Paper short abstract:

This paper examines the role of social media in shaping hope and visions for a better future among precarious workers and unemployed people in northern Italy affected by the global economic crisis that started in 2008 and went on to hit the world.

Paper long abstract:

This paper examines the role of social media in shaping hope and visions for a better future among people affected by the global economic crisis that started with the Wall Street crash in 2008 and went on to hit Italy and the world. In 2008, Italy entered a period of protracted economic crisis that brought profound transformations to the lives of millions of people. In 2019, many working adults in Milan, the main economic and productive centre of Italy, would describe their lives as characterised by a turning point: some lost their jobs, others saw their salary reduced, others started experiencing poor working conditions, and many young adults went back to live with their parents because they could not pay their bills anymore. Ten years after the financial crisis, the lives of many adults in Northern Italy continue to be characterised by high levels of uncertainty, precarity, or unemployment. By viewing hope as mediated practice, the chapter shows the ways in which social media and hope are interconnected and co-construct each other. Among unemployed and precarious workers, the hope mediated by social media and online branding tends to be more about surviving the difficulties of the present rather than working towards a better future. It helps them better cope with the consequences of structural inequalities, and eventually reproduces precarious workers' subordinations. The chapter advocates for the use of the conceptual tools from media anthropology to enhance the ethnographic study of hope, work, and social inequality in neoliberal times.