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The growth of non‐standard employment has emerged as a crucial factor that contributes to delays and difficulties in young people's transitions to adulthood. Previous studies have demonstrated the importance of multidimensional measures of precariousness. This paper aims to investigate the phenomenon of precariousness holistically, using an original database of respondents in Spain from 20 to 34 years of age. Using a mixed‐methods approach, we explore young people's understandings of precariousness and examine its key determinants and consequences. The findings illustrate the multidimensional nature of feelings of precariousness, with economic insecurity and work conditions being core elements. Our results point to precarity stemming from a combination of inextricably intertwined objective and subjective components, as well as work and economic dimensions. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This article contributes to debates on new social risks by examining the relationship young Catalan people have with various forms of insecurity. Using a mixed-methods approach in an intersectional analytical framework, the study uses data from the 2017 Catalan Youth Survey in combination with 15 life history interviews to investigate the lived experiences of vulnerable youth in Catalonia. By introducing a novel multidimensional measure of insecurity and providing robust new findings on individual-level experiences of various types of insecurity among Catalan youth, the study makes an important empirical contribution to the literature while providing new theoretical insights on intersectional approaches to the analysis and conceptualization of insecurity. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Initiatives across the private, public, and third sectors have increasingly pursued social value beyond mere profit. However, how social value can be created still requires a more detailed investigation. This paper provides conceptual and empirical arguments on how initiatives of social innovation, which intentionally seek to empower people, contribute to generate social value. We investigate three European social innovation cases—which are collective entrepreneurial initiatives. Using mixed methods applied to primary nested data, we first find evidence for empowering effects and then identify a typical process through which empowerment occurs. Our results suggest that social innovations catalyze empowerment through a horizontal and co‐creational organizational design, providing space for individuals to propose their goals and establishing mechanisms of mutual influence that transform individual autonomy into coactive power. This process kicks off social value creation, yet its reach within society depends on how much empowerment diffuses beyond the participants in the initiative. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This paper aims to establish whether, and to what extent, an increase in the public provision of early childhood education and care services (ECEC) has had a positive effect on women's participation in the labour market in Italy and Spain. It does so by compiling panel data using microdata from the European Labour Force Survey (2006–2018), together with secondary sources of information on public ECEC investment made in the two countries. After controlling for unit heterogeneity and reverse causality, the estimated results indicate a positive correlation with the employment rates of women with children and the number of hours worked, in particular for those without a degree, thus indicating the need to address unequal access to publicly-provided ECEC services. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The traditional debate about professional groups has mainly focused on conflicts between professions and organizations, reinforcing dualisms and dichotomies. Few scholars have investigated the extent to which professionalism and organizations are intertwined while focusing on the case of professionals integrated into large organizations, and even less attention has been paid to emerging forms of organization among self-employed professionals. Taking as an example organizational trends among architects (liberal professionals) and management consultants (emerging professionals) in Italy, this article investigates how small, flexible, and (often) interprofessional organizations promoted by self-employed professionals are increasingly instrumental in overcoming market pressures and responding to emerging social needs in times of crisis and austerity. Le debat traditionnel a propos des groupes professionnels a principalement concerne les conflits entre professions et organisations, renforcant ainsi les dualisations et dichotomies entre ces deux groupes. Peu de chercheurs ont enquete a quel point la profession et l'organisationnel sont interdependants lors de l'etude de l'integration de professionnels a de grandes organisations. En fait, moins d'attention a ete portee aux formes organisationnelles emergentes entre les professionnels independants. En prenant exemple sur les architectes (professionnels liberaux) et les professionnels dans le conseil en management (professionnels emergents) qui travaillent en Italie, cet article analyse comment les organisations des professionnels independants, qui sont petites, flexibles et (souvent) interprofessionnelles, se transforment en outils pour faire face a la pression du marche et pour repondre aux besoins emergents en temps de crises et austerite., SOCIOLOGICAL DEBATE ON PROFESSIONS has traditionally viewed professionalism as an occupational strategy: unlike other occupations, professions constitute a differentiated means of organizing work and controlling workers based on peer control [...]

The rate of involuntary part-time work among women has increased sharply. Scholars have demonstrated its links with diminished career opportunities, deteriorated working conditions, and low pay at an individual level. However, less attention has been paid to the effects of these contracts on economic security at the household level. This article investigates to what extent women being in part-time work involuntarily hinders their household's ability to attain reasonable living standards and examines whether this would be any different if women were in part-time employment voluntarily. The results show that part-time work in itself does not necessarily constitute a threat to household economic security, but when it is involuntary, part-time employment jeopardizes a household's financial well-being. This occurs in countries that deregulated peripheral corners of their labor markets, or "dualized" countries such as Italy, Spain, and France, and fully liberalized countries, such as Switzerland and the United Kingdom. Dualization refers to application of deregulation in peripheral corners of labor markets, increasing the precariousness of only certain categories of workers. In dualized and fully liberalized European countries, women's involuntary part-time work threatens households' economic security. It is the involuntary nature of part-time work, and not just reduced work hours, which lowers household economic security. Countries should implement forms of monetary support for low-work-intensity households. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Copyright of Revista Española de Sociología is the property of Federacion Espanola de Sociologia and its content may not be copied or emailed to multiple sites or posted to a listserv without the copyright holder's express written permission. However, users may print, download, or email articles for individual use. This abstract may be abridged. No warranty is given about the accuracy of the copy. Users should refer to the original published version of the material for the full abstract. (Copyright applies to all Abstracts.)

Social innovation and empowerment are complex concepts that, from an analytical point of view, are not necessarily related. One explicit goal of social innovation is to empower communities, as well as the individuals that are involved in activities within those communities, but this does not necessarily always occur. Here we address the question 'Does social innovation in early childhood education and care (ECEC) empower women?' First, we explore whether the projects we examine can be defined as social innovations. Second, we analyse to what extent arrangements that are identified as innovative in ECEC empower the mothers who choose them. We argue that if the characteristics of a particular social innovation project enhance or reinforce the capabilities of the women who participate in it, that experience will most probably empower them; if not, this is unlikely to occur. Our empirical material includes 37 interviews with key informants, educators, and mothers involved in these non-institutionalized projects, collected in Barcelona. Our results reveal the socioeconomic bias in these projects, as well as the costs derived for both sets of participants (mothers and educators). They also show the wider social impact that stems from these projects being under-regulated. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Copyright of Papers: Revista de Sociologia is the property of Universitat Autonoma de Barcelona and its content may not be copied or emailed to multiple sites or posted to a listserv without the copyright holder's express written permission. However, users may print, download, or email articles for individual use. This abstract may be abridged. No warranty is given about the accuracy of the copy. Users should refer to the original published version of the material for the full abstract. (Copyright applies to all Abstracts.)

Copyright of Papers: Revista de Sociologia is the property of Universitat Autonoma de Barcelona and its content may not be copied or emailed to multiple sites or posted to a listserv without the copyright holder's express written permission. However, users may print, download, or email articles for individual use. This abstract may be abridged. No warranty is given about the accuracy of the copy. Users should refer to the original published version of the material for the full abstract. (Copyright applies to all Abstracts.)

Since the beginning of the sociological debate on social classes, the middle class has been defined negatively for what it is not: lying in the middle between the bourgeoisie and the working class. This article aims to translate the terms of the problem positively, shifting the focus from determining «what is» or «who is in» the middle class to understanding the inherent meaning of «being» middle class. For this purpose, it draws a map of the main theoretical approaches and research works that, following Bourdieu's example, were designed to investigate the cultural practices that middle-class people engage in to identify as a group and distinguish themselves from others. The article reveals that, in the variety of culture-based approaches, the concept of class assumes a markedly relational character, which expresses itself in the symbolic struggles that are inherent to the everyday practices of distinction. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The recent financial crisis 2008-2014 and the likely crisis that will follow the Covid19 pandemic have shown the need to go beyond the traditional theories on labour market segmentation. In this article, we propose the theoretical model Multicategorial-Scale Dualization (DSM). Instead of conceiving the dualization as a binary combination of insiders/outsiders, the model here proposed explores different dimensions of marginalization along with a continuum of job positions. Stemming from a comparative analysis of Eurostat and OECD indicators, we analyse the dualization in four Southern European countries (Spain, Italy, Portugal and Greece). We then focus on the Italian case through an intersectional analysis, with the aim of showing the heuristic capacity of the DSM model for studying nonstandard work in the Southern European model. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Post-industrial transformations have significantly reshaped how young children are cared for outside the family home. Among other factors, the labour market participation of young mothers and a concomitant wish for intensive mothering have led to more diversified childcare solutions for the under-threes. Collective childcare projects (CCPs) promote approaches that are based on a home-like care environment and are run by educators and parents who have usually not trained in formal institutions but who become professionals in informal communities. Applying a discursive approach, this article asks: what characterises professionalism in CCPs? What type of professionalisation is being pursued? We analyse the case of Barcelona, using 45 interviews with association representatives, policymakers, campaigners, educators and parents. Our findings show the important role played by communities of care in defining professionalism and in consolidating a counter-professionalisation ethos, while evidencing their reluctance to pursue formal professionalisation. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Copyright of Revista Española de Sociología is the property of Federacion Espanola de Sociologia and its content may not be copied or emailed to multiple sites or posted to a listserv without the copyright holder's express written permission. However, users may print, download, or email articles for individual use. This abstract may be abridged. No warranty is given about the accuracy of the copy. Users should refer to the original published version of the material for the full abstract. (Copyright applies to all Abstracts.)

This article introduces the monographic section on the varieties of professionalism in a globalising world. The monographic section aims to explore new theoretical perspectives and analytical approaches in the field of the sociology of professions, by collecting both theoretical and empirical contributions focusing on different professions (either established or emerging ones) and topics, from various geographical regions. In the first part of this introductory article, we discuss professionalism as a concept that needs to be theoretically redefined in the context of post-industrial society after the crisis. For this purpose, we propose to refocus the discourse about professionalism on the process of differentiation and the increasing heterogeneity it is bringing about, within and between professional groups. Additionally, the changed societal conditions imply a changing role for professionals in society, beyond professionalism, which is an area worth being explored. Thus, we outline possible developments of the academic debate in three main analytical dimensions, labelled as within, between and beyond. The second part charts the nine contributions included in the monographic section, while trying to reconduct them to the dimensions mentioned above. Three orders of themes have thus been identified, concerning: (1) the redefinition of the concept of professionalism as a "practice", highlighting the practicality of the wisdom used by professionals in performing their everyday tasks; (2) the analysis of regulation processes, focusing on what happens when institutions shape professionalism; and (3) the investigation of the dynamics of transnational mobility, in the context of globalisation processes. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Over the last twenty years, Alternative Food Networks (AFN) have become increasingly successful at reducing the length of the chain that connects food production and consumption in an attempt to counteract the impact of the contradictions of the industrial food system and its supermarket-dominated distribution. Their grassroots actions, aimed at overcoming pre-existing socio-economic structures, are in line with social innovations, which have the objective of promoting the social participation of consumers and producers in food systems (empowerment, socio-political activism or social integration in society). In Italy, the Solidarity Purchasing Groups (SPGs), have been the subject of numerous academic studies, but the scope of these studies has, to date, been limited to the political activism of the consumer. The ability of this experience to foster the social participation of the groups' suppliers and the effects that the exchange has on the economic life of the producers have not yet been adequately studied. This article addresses this gap by investigating the extent to which SPGs can reduce the economic marginalisation of their suppliers and evaluates if the activities they promote could increase their social participation. Based on quantitative and qualitative data, this study shows that SPGs, in contrast to other AFNs, maintain a clear separation between consumers and producers and this could mitigate the positive impact of these initiatives on their suppliers. Our analysis of the suppliers shows that SPGs can act as a safety net against economic downturns and that the social participation of the producers involved is higher at the macro, meso and individual levels, compared to producers who do not cooperate with the SPGs. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Background: The article investigates the phenomenon of economic insecurity from a feminist perspective, assessing the role of women's labour market participation in predicting the phenomenon. It draws on the work of Trifiletti (1999) to analyse women's role in providing welfare for the entire family. Methods: Stemming from a cross-sectional analysis of European Union statistics on Income and Living Conditions (EU-SILC) 2013, logistic regression models (for women in a couple and for single women) are provided for six countries. Results: The descriptive analysis shows that economic insecurity affects single women more than single men, while couples fare better in all countries considered. Transversal factors that explain the phenomenon in logistic regressions are household type and wealth of the family, while the role of women's labour market participation and economic dependency from partners or from a welfare system varies across countries. Conclusions: Empirical results show that countries only partially comply with the theoretical model proposed by Trifiletti (1999), which proceeded from the welfare regime debate. Italy and Spain show more difference than similarity. The results for Italy and the United Kingdom confirm those of previous investigations that indicate their similarity, while France and Spain are closer to the Mediterranean archetype. The results for the Czech Republic confirm its proximity to the breadwinner model, as Denmark epitomises the heuristic capacity of the Universalist model in Northern European countries. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This paper explores the relationship between gender and social innovation to highlight the possible positive effects of women's participation in social innovation in terms of protection from economic marginalization. It focuses on Italian solidarity purchasing groups as a case of social innovation in the domain of food and agriculture. The analysis is based on logistic regression using primary data collected in 2016 for the EU funded project CrESSI. The results show that participation in social innovation does protect households from worsening economic conditions. However, it was not empirically proven that there is a significant difference between men and women in the benefit enjoyed from the participation in solidarity purchasing groups. [ABSTRACT FROM PUBLISHER]

While increasing female employment has contributed to reducing gender inequality, it has also exposed women to higher economic insecurity. The contribution of this paper is to understand the social conditions that might expose women to economic insecurity in different European cities. Specific aspects have been considered: (a) reduced (part time) work, (b) hampered labour-market participation (unemployment, involuntary inactivity due to care tasks), (c) different household structures (single/couple; with/without young children) or (d) educational level of both partners in the household. Data are based on a survey carried out in 2012 in seven European cities, representative of the different welfare/gender regimes in Europe. The results show that the most important divide is between women cohabiting/not cohabiting with a partner. Splitting the analysis on these two groups of women, differentiated configurations of conditions exposing women to economic insecurity have emerged in different welfare/care regimes. While Nordic, Central-eastern and Anglo-Saxon cities substantiate an individualised model of exposure to economic insecurity mostly driven by women’s participation in the labour market, in Continental and Mediterranean cities insecurity mainly depends on the educational levels (mainly of the partner in the case of coupled women) and the organisation of the household (presence of children). [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This article introduces the second of a two-part Special Issue of this journal on the precariousness of knowledge workers. It aims to explore the ambivalences and liminal relations among autonomy, identification and task orientation, which - for knowledge workers - represent both a source of self-realisation and a generator of multiple and distinctive forms of precariousness. In particular, we focus on the forms and critiques of autonomy and self-representation that, in knowledge societies, extend far beyond the fact of being a self-employed worker. We argue that knowledge work is in fact sustained by devices of subjectivity which derive their power from being self-constructed and which provide tools for managing precarious lives. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

In knowledge-based industries, work is circumscribed by the cognitive frames of creativity in the representations of subjects, but simultaneously demands adaptability, in a context in which deregulation and individualisation are now normal. The ethics of self-activation are therefore inextricably intertwined with the demands of intensification, standardisation and self-commodification. The first volume of this Special Issue – which is made up of two different parts – focuses on the phenomena of hybridisation, self-employment and subjectification, at the core of the experiences of precarious workers in knowledge societies. This article introduces the first part of the two-part Special Issue on the precariousness of knowledge workers. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Professionalization is one of the most ancient and popular issues in the sociology of the professions. Starting from the seminal article of Harold Wilensky (1964), scholars have extensively debated on which are the criteria to identify professionals, usually focusing on liberal professions. However, in recent years, post-industrial trends have transformed the character of the labour force dramatically and new groups have raised demands for professionalism going beyond this model. Such a dilemma raises a new interest on the topic: the paper, instead of applying the liberal professional model assumed to be an ahistorical standard, will face the problem by analysing the challenges facing knowledge workers' seeking to legitimize their professional status. In this paper, I address this issue through an in-depth analysis of Arianna's account, a female management consultant, using the technique of positioning. The interview with Arianna reveals the strategies and argumentative referents of a freelance management consultant who chooses to stress her professionalism. It presents the role of personal networks, on-the-job training, and market success as evidence to classify who is professional and who is not, but also to explain how she uses her competencies and market experience as the basis of her claim to professionalism. Using Arianna's interview as an emblematic example, this paper argues that management consultants are trying to establish professional status based on a process of professionalization, albeit an innovative one that does not pursue public regulation nor the mediation of intermediate bodies. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Utopia in classic literature is a place in which community is a value in itself. The individual is tied to a collective that gives him a meaning for his own life and his moral value is based on his participation to the utopian collective. Imaging a utopia in this perspective is a form of moral rebellion, which is possible only foreseeing a better future in a progressive historical timeline. Contemporary societies put in question such assumptions, starting from breaking the social and collective prerequisite. Postmodernity contradicts its salient characteristics: there is no more a space for an absolute common good when society is liquid and focalised on present, every individual is in search of a its own happiness instead of creating a community, short-time has become the timeline of contemporary culture. This paper will describe the utopian dimension of contemporary societies by showing its contradictory feature compared to the classic model, referring to the theories of pragmatic sociology and the rise of project as ontological dimension of contemporary life. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

An introduction is presented in which the editor discusses various reports within the issue on topics including consequences of transformation of public policies, institutional impact of national public reforms in Argentina, and analysis of consequences of subcontracting in public policies.

Covid-19 has been a disrupting event in contemporary social life but is far from being a great equaliser. Preliminary studies have put in evidence how different social groups faced a differentiated risk of contagion and coped differently with the various consequences of the emergency. Evidence shows how minorities and migrants face disproportionally higher risks of contagion than the white upper and middle class, and how vulnerable communities are more exposed to deaths and the rapid spread of the virus. At the same time, societies are coping with social distancing measures and their disruptive social and economic consequences, which have a more significant impact on the most vulnerable segments of societies: women, children, low-income classes and ethnic minorities. This article argues that an intersectional framework allows an understanding of what is occurring in the current pandemic, both in terms of its social determinants and social consequences. To open the black box of inequality, intersectional scholars analyze the intersections of multiple structures of inequalities (such as gender, age, class, ethnicity), which have a multiplying effect when disadvantaged positions intersect in the same individual. Covid-19 is a clear example of an intersectional phenomenon: the impact of individual and community exposure to Covid-19 is the results of multiple and interrelating structures of inequality. Up to now, research in social sciences has underestimated the role of intersectionality in analyzing the social and economic consequences of this pandemic., Competing Interests: The author declares that the research was conducted in the absence of any commercial or financial relationships that could be construed as a potential conflict of interest., (Copyright © 2021 Maestripieri.)