In the 1980s, Manconi founded and directed, together with Massimo Cacciari and Rossana Rossanda, the magazine Antigone.

A former exponent of the No on the occasion of the constitutional referendum of 4 December 2016, on 23 October 2017 Manconi did not participate in the votes of confidence on Rosatellum, the new electoral law.

In October and December 2017 he launched the initiative of a hunger strike for the approval of the jus soli law, which did not reach the quorum in the Senate.

On 2 February 2018, Prime Minister Paolo Gentiloni appointed Manconi as coordinator of the Office for the Promotion of Equal Treatment and the Removal of Discrimination established within the Department for Equal Opportunities.

He is the father of three children: Davide, Giacomo, and Giulia, the latter had by his second wife, journalist Bianca Berlinguer.