“Girls, Boys, Art, Pleasure”: origine e alterne fortune dei paninari, tra edonismo anni Ottanta e proto-berlusconismo

Abstract

At the very beginning of the Eighties, groups of teenagers gained in Milan around the first Italian fast-food (part of a chain called Burghy). The place acquired a symbolic value, representing a culture coming from the United States which was very different from what had been known until then as counterculture. Italian paninari identify themselves in the youppie, the young and successful businessman, in the rich Ivy League student. This article aims to draw a portrait of the Italian paninari movement, at the same time shading light on the political engagement that characterized it – anticipating a form of proto-Berlusconism – despite the general interpretation according to which this all-Italian subculture should be regarded as purely edonistic.

Keywords

• consumerism
• milan
• paninari
• silvio berlusconi
• subculture