The impact of the economic crisis on Italian young people’s everyday life

In Italy, the economic crisis of the last years has been characterized by recession, deflation, and unemployment. In addition to its broader effect on society, the crisis has deeply affected Italians’ everyday practices, their views, and their future goals. This is particularly true for young people, who can no longer rely on rising expectations. The paper presents the preliminary results of a qualitative study aimed at understanding how young people perceive and handle their everyday life in a social and working context so heavily influenced by income uncertainty, job insecurity, and a general lack of confidence in the future. Face-to-face in-depth interviews have been conducted in the metropolitan area of Milan (Italy

The Spread Fashion: an Explorative Research of Italian Fashion Blog

In the collaborative context of the web 2.0 the blogging phenomenon has become one of the most common ways to communicate and share information through its user-generated content. In the blogosphere fashion blogs represent probably one of the liveliest segments. Focusing on fashion brands, fashion products, street style, and personal style, fashion blogs can be written by both fashion professionals and normal people with an interest in the fashion system. This phenomenon has become even more relevant since the fashion brands have recognized the role of fashion bloggers in influencing the final consumers as well as the role of peer – to – peer recommendations in shaping desires and attires of fashion blog users. The paper presents the preliminary results of a netnographic analysis conducted on some of the most popular Italian ‘non-professional’ fashion blogs in order to map the different approach to this grassrooted blog phenomenon, and to categorize and interpret the blog postings and the audience comments concerning fashion product-related information

Net-Activism on Twitter: McDonald’s and Coca Cola @Expo2015

In recent years political participations and political consumerism have highlighted the ethical and responsible side of consumptions practices. Internet at large and social media have increased the likelihood of engaging in political consumerism. According to previous researches, among social networking sites, Twitter is more focused on the sharing of opinions and information, thus is more likely to be used as a mean to debate about political consumerism. The paper presents the results of a qualitative analysis conducted on Twitter posts. The aim was to analyze Italian consumer reactions to the news concerning McDonald’s and Coca-Cola official sponsorship of Expo 2015

Consumers\u27 Motivations and Daily Deal Promotions

In the last years daily deal (dd) sites have become a substantial part of e-commerce scenario. Every day, for a limited time, such sites offer their subscribers, at very discounted prices, deals for products or services. Despite the worldwide success of daily deal sites, testified by articles in newspapers and magazines, there is an almost complete absence of academic research on this topic. The aim of this paper is to understand the consumers\u27 drivers in online coupon buying. The study is exploratory in nature and authors have collected data by carrying out four synchronous online focus groups involving 21 participants and investigating five areas: level of awareness, perception area, social dimension, consumer behavior, and relationship with e-commerce. Respondents show a high level of awareness of daily deal sites. In the perceptive area, convenience emerges as the driving factor in coupon buying. As to the self-perception area, some ambivalences emerge between smartness and compulsive buying, highlighting also some dissatisfaction. The ‘social dimension’ is almost irrelevant, and as to consumer behavior, daily deal buying seems to be a kind of fashion. Consumers perceive the bargain side of the offer, behaving like “cherry pickers.

La prima colazione delle famiglie italiane: uno sguardo dall'interno

The role of breakfast has gained strong momentum in the media system thereby fostering the mantra “breakfast is the most important meal of the day”. The paper presents the results of a qualitative research targeted at gaining real insights concerning the breakfast practices of Italian families. Researches have applied an innovative research tool, namely the mobile video ethnography. The 16 involved Italian families – each with children between six and sixteen years of age, coming from the North and the South of Italy and with different education level – have recorded their breakfasts using a smartphone. Moreover, they answered to three simple questions about what they usually eat, with whom they have breakfast and what feeling they have about it. Results confirm the expected notion of breakfast as a key moment in family life, but also a discrepancy between a verbal virtuous attitude toward healthy, organic, and homemade food and the actual widespread consumption of packaged goods. Eventually, the paper outlines different breakfast models, each representing a distinct emerging social trend

Acquistare moda etica: un’indagine sulle motivazioni dei consumatori italiani

Among the existing research on sustainable apparel consumption, most contributions focus on eco conscious decisional processes, attitudes, and behaviours, whereas little attention is given to the specific souls of ethical fashion: organic and recycle fashion, second-hand and vintage clothing, fair-trade fashion, swapping and clothing donation. Moreover, little is known about the motivations underlying such consumer behaviours and the contingent dissimilarities among them. This contribution presents the findings of a quantitative research aimed at understanding the reciprocal importance of utilitarian, hedonic and ethical motivations in the different forms of sustainable fashion consumption.The survey was conducted on a purposive sample of Italian ethical fashion consumers through an on-line questionnaire developed according to the findings of a previous qualitative research’s phase. The results reveal that there is not a necessary discrepancy between sustainable clothing and the conventional functions of fashion and shopping, and consumers may choose ethical garments and accessories for motivations that go beyond their ethical concer

Nuove forme di consumerismo: dai consumi critici al low cost

According to the European Community, the protection of consumers’ economic interests and consumers information and education are two of the distinguishing features of consumerism and are also the basis of spreading consumption practices. Indeed, recent studies highlight, among Italian consumers, on the one hand the willingness to be responsible consumers and, on the other, the renewed focus on price as a discriminant variable for purchases. This paper sets out to retrace some of the consumption scenarios where these trends emerge more clearly: the so-called critical consumption and the spread of low cost. In both these practices, saving motivations leading to the quest for the best bargain intertwine with more ideological ones leading to consumer behaviors that assume critical nuances