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Objectives: to document existing geographical inequalities in health in the city of Milan (Lombardy Region, Northern Italy), examining the association between area socioeconomic disadvantage and health outcomes, with the aim to suggest policy action to tackle them. Design: the analysis used an ecological framework; multiple health indicators were considered in the analysis; socioeconomic disadvantage was measured through indicators such as low education, unemployment, immigration status, and housing crowding. For each municipal statistical area, Bayesian Relative Risks of the outcomes (using the Besag-Yorkand-Mollié model) were plotted on the city map. To evaluate the association between social determinants and health outcomes, Spearman correlation coefficients were estimated. Setting and participants: residents in the City of Milan aged between 30 and 75 years who were residing in Milan as of 01.01.2019, grouped in 88 statistical areas. Main outcomes measures: all-cause mortality, type-2 diabetes mellitus, hypertension, neoplasms, respiratory diseases, metabolic syndrome, antidepressants use, polypharmacy, and multimorbidity. Results: the results consistently demonstrated a significant association between socioeconomic disadvantage and various health outcomes, with low education exhibiting the strongest correlations. Neoplasms displayed an inverse social gradient, while the relationship with antidepressant use varied. Conclusions: these findings provide valuable insights into the distribution of health inequalities in Milan and contribute to the existing literature on the social determinants of health. The study highlights the need for targeted interventions to address disparities and promote equitable health outcomes. The results can serve to inform the development of effective public health strategies and policies aimed at reducing health inequalities in the city.

This paper investigates the impact of behavioural risk factors on non-communicable diseases mortality in Milan, focusing on their neighbourhood variation, with the scope to provide context-specific information to guide the development of effective health promotion interventions. Using administrative healthcare data, population attributable fractions were calculated based on information provided by the Global Burden of Disease project to estimate the number and proportion of deaths attributed to smoking, high body mass index, alcohol consumption, physical inactivity, and dietary risk. The findings revealed distinct territorial patterns of risk factors based on sex/gender, as territorial differences along the centre-periphery axis were observed in men but not in women. Smoking emerged as the primary risk factor for avoidable mortality, particularly in men whilst in females metabolic-related risk factors played a larger role. The proposed methodology provided valuable insights into the distribution of risky health behaviours at the neighbourhood level and underscored the need for context-specific interventions. Overall, the study emphasized the intertwined nature of territorial, socioeconomic, and gender dimensions in shaping health outcomes. It called for targeted interventions that address the specific risk profiles and challenges of each neighbourhood, promoting health equity and reducing the burden of non-communicable diseases. By understanding these complex dynamics, policymakers and public health professionals can develop effective strategies to improve population health and reduce health inequalities.

La pandemia da Covid-19 è stato un evento che ha scosso profondamente le fondamenta sulle quali sono costruite le società contemporanee, generando un diffuso senso di insicurezza nella popolazione. L’interruzione delle attività economiche e il generale senso di incertezza hanno avuto un effetto immediato sul benessere degli individui, ma come sempre accade le categorie più fragili hanno subito le conseguenze più gravi. In questo contributo analizziamo quanto è accaduto in Italia sul fronte della povertà e delle politiche di contrasto. I primi due paragrafi sono dedicati, il primo, alla ricostruzione delle caratteristiche della povertà in Italia a partire dal concetto di ‘regime di povertà, per poi analizzare, nel secondo paragrafo, l’evoluzione del fenomeno nei due anni successivi allo scoppio della pandemia. Infine, il terzo paragrafo è dedicato all’analisi dell’efficacia degli strumenti messi in campo, sia di quelli strutturali (Reddito di Cittadinanza) sia di quelli straordinari (Reddito di Emergenza, vari bonus). Il contributo mette in luce come la pandemia abbia confermato i tratti di fondo del regime di povertà italiano, ma anche evidenziato la vulnerabilità di alcune categorie precedentemente al riparo dal rischio di povertà. In questo senso, l’insieme delle misure messe in campo ha consentito di limitare nel breve periodo gli effetti della pandemia, ma la loro natura temporanea dimostra che c’è ancora della strada da fare per disporre finalmente di un sistema strutturato di contrasto della povertà. In tale ottica rappresenta certamente un passo indietro la recente scelta del Governo di sostituire (a partire dal 1 gennaio 2024) il Reddito di cittadinanza (Rdc) con l’assegno di inclusione, una politica nuovamente categoriale, che farà tornare l’Italia ad essere l’unico paese europeo privo di una misura universalistica di contrasto alla povertà.

T.H. Marshall is certainly the scholar who contributed most to the understanding of citizenship, as a concept and as a varying reality, in the democratic industrialized countries of the West. In this chapter we shall explore how Marshall developed his theory in the context of England after the Second World War and why his contribution became crucial in the study of welfare and social policies. In the final part of the chapter, we focus on Marshal’s discussion of the hyphenated society (democratic-welfare-capitalism) and suggest that his contribution on this theme anticipates the current ideas on the crisis of welfare and democracy and on the tensions of present-day unsustainable society where inequalities are growing dramatically.

This chapter focuses on the reasons for the fragmentation, pointing to the late unification and the North/South divide. It presents the research on Third Italy as the most original attempt to use local analysis to explain the emergence of a peculiar model of economic development based on small and medium firms and medium-sized cities. The chapter deals with urban poverty in the three major Italian cities, with a discussion on how spatial distribution and vulnerable groups are shaped by local factors. The recency of political and linguistic unification is a fundamental reason for the relevance of the local dimension in Italian society in terms of cultural identity, social regulation and institutional arrangements. These studies generated a new awareness of the role of local factors in shaping local societies, including economic development, social inclusion, performance of institutions, welfare policies and political and social activism.

This article analyses the spatial distribution of foreigners living in the city of Milan, based on data from the civil registry and relying on theories and methods from the residential segregation literature, exploring the dimensions of evenness, exposure, concentration, centralisation and clustering, as well as analysing migrants’ over/under-representation in specific areas through maps of their location quotients. Despite the low degree of ethnic residential segregation detected, we highlight the presence of persistent dynamics that exclude ethnic minorities from the wealthiest areas of the city. The most relevant case is that of the Chinese, clustering in some peripheral areas north of the historic centre, where they have established an enclave economy, often making their residence coincide with their workplace and running commercial activities mostly directed towards their compatriots. The Egyptians, constituting the most numerous foreign group in the city, show a completely different settlement pattern, being more integrated into the social tissue and more scattered throughout the city. In the context of a city strongly polarised between a wealthy centre and progressively deprived peripheral belts, the only foreign groups with a marked presence in the city core are those traditionally employed in domestic work, which are however excluded from life in the public places in which they reside. Overall, the class dimension seems to prevail over the ethnic in shaping population settlement patterns within the city.

Im vorliegenden Aufsatz stellen wir die Hintergründe der Armut in Italien vor und arbeiten ihre Besonderheiten im europäischen Kontext heraus. Zunächst wird die Entwicklung der Armut und der Maßnahmen zu ihrer Bekämpfung seit der Vereinigung Italiens beschrieben, wobei deutlich wird, welch geringe Aufmerksamkeit das Thema bei fast allen politischen Akteuren fand. Im zweiten Teil skizzieren wir die Merkmale dessen, was wir als „italienisches Armutsregime“ bezeichnen, und zeigen, welche sozialen Gruppen am stärksten vom Risiko der Verarmung betroffen sind.

The article tackles the characteristics of social work in Italy, focusing on some specific features of this professional domain within the broader framework of the Italian welfare system. Indeed, given the historical roots of Italian welfare regime and the model of governance of policies, social assistance benefits and services are the less developed component of welfare provisions. This is one of the reasons for the late full acknowledgement and regulation of the social worker at the national level, requiring specific skills and competences and therefore a specific academic curriculum. In the first part of the article, we present the development of social work in Italy, with particular attention to the creation of academic courses and the formal regulation as a profession. Then we present the current situation of social work and social workers in Italy, taking into consideration the weakness of social assistance and the effects of the financial crisis. In fact, the crises had an impact on the dimensions and composition of vulnerable population, which is more and more large and fragmented, putting growing pressure on social assistance offices and on social workers. At the same time, because of fiscal austerity, resources for welfare benefits have been reduced in these years, changing the organizational settings and worsening the working conditions of social workers. This article has been written mainly considering the situation before the pandemic, which had an impact on increasing social inequalities as well as posing hard challenges to the health and social welfare system.

Social inequalities in health are known to be influenced by the socioeconomic status of the territory in which people live. In the context of the ongoing coronavirus disease 2019 (COVID-19) pandemic, this study is aimed at assessing the role of 5 area-level indicators in shaping the risk of contagion in the provinces of Milan and Lodi (Lombardy, Italy), namely: educational disadvantage, unemployment, housing crowding, mobility, and population density. The study area includes the municipalities at the origin of the first Italian epidemic outbreak. Data on COVID-19 patients from the Integrated Datawarehouse for COVID Analysis in Milan were used and matched with aggregate-level data from the National Institute of Statistics Italy (Istat). Multilevel logistic regression models were used to estimate the association between the census block-level predictors and COVID-19 infection, independently of age, sex, country of birth, and preexisting health conditions. All the variables were significantly associated with the outcome, with different effects before and after the lockdown and according to the province of residence. This suggests a pattern of socioeconomic inequalities in the outbreak, which should be taken into account in the eventuality of future epidemics to contain their spread and its related disparities.

I dormitori oggi: non più meri contenitori della povertà urbana, non soltanto posti letto al riparo e pasto assicurato, ma spazi di vita e di relazione, risorsa della città e per la città. A chi si rivolgono i dormitori? Come sono organizzati? Cosa offrono ai propri ospiti? Che ruolo assumono nel proprio territorio? Da un inquadramento del fenomeno dell’homelessness e dei principali modelli di intervento al riferimento a diverse realtà a livello europeo, gli autori si propongono di raccontare il dormitorio, accompagnando il lettore all’interno dei suoi spazi, della sua offerta e delle sue dinamiche. Dall’esperienza dell’équipe e degli ospiti di Casa Jannacci, il più grande e antico dormitorio pubblico di Milano, il dormitorio emerge come organismo vivente, che si evolve insieme alla città e insieme a questa affronta ogni sfida, fino all’ultima emergenza sanitaria.

This chapter discusses the decline of rural poverty in the Global South has been counterbalanced by the rise of social fragmentation and new forms of social exclusion and poverty in both the Global South and the Global North. It focuses on the transformations of the urban systems of inequalities produced by modernisation, industrialisation, and urbanisation in different urban contexts of the Global North and South. An urban system of inequalities is understood as the different mix and level of gender, ethnicity, class, and demographic inequalities that characterise cities in different historical and development contexts. The chapter examines in the more developed cities the migration flow provokes a feeling of insecurity and competition in the native population that may turn into discrimination, expulsion, and repression, thus fomenting inequalities. Social coalitions, urban mobilisations, and protests are part of a variegated ecosystem of practices that are changing the nature and content of urban mobilisation.

The article discusses the presence of in-work poverty (IWP) in European countries, showing its main characteristics from a comparative point of view. We firstly present the different approaches to the definition of the problem in the USA and in Europe, disentangling the interaction among family, labour market and welfare policies. In the third section, the rates of IWP and of low wage workers are analysed, while in the fourth section we present the main characteristics of IWP comparing European countries. The main result of our analysis is that the classic clusters of welfare regimes may explain only partially the share and the characteristics of IWP in the EU.

Since its emergence at the end of the seventeenth century, industrial capitalism as a specific form of social organisation has set recurrent challenges to its own persistence, and until today, it has proved to be successful to develop new ways of accumulation based on its capacity of adaptation. Is this process of transition now accelerating or reaching an end point? This book is a critical exploration of capitalism in transition, bringing together cutting edge, world renowned scholars who reflect from different disciplinary points of view. This collection engages with the primarily Western themes of welfare capitalism and social fragmentation. Structured over three parts, the book analyses; the transformations of welfare societies and capitalism with a focus on South European welfare states and their (in)capacity to tackle poverty; the transformation of work and migration with a special attention to informality and the question of social rights; and the transformation of cities.

Italy is one of the EU countries that was hardest hit by the 2008 financial crisis and is also slowest in recovering, even compared to other Mediterranean countries that share some of its societal features. Poverty has steadily increased throughout the period following 2008, and no clear indication of a trend reversal is yet visible. Working poor, the young, children and migrant foreign households are the main victims of the situation. Also the territorial divide has deepened, with the Southern regions bearing the brunt of the crisis much more, and for a longer time, than the Centre-North ones. According to the authors, the duration and depth of the crisis in Italy, and its impact on poverty, were largely a consequence of long-term structural features of the Italian economy, of its weak and fragmented social safety net, with its high expectations concerning family solidarity and the gender division of labour on the one hand, of its sluggish growth since the 1990s on the other. Governments’ austerity choices in reaction to the crisis (and under pressure from the EU) have further strengthened these features, although the recent introduction of a minimum income provision has marked an important change in the policy approach to poverty.

The urban concentration of deprived masses is the basic mechanism for the reproduction of social disadvantage: “space matters” indeed. Although large areas of chronic rural poverty exist, especially in the less developed countries, it’s the urban character that has mostly attracted the academic as well as political attention to poverty in industrialized countries. Moreover, it was in the urban context that the concept of absolute and relative poverty had been set as a universal standard to estimate the extension of the phenomena. Furthermore, the social and economic transformation of the last few decades has led to the reemergence of severe forms of impoverishment in practically all cities in the industrialized world helping to maintain this focus

The term ‘welfare capitalism’ is used with a double meaning. On one side, it refers to the critical interpretations of the controversial impact of capitalism on social protection. From this point of view the diffusion of capitalism creates a deficit of social protection that has been faced by the development of welfare policies. On the other side, welfare capitalism is at the centre of the field of study that has tried to explain the diversified features of the welfare state in different national contexts. Here, we explore the historical transition from preindustrial to industrial society and the link between capitalism and welfare. We then discuss different lines of interpretations of capitalist development and the consolidation of the welfare state in western countries after the Second World War. Finally, we discuss the current relevance of the concept in a context of post-industrial transformations where social and economic change, globalization and financialization are changing the connection between capitalism and welfare

Nell’ultimo decennio il dibattito sulle trasformazioni del welfare ha evidenziato con sempre maggiore insistenza come l’assetto macro-nazionale che caratterizza un certo paese venga filtrato da attori e assetti locali, generando effetti di strutturazione specifici nei diversi contesti locali [Kazepov 2010]. In altri termini, le politiche e gli indirizzi nazionali, in modo particolare nel campo degli interventi socio-assistenziali, vengono declinati a livello locale in configurazioni anche molto diverse tra loro, dando origine a specifici assetti di welfare locale [Andreotti, Mingione e Polizzi 2012; Andreotti e Mingione 2016; Bifulco 2015; Bifulco, Bricocoli e Monteleone 2008]. In questo scenario, le grandi città sono i laboratori per la sperimentazione e l’innovazione delle politiche sociali, in particolare di quelle assistenziali [Moulaert et al. 2007; Moulaert e Vicari 2009]. In primo luogo perché nelle città nascono e si concentrano i fenomeni sociali che generano nuovi bisogni di protezione. In secondo luogo perché nelle città sono presenti più soggetti in grado di leggere ed elaborare soluzioni innovative ai nuovi problemi, nonché di implementarle [Oosterlynk et al. 2013]. Il tema del local welfare è particolarmente rilevante in Italia dato il peculiare percorso storico di strutturazione e configurazione degli interventi assistenziali, caratterizzati da uno spiccato localismo [Madama 2010; Ciarini 2012]. Nel presente contributo viene analizzata l’evoluzione del sistema socio-assistenziale di Milano, con particolare attenzione alle caratteristiche della governance e al ruolo dell’amministrazione comunale. Il caso di Milano è particolarmente interessante sia per l’importanza che la città riveste nel contesto italiano, sia per il ruolo che ha avuto nell’evoluzione del modello. David Benassi IL GOVERNO DEL SISTEMA DI ASSISTENZA A MILANO IN UNA PROSPETTIVA DI LUNGO PERIODO 72 di politiche sociali intrapreso dalla Regione Lombardia, incentrato su una forma

In this introduction we draw an interpretative framework of the dynamic of capitalism based on Karl Polanyi’s theory of the embeddedness of the ‘economic’ in the ‘social’. We argue that changes in capitalist societies are characterised by a dynamic double movement. During periods of predominance for market-driven mechanisms in the allocation of resources, economic relations tend to dis-embed from their social foundations, meaning that the logic of economic behaviour is separated from its roots. This separation is not sustainable in the long run, and in causing various negative consequences, it triggers a counter-movement that gives momentum to a phase of re-embeddedness of economic activities into a stronger societal steering framework. It is within this double movement that we think we can understand how socio-economic tensions arise, how capitalism is transformed, and how social change is produced.

In the last thirty years capitalism entered a process of radical change that wiped out the world we knew during the golden age. Processes of globalization and financialisation coupled with mass migration, demographic transitions and a delegitimized welfare state brought about a steeply increase of inequality or even a polarization between winners and losers, challenging the very nature of citizenship. The redefinition of the social class structure and the transformation of the existing patterns of social inclusion of individuals and social groups is having a deep impact on the social fabric. Written by cutting edge scholars this book explores – from different disciplinary perspectives – how western capitalism changes and with what consequences on individuals’ life and communities. The book is structured in three parts, each discussing a specific area of change: 1) capitalism and welfare; 2) migration and citizenship 3) cities and urban transformations. Chapters focus on the uneven effects of capitalism, on the manifold social conflicts emerging and on the possibilities for the mobilization of people and social movements. The authors develop their analysis taking into consideration the interplay of micro and macro factors. By combining theory and empirical analysis and adopting a comparative perspective, they provide insights for understanding the dynamics of change and who is winning and who is losing

Il contributo sviluppa una riflessione sulle prospettive di sviluppo dei diversi modelli di capitalismo europei di fronte alle grandi sfide contemporanee. Muovendo dall’importante contributo di Burroni (2016), gli autori discutono all’interno di un quadro teorico di impronta polanyiana il concetto di «sviluppo insostenibile» come elemento intrinseco del capitalismo. Il capitalismo in generale, ma in modo ancora più evidente quello europeo, si dimostra sempre più in difficoltà nel rendere compatibili esigenze diverse ma essenziali come la crescita, la protezione sociale, la partecipazione democratica. Gli autori approfondiscono poi il caso italiano, mostrando le difficoltà di rigenerazione del sistema sociale ed economico di un paese caratterizzato da limiti intrinseci del proprio sviluppo, a partire dal dualismo Nord/Sud

Italy is one of the very few European countries that still lacks a minimum income measure against poverty. Following the constitutional reform of 2001, the Regions have had exclusive responsibility for social assistance policies. For this reason the last 15 years witnessed a variety of local initiatives. This short note discusses the programs recently launched by Lombardy, Apulia and the city of Leghorn. Available evidence points to highly heterogeneous measures – ranging from a well-structured policy in Apulia to an irrelevant set of provisions in Lombardy. Once again the lack of a national strategy against poverty shows the weakness of the Italian social assistance system.

Il paper presenta i primi risultati di un progetto Prin (2009) su Giovani e deficit della rappresentanza: trasformazioni del lavoro e nuovi rischi sociali a Milano, con due obiettivi fondamentali che strutturano lo stesso paper. Innanzitutto, vengono esplorati i mutamenti dell'offerta di rappresentanza a favore di lavoratori non standard ad elevata qualificazione a Milano, in considerazione della forte presenza, sia quantitativa che qualitativa, di organizzazioni di rappresentanza di tipo professionale o comunque rivolte a lavoratori impiegati con contratti non standard. In secondo luogo, il paper si propone di indagare quale se domanda di rappresentanza esprimono questi lavoratori una a fronte del processo di crescente individualizzazione della condizione occupazionale.

In this chapter we attempt to give an account of the influence of Italian social sciences on the European sociological debate. This is not an easy task while it is one that can be addressed from many different angles. A complete review of all the scholars and/or single contributions that have achieved international recognition was beyond our reach, as was also any systematic analysis of all the branches of sociology. We therefore decided to focus on those fields of research in which Italian sociological research has not only made important contributions but also helped to frame the European debate, giving rise to a recognizable Italian approach. These fields are first local development, social capital and governance and, second, welfare state, poverty and inequality. The chapter unfolds as follows. The first section discusses the late internationalization of Italian sociology as an effect of its late institutionalization as an academic discipline and the crucial role of EU research funds is stressed in giving Italian sociology more visibility since the 1980s. The next two sections show the state of the art in the two selected topic areas, taking two common features of Italian society as a launch pad: the centrality of the family and the socio-economic divide between North and South of Italy. In each case, we start from the characteristic elements of Italian society in explaining why they drew the attention of Italian and international scholars. We then proceed to outline the contributions of the leading scholars and the impact they have had on the European debate.

L’articolo presenta alcune riflessioni sul fenomeno della ricchezza a partire dal libro curato da Franzini, Granaglia e Raitano, Dobbiamo preoccuparci dei ricchi? (2014). In particolare viene discusso, da una prospettiva sociologica, chi sono i ricchi, come si diventa ricchi e quali sono le conseguenze della (eccessiva) concentrazione della ricchezza. Il punto centrale dell’articolo, ripreso dal libro di Franzini e colleghi, è che il raggiungimento delle posizioni sociali che garantiscono un elevato reddito non dipende – solo – dalle capacità e dallo sforzo individuale, ma anche o soprattutto dalla posizione privilegiata di partenza. Si argomenta poi che un’elevata concentrazione della ricchezza ha effetti negativi per la società nel suo insieme, in quanto ostacola la mobilità sociale, e per i ricchi stessi, che si trovano a vivere in un contesto sociale conflittuale.