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We assume that emotions (anger, shame and hope) mediate the relationship between perceiving a discriminatory context and civic/political engagement. Results of a survey with 1242 participants (mean age 20.7 years; 53% men; 32.8% migrants) showed that such emotions play a different role according to the type of engagement and the population (native Italians versus migrants). Copyright © 2015 John Wiley & Sons, Ltd.

In many communities, supplying water and sanitation is a huge task, and the fact that these essential services can be carried out by the private sector is a debated issue. This article presents an exploratory study aimed to identify the range of motives for collective action shared by activists of the Italian Movement for ‘Public Water’. In-depth interviews were conducted with 28 activists and were qualitatively analysed. Five main motivational categories emerged: defending the right to water, preserving community ties, opposing to the Government and ‘water sellers’, preserving the environment and money interests. Each motive is based on a specific representation of the issue of water and privatization process. Findings provide further support for the importance of moral convictions and sense of community in collective action development and suggest a critical reconsideration of the role played by collective efficacy. The results are discussed in the framework of the psychosocial literature on collective action and community psychology perspectives on participatory processes. Copyright © 2012 John Wiley & Sons, Ltd.

This study investigates the relationship between sense of community, civic engagement and social well-being in a sample of Italian adolescents. Participants were 14–19 year-old high school students (N = 566) from two demographically distinct cities. Participants completed a questionnaire assessing sense of community, social well-being (Keyes, 1998), involvement in structured group activities (group membership) and civic engagement. Results showed that involvement in formal groups is associated with increased civic involvement and increased sense of community. Sense of community predicts social well-being and explains some of the association between civic engagement and social well-being. Findings suggest that, to increase social well-being, it is important to provide adolescents with more opportunities to experience a sense of belonging to the peers' group and promote prosocial behaviours in the community context. Copyright © 2007 John Wiley & Sons, Ltd.

The purpose of this research was to explore adolescents' feeling of unsafety associated with living in the urban context, their perceptions of the quality of social relations (social support from different persons) and sense of community, and the differences according to the size of the city and adolescent gender. A second aim was to analyse the antecedents of feeling of unsafety. In particular, we considered the influence of sense of community, perception of social support and personal involvement in negative experiences in the urban environment. A questionnaire was submitted to 823 adolescents aged 14 to 19 years (43.3% male and 56.7% female), living in cities of different sizes in north-central Italy. Results show the presence of differences in feeling of unsafety and sense of community according to the size of the urban context and adolescent gender. Personal involvement in negative situations is a strong predictor of feeling of unsafety, whereas sense of community plays a limited role in reducing it. The picture concerning the effect of social support is mixed. Copyright © 2001 John Wiley & Sons, Ltd.