Abstract
In 2020, the Salesian University Institute of Venice conducted the Mixed Methods "Youth for Future" survey of two samples of young Italians: 1,821 aged 14/18, 1,523 19/29. The survey asked about the relationship between young people the environmental issue and the future. The research was designed to conduct the study with different instruments and capture findings from quantitative and qualitative perspectives, which are often competing rather than cooccurring.
Beyond the comparison with colleagues, we were exclusively concerned with the qualitative research and this part is discussed in the article. Given the large number of participants, this section was based on a single question: a solicitation to the youth for them to talk about their suggestions on the human/environment relationship.
As our background is semiotic/pedagogical, the purpose of our research was to understand within youth languages the sentiment with respect to the environment and the ways in which meaning is constructed, beyond the stereotypes and interpretive deceptions of language, and hypothesize formative elements and opportunities to approximate "the state of things" by intercepting the extensive dis/information of the infosphere, highlighting the elements that convey the representations through-which we construct and map our image of the world. Topic currently unavoidable for education.