The sign of the crisis: the body as semantic vector of youth discomfort

The body is an extraordinary observation point of the world, especially in the modern societies, where it is a tangible sign of the individual, the personal place in which the differences, the social and cultural distinctions are shown. Being at the heart of the individual and collective action, it is the focal point of the existential dimension and the entry door through which the social world comes into the personal world. Today, we are witnessing at an ongoing and generalised state of crisis, an existential atmosphere in which the personal and the collective behaviours tend to occur in forms of general frailty. Above all, the youths seem to face the negative effects, with forms of discomfort that are more complex with a consequent need to take urgent action. In order to deal with a crisis, of whatever nature, it is necessary to identify the salient features along with the effects, with the view to develop specific interventions. By recognising the body as a semantic vector, it is possible to assign to it a double function: as privileged observation point, through which analysing the effect of the crisis and determining the causes that have generated it; as point of entrance for specific interventions that triggers the overcoming of the individual crisis, and that can be expanded to the collective sphere. By using a phenomenological approach and the categories of analysis and investigation developed by the sociology of the body, the two functions will be analysed in detail and a model of intervention will be proposed.