The Young Christian Workers Movement and the radicalization of Social Conflict in Mediterranean Europe: France, Italy and Spain (1963-1978)

ended

"The Work-Christ project intends to reconstruct the influence of religious radicalisation on the social conflict in Mediterranean European countries, with particular attention paid to the cases in France, Spain and Italy during the sixties and seventies. The main purpose of this research is to study the relationship between religion and politics in the period following the Second Vatican Council, via the study of the ""Young Christian Workers Movement"", better known by the French name Jeunesse Ouvrière Chrétienne. This is a field of research which is totally unexplored, both regarding the interactions among the different national offshoots of the movement and the transnational reality represented by the coordinating authority of the Jeunesse Ouvrière catholique internationale. The research will also take into account the network constituted by the Mouvement Mondial des Travailleurs Chrétiens (MMTC) to which the specialized branches of the working class Catholic Action organisations referred to. From the late sixties, the Christian workers’ associations became the terminal point of the tensions, ferment and expectations that arose from the Second Vatican Council. In addition, these associations played an essential role in the processes of transition and consolidation of democracy in the three nations taken into consideration. For these reasons, the “Young Christian Workers Movement” appears to be a case study of the utmost importance for the role played on a European scale as a workshop for the building of a radicalized young identity challenging societal norms. Work-Christ has 3 key objectives: 1. through research based on archive sources, address the innovative subject of international Christian workers’ youth associations; 2. adopt a multi-disciplinary and interdisciplinary perspective for studying religious radicalisation; 3. study the mobilisation of the Christian workers associations at transnational level, reconstructing the phases, the goals and the contents."