Values are the compass of everyday action. For one part of the Italians, hedonistic dimensions prevail (22.0%: leisure, self-care, sport, friends). For another, deep-rooted references stand out (21.5%: religion, family, work, social commitment). But for the prevailing portion of the population (56.5%) that compass works relatively well. Consequently, faced with a confused direction, behaviour adapts to the uncertain context: everyone tends to do-it-yourself, to a tailor-made definition of values. And, at the same time, new references are sought that define a point of orientation: that provide greater certainty. Thus, sovereignty and populism in political orientations; protectionism and the imposition of duties in the commercial sphere, can represent certainty in uncertainty. These are the visions that have been blowing with increasing insistence in Europe and the Western world for some years now. And they are spreading in the collective imagination and in the construction of our societies.
This does not mean that they are the only possible expression, but the problem concerns the substantial aphasia, the inability to come up with alternative and legitimised concepts at this time. The motivation for the spread of buzzwords such as 'us first', 'borders', 'security' is most often attributed to the uncontrolled effects of globalisation and the logic of global finance. The euphoria that has accompanied the opening up, accelerated by new technologies, of trade and production relations on a planetary level has enabled larger shares of the world's population to gain access to greater economic well-being, but has eroded the resources and prospects of a substantial part of those who had already conquered that well-being. To use a metaphor, the world's cake (wealth) has grown proportionately less as the number of diners has increased. As a result, the slices of the pie shared out have shrunk for those who previously had larger slices.
The crucial passage of the crisis in 2008 has generated a progressive polarisation in the economy and society: a break that increasingly amplifies the distance between companies with a positive performance from those that are (and remain) in difficulty; a break that is also evident between wealthy individuals and families from those struggling to make ends meet. Incomplete and excessively oppressive economic recipes, delays in the country's reform processes have fuelled deprivation and a lack of future prospects, particularly in the middle class, which today sees its economic conditions eroded and the social lift blocked. Hence, feelings of anger, impatience and powerlessness that find their way into ideas of closure and protection. However, the economic explanation alone is not sufficient to decipher the spread of such phenomena. Already Dahrendorf, in the aftermath of the 2008 crisis, warned how the causes of that event originated in the ethical dimension, in the shift from savings capitalism to debt capitalism (Dopo la crisi: torniamo all'etica protestante?, Laterza). That is, in the mentalities and cultures that guide the actions of individuals.
The latest research by Community Media Research (in collaboration with Intesa Sanpaolo for La Stampa) sought to explore the symbolic dimension of Italians: the horizon of reference values that inspire the lives of individuals. The result is a hierarchy in which three dimensions stand out: the need to build one's own culture (88.8%), the family (87.7%) and health care (86.3%). So, beyond the dimension of family affection - which despite everything remains an essential reference value - the need to build new maps for interpreting the world around one's self, on the one hand, and, on the other, attention to health, are the pillars of reference for the vast majority of Italians today.
More detached come other aspects such as leisure (77.2%) and work (73.4%), followed by friends (67.8%). Social commitment (50.9%) and doing sports (36.5%) carry less weight. Religion (29.4%) is placed at the bottom of the ranking, indicating how the dimension of the sacred no longer represents the red thread of individuals' lives. Obviously, there are differences in the hierarchy of values on the basis of age or professional status, but not such as to upset it.
Rather, it is interesting to consider the links between the values themselves in order to define cognitive maps. Thus, two polar groups emerge. One can be defined as the 'hedonists' (22.0%) who have leisure, health care, friends and sport as their main references. It is the pleasure and enjoyment in life that has in the more affluent and professionally higher classes, in the middle age groups (25-54 years) the most exposed profiles. At the opposite end of the scale, and with the same weight, we find the 'rooted' (21.5%) whose values map is based on traditional dimensions: family, work, social commitment and religion. The less affluent classes, housewives, the elderly (over 65 years old) but also young adults (35-54 years old) cluster in this group. But it is the majority of the population (56.5%) who denote a difficulty in prefiguring a value hierarchy: the 'relativists'. In this case, the symbolic horizon seems to be essentially homogeneous: everything is (relatively) important, everything is placed on the same level. One opts for an adaptive, tailor-made strategy, creating value maps adaptable to different situations. All behaviour thus becomes legitimate, plausible.
The demise of the great narratives (ideologies) has left a vacuum in shared references, now replaced by a bricolage of values. In which all the traditional normative authorities (from parties, to representative associations, to professional figures) have lost legitimacy, and many feel authorised to judge, accuse,... In the change of epoch we are living through, the real challenge is an educational one, and it questions all the associative and training worlds: rewriting the grammar of values. If, as Mandela maintained, 'I am, because we are', after having freed the 'I' from ideologies, a new 'we' must be reconstructed.
Daniele Marini
Methodological note
Community Media Research, in collaboration with Intesa Sanpaolo for La Stampa, is carrying out the LaST (Laboratory on Society and Territory) Survey, which was conducted nationwide from 11 to 15 April 2018 on a representative sample of the population resident in Italy, aged over 18. The methodological aspects and the survey were taken care of by the Questlab company. The total number of respondents was 1,657 (out of 14,426 contacts). The data analysis was reproportioned on the basis of gender, territory, age group, occupational status and educational qualification. The margin of error is +/-2.4%. The survey was carried out with a visual survey through the main social networks and with a random sample that could be reached with the CAWI and CATI systems. Full document on www.agcom.it e www.communitymediaresearch.it
