Political Representation and Action : conceptions of Political Participation Among Youth in Bogotá and Naples in Comparative Perspective

The research aims to investigate the co-constructed social representations of political participation that circulate among different groups of young Italian and Colombian university students and to verify whether there are correlations between social representations, political participatory behaviour, perceived anomie and self-efficacy. Using a semi-structured questionnaire, it was possible to reach a total sample of 327 students from Naples and 370 students from Bogotá, divided into three subgroups based on "political orientation": young people on the right, young people on the left, and young people who are not affiliated with any political party. The internal structure of social representations was reconstructed using the hierarchical evocation technique. The content of the representations studied was operationalised using specific psychometric scales. Right-wing young people exhibit a very traditional view of political participation. Italian young people tend to emphasise the positive aspects of

participation, whereas Colombian young people associate it with a negative connotation. Left-wing young people, both Neapolitan and Bogotano, are very active in demonstrations and actions aimed at change: the latter also emphasise their ability to influence the socio-political fabric. Young people who claim not to identify with any political party or faction have a strong distrust of their respective state institutions, as well as traditional representative bodies. The students involved in the study, regardless of their nationality and political orientation, showed great interest in participating. The results obtained so far provide important insights into how young people participate in politics and the meanings they attribute to it. [Publisher's text]