The Neet Universe. Remarks on the italian case in a comparative perspective

For some years it has appeared in sociological, statistical and mediatic reports the acronym Neet (Not in Employment, Education or Training), which designs a universe of young people aged 15 to 29 years who does not study or work or is engaged in any training experience and, as such, is devoid of any prospect or confidence towards the future (Appadurai, 2011; Woodman, 2011; Augè, 2012). In 2014 over 2 million young people in Italy were out of the training and laboring circuit. Neet’s rate is higher among women than among men and in Southern Italy it is almost double compared to Northern and Central Italy. In comparison with others European Union countries, Italy showed in 2014 the highest percentage of Neet after Greece and Bulgaria while since 2016 it has gained the first place in the ranking of the European countries (24,3%). The lowest rate of Neet is recorded in the Netherlands (6,3%), followed by Luxembourg (6,8%), Sweden (7,1%) and Denmark (7,4%). So, the stimulus to investigate this phenomenon has come to me from an increasing use of the “Neet” acronym by the institutions, especially by political and mediatic ones. However, what seems to prevail in Italian public discourse is a tendency to a simplifying generalization in the representation of a universe that is far from homogeneous, and, at the same time, the characterization of the young component who does not labor nor is engaged in educational or training paths in terms of a voluntary condition (in the sense of lack of will and spirit of sacrifice or choosy reluctance to consider job proposals which are not in line with the knowledge and the skills acquired in individual training paths). But are things really so? Is the Italian Neet one mainly a voluntary condition? These notes are first concerned with some theoretical hints at the fruitful debate about the “crisis of societies based on labor” and at some difficulties of training institutions and processes. Then the Neet phenomenon is investigated from a quantitative point of view, reflecting on Italian data in a comparative perspective and highlighting its multiple emerging profiles, within a universe that is anything but homogeneous. Finally the most significant results of some interviews proposed in 2014 to privileged witnesses belonging to different domains of Italian civil society will be reported.