The perception of boundaries among Italian teenagers

Debora Aquario, Antonella Castelnuovo, Alberto Fornasari, Anna Paini, Maria Chiara Spotti, Alessio Surian, Stefania Zamparelli

University of Padua, Milan-Catholic University, Verona, Siena and Bari

The growing cultural pluralisation of our society requires training agencies and educational institutions to equip themselves to face this complex and challenging scenario in innovative terms.
How do adolescents perceive "the other" and relate to diversity?
This is the question that has prompted the Intercultura Foundation to promote this research.

The research team consists of researchers coming not only from different universities, but also from different humanistic disciplines (cultural anthropology, intercultural pedagogy, language sciences, communication, education).
There are two levels of analysis: the local one, which aims to offer a deeper insight and can be useful to those who work at the local level (teachers, school principals) and the national context for comparison, which can foster tools and training paths in intercultural education.

Publications

Aquario, D., Castelnuovo, A., Fornasari, A., Paini, A., Spotti, M.C., Surian, A., & Zamparelli, S. (2009). L'altro/a tra noi. La percezione dei confini da parte delle e degli adolescenti italiani. Colle di Val d’Elsa: Fondazione Intercultura.

A short abstract (in Italian) is available on this page.

Conferences and presentations

Reggio Emilia, 23 settembre 2009 (bokk presentation)