The way in which she has approached the study of youth has paid particular attention to configurations of space and time in the unfolding of transitions to adulthood. This has allowed her, on the one hand, to develop work on international mobility, focusing specifically on the European context and on the functioning of structured mobility as a lever for youth agency. On the other hand, it has created space for the development of reflections on youth temporalities as conveying distinctive ways of ‘being young’ amidst the structural difficulties young people encounter in their trajectories, whether due to Covid-19 restrictions or to the impact of austerity regimes on welfare provision. Her work on temporalities is developed in particular alongside reflections on how to study youth futures and the interconnections between youth futures and collective affects, in an attempt to move beyond standardised categorizations. Thematically, her work has also engaged with debates on youth collectivities (online and offline), civic participation, young people’s difficulties in labour markets and how these are debated in youth policies, employing a variety of qualitative methods, including essay writing and visual elicitation.
Valentina has been Coordinator of the European Sociological Association (ESA) RN30 Youth and Generation and is an active member of both ESA RN30 and the International Sociological Association (ISA) RC34. She has also twice been appointed as a member of the Pool of European Youth Researchers (PEYR). She currently serves as Associate Editor of the Journal of Youth Studies, where she has published work on mobilities (in “A place for mobility in metaphors of youth transitions”, 2020, and “Students’ narratives of the future: imagined mobilities as forms of youth agency?”, 2016, with G. Mandich). 
Her most recent work focuses on youth temporalities and appears, inter alia, in The Sociological Review with the article “Framing optimism sociologically: Temporal complexity, collective affect, and cultures of optimism” (2026, with G. Mandich) and in Time & Society with “Timing transitions or ‘times’ in transition? Revisiting the value of time suspension for young people in Italy after the pandemic” (2025). In Italian, she is co-author of two volumes on the public positioning of youth, respectively in urban contexts—with the book Se non qui, dove? Giovani, città e appartenenze (with E. Cois and F. Bertoni, Egea: Milan)—and in broader debates in Giovani e Immaginari. Rappresentazioni e pratiche (with E. Ilardi and A. Lovari, Meltemi: Milan).
She continues to develop research at the interface of youth studies, space, temporalities, and generations. Her speech will be entitled: ‘Narratives of the future: towards a
research agenda for youth studies’.