What was the typical family in 1960s in Italy?
In 1950s there was a very traditional model, which consisted in a nuclear family. In 1968 everything was contested: the law, the school, and the family. There was a plurality of models, but the most common one was the commune, a family which is not based on blood ties, but on a society of friends.
Professor Paul Ginsborg is one of the most famous scholars and leading authorities on contemporary Italy. He taught European Politics at Cambridge, and contemporary European History at the university of Florence. He wrote many books, amongst them: A history of contemporary Italy 1943-1988, Italy and its discontents, Democracy: Crisis and Renewal and Family Politics, 1900-1950.
How did those models influence the family concretely?
It is not possible to fully explain it, but what happened started with students’ contestations whose echoes arrived into the legislation. For example, in 1975 we find both in France and in Italy a new family code, which puts the woman on an equal status with the man.
Have the changes of 1968 influenced contemporary families?
Yes. 1968 concentrated very much upon individuals, who expressed themselves freely in every field, in terms of their gender, of their intimate relations, of family structures, etc. It opened the door to these new forms of expressions. New liberal attitudes were born in 1968.
Was 1968 different for Italy and England?
The English experience is extremely small in comparison with the Italian one, and the Italian is extremely small in comparison with the American one. Americans during that period exiled themselves, they left the big cities and went to the countryside. Even the strongest European movement, the Danish movement, is nowhere near the numbers of American communes.
Do you think there are any political movements today which might be inspired by 1968?
Yes, I do. There are many mobilisations nowadays, for instance in the USA the fight of the women teachers and even Australian schoolchildren fight to save the world. Things are moving all over the planet. I think this is not a continuation of 1968, but a new start, which contains elements of both right and left, it is not so clearly left-wing like 1968.
How does the study of 1968 help us in our contemporary world?
It helps us to look at the past and see if we can learn any lessons for the future, but always remembering that those lessons are not straightforward, that it would be counterproductive to reproduce a new 1968. There are on the one hand things of 1968 we wouldn’t want to repeat and on the other things which were born in 1968 and lasted until nowadays.
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