ABSTRACT
As most of the films dedicated to Naples have shown, the poor socio-economic conditions of post-war Naples created ideal opportunities for a culture of survival at all cost to flourish. Sociologists have noted the run-down environment of the Campania region and believe that it was responsible for important social problems which were exploited by the Camorra. In particular, youth delinquency, bad town planning and housing produced a mass army of young unemployed people with no concrete future, who were easy prey to the Camorra. This chapter stresses on the importance of the macro-environment and the institutional framework (external structure) in the life choices of would-be camorristi. It discusses two life stories to illustrate schematically what the authors mean by the interaction between the agent and the general structure. The stories document vividly the pressure exerted by the external structure over the life choices of young Neapolitans during the post-war period.
