Flair Italy 2025: Fleeting Future

Through a series of articles analysing Italian society, opinions and behaviours, our local experts highlight the need for a renewed sense of individual responsibility, a revitalised political discourse, and a focus on long-term vision to build a more sustainable and equitable future.

The report highlights many similarities in attitudes between Italy and other countries, including deep concern about climate change, anxiety about economic uncertainty, and a shift in values, such as the younger generation prioritising work-life balance and flexibility over traditional job security.

At the same time, Italians are noted for having a stronger attachment to local traditions, a more pronounced sense of national decline, and increased scepticism about globalisation than citizens of other European countries. 

These similarities and differences highlight the complex interplay between global trends and local contexts. While Italy shares many concerns and aspirations with other countries, its unique history, culture and socio-economic conditions shape its distinctive perspective on the 'fleeting future'.

Key themes include:

• Social fractures: The growing social, economic, and existential fractures in Italian society. These include rising inequality, a shrinking middle class, increased poverty, and a sense of disaffiliation (particularly among young people and the working class).
• The search for connections: Despite the rise of individualism and self-focus in contemporary society, there is a growing desire for deeper, warmer, and more collective relationships. People are increasingly seeking out communities and groups where they can find emotional support, share experiences, and collaborate on common goals.
• Emerging phenomena: The emerging phenomena that capture the essence of contemporary Italy, including occupational dissonance (the gap between personal values and work experiences), cultural backlash (resistance to social change), and hedonism (the pursuit of pleasure and lightness).
• Transformative forces: The key forces driving change in Italy are the green movement, technological acceleration, and the push for gender equality and rights for gender minorities. These forces are shaping values, behaviours, and aspirations, but also generating resistance and backlash.
• Challenges for businesses: Key challenges for businesses in navigating the complex Italian landscape include rapidly adapting corporate culture and giving meaning to work, embracing a broader social role, avoiding alienation from compensatory consumption, forging a new social contract on ecological transition and innovation, and communicating with empathy and authentic conviction.
• The future of democracy: The impact of social and cultural changes on Italian democracy including the erosion of institutional legitimacy, the rise of soft authoritarianism, political tribalism, and a ‘fleeting democracy’ characterised by declining participation and engagement.

Download the Summary (English)   Download the Report (Italian)