd Order Confirmatory Factor Analysis CFA). Seven 1st order latent dimensions are considered: attitudes towards citizenship norms, students' perceived self-efficacy, attentiveness, intended civil engagement, extra-parliamentary activism, electoral and conventional political activities. The measurement and the structural invariance of the ICAA construct are tested over different sub-samples of students defined by sex, ethnicity and geographical origin (multi-group mean and covariance structures analysis, MG-MACS). The idea is to evaluate whether the construct internal coherence and its latent factors means are somehow affected by a set of individuals' ascribed characteristics or by the respondents' geographical origins.Surprisingly, students living in Southern Italy achieve a significantly higher mean score for most of the 1st order latent factors, developing the same robust surplus in the overall ICAA latent mean. The second part of the study focuses on the determinants of this unexpected geographical divide. Four different groups of predictors are considered: individual and family characteristics; school characteristics and resources; contextual factors. The analysis - based on multiple linear regression models (OLS) and fixed effects models (FE) - shows that the number of civic activities carried out by students and the civic behavioral patterns adopted within the Province of residence contribute in reducing the active citizenship geographical spread. Data are extracted fromthe third International Civic and Citizenship Education Study database (ICCS 2009), a survey edited by IEA that counts 3,366 participants in Italy.Environmental variables come from Italian census data merged with the ICCS 2009 survey at the Province level.
LUCCHINI, MARIO
Cittadinanza Attiva; Adolescenti; Divario Nord-Sud
SPS/07 - SOCIOLOGIA GENERALE
Italian
23-giu-2015
Scuola di Dottorato in Studi Comparativi e Internazionali in Scienze Sociali (SCISS)
SOCIOLOGIA APPLICATA E METODOLOGIA DELLA RICERCA SOCIALE - 10R
27
2013/2014
open
(2015). Adolescenti e cittadinanza attiva. I divari territoriali nel contesto italiano. (Tesi di dottorato, Università degli Studi di Milano-Bicocca, 2015).
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Utilizza questo identificativo per citare o creare un link a questo documento: https://hdl.handle.net/10281/83917
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