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There is an assumption in criminal justice that boxing will immediately work to reduce offending among young men. Many practitioners cite discipline and respect as the desisting elements inherent in a boxing gym. Undoubtedly, these discourses do exist, yet, what if the discipline and the respect garnered in the gym are used for other purposes that are not always conducive to the desistance process? This book will unpick how effective boxing actually is in reducing violent attitudes, and how to ensure that the messages in the gym environment do not support negative attitudes often found outside the ring. Using classic desistance literature (Giordano 2002; Maruna 2001), I make suggestions that are grounded in evidence and theory. Using case studies, and life history interviewing drawn from a psychosocial perspective (Jefferson and Hollway 2000; Gadd 2007; Maruna 2001), this book builds on techniques that uncover the more clandestine reasons for choosing boxing. Working within this psychosocial framework, the desire and the appealing nature of boxing, more often than not, comes from a place of anxiety rather than strength. I will present arguments that suggest boxing’s appeal lies in its capacity to develop ‘physical capital’ (Wacquant 2004), and prevent repeat victimisation. Using case studies, I will reveal stories of men’s victimhood, either via gang violence, domestic violence, or structural disadvantage. I will tell the story of how boxing reshaped their identities and self-concepts, and how the gym came to represent a fraternity and a ‘island of stability and order’ (Wacquant 2004). Additionally, I will present arguments that suggest that boxing is not a panacea for all social ills, and while it has its benefits, it also has a darker side that is coterminous with hyper- masculine discourses of violence, respect, and avoidance of shame.

Italy is one of the EU countries that was hardest hit by the 2008 financial crisis and is also slowest in recovering, even compared to other Mediterranean countries that share some of its societal features. Poverty has steadily increased throughout the period following 2008, and no clear indication of a trend reversal is yet visible. Working poor, the young, children and migrant foreign households are the main victims of the situation. Also the territorial divide has deepened, with the Southern regions bearing the brunt of the crisis much more, and for a longer time, than the Centre-North ones. According to the authors, the duration and depth of the crisis in Italy, and its impact on poverty, were largely a consequence of long-term structural features of the Italian economy, of its weak and fragmented social safety net, with its high expectations concerning family solidarity and the gender division of labour on the one hand, of its sluggish growth since the 1990s on the other. Governments’ austerity choices in reaction to the crisis (and under pressure from the EU) have further strengthened these features, although the recent introduction of a minimum income provision has marked an important change in the policy approach to poverty.

Young and Lonely The Social Conditions of Loneliness gathers evidence of young people’s experience of loneliness and connection from a youth co-produced research project and locates these within longstanding cultural and historical discussions of loneliness and solitude, friendship and belonging. The study explores loneliness and the experiences of connection/disconnection and inclusion/exclusion with a particular focus on the experience of loneliness in young lives and on how it is navigated when it is first encountered. It proposes that loneliness should not be considered only or even primarily as another psychological disorder or contagion, whilst recognising that severe loneliness may be an aspect of and connected to severe forms of psychological and emotional distress. The ways that young people encounter loneliness have resonance across the age spectrum and for questions of social organisation more generally. In three subsections, The social conditions of loneliness, The experience of loneliness, and Building friendship and connection, which focuses on the innovative critical and creative co-research used methods (which built on youth work practice) which enabled the conditions in which from the transient to the more enduring loneliness is experienced to be explored are explored. An accompanying attention to the range of methods of finding friendship and connection allows the complexity of young people’s experience to be foregrounded. The creative research methods used in the ‘Loneliness Connects Us’ collaborative research give a sense of some of the ways this sensitive topic might be approached and enhance understanding of friendship and solidarity.