Young people and the future, the round table “An authentic life” is underway

We live in a globalized and interconnected world, in which the possibility of self-realization, of knowing how to identify and follow the path towards a personal project of happiness seems more within reach. This is not the case.

According to Istat 2019 data, in Italy the percentage of young people who do not study and do not work (the so-called NEETs, Not in Employment, Education of Training) is equal to 22% of segment of the population aged between 15 and 29, for a total of about 2 million people: this is the highest share among the countries of the European Union. On the other hand, 35.4% of young people between 18 and 24 leave their studies early and the percentage of those who obtain a university degree in Italy is below the EU average (19.6% against 33 , 2%).

The dissatisfaction of young people

Furthermore, from a Sodexo survey published by Il Sole 24 Ore, it emerges that 38% of young people are dissatisfied with their lives, 46% reject their academic experience and 33% believe they had the wrong path of studies after high school.

In a historical moment in which the populist and sovereign political options are gathering support by acting as a lightning rod for dissatisfaction and general frustration, even without proposing concrete solutions to this discomfort, it is necessary to rethink the tools that education, welfare and society make available to everyone to orient themselves in their own evolutionary and self-realization path. This will be the theme of the event An authentic life – Ideas of liberation and public policies, scheduled for Sunday 26 September at 5.30 pm in via Padova 21 in Milan and promoted by the Elio Quercioli Foundation, Casa della Cultura and Fortitudo Association, with the patronage of Order of Psychologists of Lombardy.

The round table

The round table aims to be a moment of reflection and discussion on what obstacles today stand between the individual and his possibility of self-realization and which educational tools and social policies, on the other hand, should be aimed at favoring the achievement of authentic individual well-being. Elisabetta Camussi, social psychologist and Full Professor at the University of Milan – Bicocca will speak as speakers; Marisa Fiumanò, psychoanalyst and essayist; Gianfranco Mormino, philosopher and Full Professor of the History of Moral Philosophy at the University of Milan; Salvatore Natoli, philosopher and Full Professor of Theoretical Philosophy at the University of Milan – Bicocca; Laura Nota, psychologist, Full Professor of Psychology at the University of Padua and president of the Italian Society for Orientation; and Gustavo Pietropolli Charmet, psychotherapist and founder of the “Il Minotauro” Center.

Franco Cazzaniga, president of the Quercioli Foundation, commented: «As the Quercioli Foundation, whose main mission is to promote the renewal of political culture of the reformist left, we have decided to launch an attempt to reflect on humanism that must guide the formulation of the public, social and educational policies of the future, at a time when the political landscape is a bit lacking in new visions ».

The event, which will last until 7 pm, will take place in the Heracles Gymnasium gym in via Padova 21 and will be the first of a series of scientific and cultural in-depth events with which this Milanese reality, located in one of the most difficult suburbs, it intends to reopen itself to the neighborhood and to the city. Since 2015 Heracles Gymnasium has been proposed as a center for psycho-physical training.