This article investigates how political, social and associative participation is changing in the last years in an old Italian "red" region (Emilia-Romagna) with respect the previous decades. The analysis of the new model of participation that is increasingly consolidating in the selected case shows that a process of adaptation, rather than transformation, is taking place. In fact, the actual economic crisis is only accentuating the establishment of this new model, which continues to a large

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... nt to be conditioned by the civic-mindedness historically present in this region, and which has been subject of several studies in the past by Italian and American scholars .