Being Young, Being NEET - A Pedagogical Reflection about Young Adult’s Condition in Italy

Abstract

The paper takes in consideration major international research in the field of adult education, critical pedagogy and sociology of education and work, trying to explore the category of “NEET” (Young people Not in Education, Employment or Training) and some of the basic but critical questions that revolve around it. Who are those people? What are their needs and aspirations? What kind of vision do they have about their future? How are these visions affected by “the discourses we live by”? What can pedagogy and education do to help them redefining their life? Questions then becomes practical: what can services do to identify “NEETs” and give them specific forms of aid that can help them in redefine their missed lives? In order to answer these questions, the paper illustrates as an example a social dreaming session that had been carried out inside a Social service with the aim to find successful measures to help those young adults to redesign their reality and approach differently with the world of work. The paper concludes by presenting social dreaming as a possible solution of integration and auto-formation and emphasizes that keeping the attention on people’s life histories and desires can be the key to engage young adults and find a way to support them in their personal growth.