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Durante la pandemia mundial por la Covid-19 y ante una inminente crisis derivada de ésta, surgen diversas preocupaciones respecto de las consecuencias económicas que la situación acarreará, así como de la suficiencia de la respuesta de los distintos gobiernos a largo plazo. De esta manera, el Colectivo de Economía Fundamental propone, para el contexto europeo en particular, una serie de puntos esenciales y lecciones para las decisiones de política económica que surjan de esta crisis con el fin de sacar adelante las economías regionales y nacionales una vez que la pandemia sea superada.

At the time of its inception, in 1978, prevention and primary care were set as fundamental pillars of the Italian National Health Service (NHS), emphasizing the collective and social dimension of health. These principles were progressively neglected over the following four decades. Marketization, managed competition and managerialization privileged the individualized, highly specialized healthcare services mainly provided in hospitals, to the detriment of local outpatient and primary care services. After 2008–09, austerity policies exacerbated this situation determining under-financing as well as structural and staff shortages, while increasing tensions arose between the central government and Regions in the decentralized NHS. In 2020–21, the pandemic highlighted these critical issues. The need to develop a universal and strong outpatient, primary and community care system became evident in order to ensure the appropriateness and quality of foundational health services. This requires the State to play a more prominent role in the NHS governance.

This paper introduces the FSE special session ‘Healthcare, Covid-19 and the Foundational Economy’, which uses the Foundational Economy (FE) approach to analyze the public health crisis determined by Covid-19. First, the paper briefly presents the FE approach, which consists of two macro-areas. The former, identified as a 'material' foundational economy, comprises the supply of basic goods and services (i.e. water, electricity, gas, food or banking). The latter, defined as a 'providential' foundational economy, comprises services traditionally covered by welfare policies and indispensable to our lives, including healthcare. Subsequently, the introduction illustrates the contributions of the special session, which includes articles on France, Italy, Spain, the US as well as a comparative analysis of the Covid-19 impact in Europe. In presenting these papers, the introduction shows how the FE concepts and methodological tools are relevant and extremely useful to analyze the public health pandemic crisis and its causes.

The article focuses on two policy lines that are crucial in the current framework of welfare reorganization in Italy and in Europe: Social Investment and Social Inno-vation. The aim is to illuminate the dynamics that they nurture in social work and to understand how they open fields of change, adaptation or resistance regarding roles and skills. The starting point is the twofold dynamic through which the do-main recognized and treated as "social" expands, extending far beyond its tradi-tional boundaries and at the same time assuming more vague and blurred mean-ings. The research is based on two empirical fieldworks: the implementation of a measure against poverty in a Lombard territorial area; a project underway in Mi-lan since 2015 aimed at reconfiguring the relationship between demand and sup-ply of care services in the context of a more comprehensive reorganization of the municipal welfare.

In this paper we point out the topic and the rational of the symposium aiming on the one hand to connect preparedness to the uncertainty that characterizes society-environment relation, on the other hand to emphasise the need for sociology not only to denounce the governmental implications of preparedness but also to engage constructively with this category. We begin by recalling the framework changes that have characterized the social sciences��� understanding of disasters by showing how progressively the idea of disaster as a one-time event that disrupts a society from the outside has been complemented by an idea of disaster as a critical moment embedded in historically determined social structures. We will then discuss how the emergence of the preparedness paradigm fits within these developments and how sociological research can help to better understand what is at stake in the governing of (and by) preparedness. In this perspective we advance a reading of preparedness from the vantage point of knowledge. As a conclusion, we discuss how the understanding of preparedness as dependent on socio-ecological transformation raises specific challenges for territorial governance., Sociologica, Vol. 15 No. 3 (2021)

The current debate on philanthropy, while following the established research path on the nature and social determinants of giving, considers the close interweaving of charity and business as the distinctive, innovative core of the phenomenon. The article aims at moving this debate forward by outlining a research agenda on the most recent developments of philanthropy at the global level and identifying four main directions of investigation: philanthrocapitalism; financialization; knowledge; élites. We argue that the connections among them, highlighted through the identification of what is actually new in philanthropy today, can contribute to the sociological understanding of the phenomenon, enlightening the enduring tension between embedding and dis-embedding of economy in society and the changing relationship among economy, expertise and political power.

The paper investigates the territorialization process with a twofold aim: to focus on the territory as the medium of the current relation between citizenship and governance; and to analyse the problems and opportunities created by governance and territorialization. After outlining an interpretative frame for territorialization in Europe, the paper concentrates on the Italian case and on two policy instruments: Area Social Plans and Neighbourhood Contracts. Light will be shed on how moves towards innovations intertwine with dynamics of fragmentation, thereby creating the complexity of territorialization in Italy.

Basandosi sui risultati di una ricerca su venti Piani Sociali di Zona, l’articolo analizza le competenze per la partecipazione e il ruolo che esse svolgono in qualità di anelli di congiunzione tra modelli/ teorie e pratiche di partecipazione. Vengono indagati in particolare i modelli concettuali e le rappresentazioni che funzionari e politici mettono in campo relativamente alle competenze ritenute importanti per promuovere la partecipazione sociale. Oltre a dare voce a chi realmente progetta e implementa i Piani, spesso lavorando in prima linea, queste rappresentazioni illuminano punti di forza e debolezze della partecipazione sociale. La tendenza di fondo che emerge dalla ricerca è la centralità di un approccio relazionale alla partecipazione. Ciò comporta alcuni problemi e in particolare il rischio che si affermi una visione riduttiva incentrata in modo schiacciante sulle capacità personali di tipo comunicativo. Ciò significherebbe svalutare sia i contesti istituzionali (in termini di risorse e di fattori che facilitano o, al contrario, sfavoriscono la partecipazione) sia la dimensione intersoggettiva alla base delle abilità comunicative. Il rischio, insomma, è la banalizzazione delle capacità relazionali. Il punto più importante è che concepire le competenze come capacità esclusivamente personali induce a eludere le questioni relative a come suscitare, trasmettere e riorganizzare le conoscenze per la partecipazione Drawing on the results of research on 20 Area Social Plans, the article analyses the competences for participation and the role that they perform as a linkage between models/theories and practices of participation. We investigate in particular the conceptual models and representations of officials and politicians in regard to the competences deemed important for promoting social participation. Besides giving voice to those who actually design and implement the Plans, often working on the front line, these representations enlighten the strengths and weaknesses of social participation. The underlying trend that emerges from the research is the centrality of a relational framework of participation. This entails some problems. There is a risk of a reductive vision which gives overwhelming weight to personal skills of communicative type. This would devalue both institutional contexts (in terms of resources and facilitating factors or, conversely, disincentives) and the intersubjective dimension at the basis of communicative skills. The risk, in short, is the trivialisation of relational skills. The most important point is that conceiving skills as equivalent to personal abilities leads to evasion of questions concerning how to elicit, transmit, and reorganise knowledge for participation.

Negli ultimi anni la questione delle transizioni giovanili si e imposta alle agende pubbliche nazionali ed europee, che hanno risposto con soluzioni di vario genere, quasi tutte incentrate sull’employability intesa come adattamento/responsabilita individuale. I giovani risultano quindi essere destinatari delle declinazioni piu restrittive delle politiche attive, che sottintendono la disponibilita a fare un lavoro qual che sia e che enfatizzano la necessita che i giovani si attivino praticando esperienze lavorative di varia natura. Occorrono percio chiavi analitiche che aiutino a ripensare la questione delle transizioni giovanili e a fare i conti con le ambiguita che intessono il quadro di policy. Il saggio dedica un’attenzione specifica all’approccio delle capacita di Amartya Sen, che negli ultimi anni ha suscitato un interesse crescente come cornice per riformulare il tema dell’attivazione.

The article focuses on some dynamics affecting the public in Italy in connection with the financial and economic crisis. The hypothesis is that, faced with a growing desire for state, processes of institutional mediation underway are further weakening. The analysis goes into depth in some Italian policy cases: university and secondary school on a national level and vocational training policies in a regional context. These cases show rather critical phenomena as far as the public is concerned: the debate on research and knowledge is impoverishing; the change in the structure of the state is teetering between the possibility of solving secular problems and the risk of further endangering a collective service; and there are many signals of privatisation of citizenship. In the conclusions, some interpretive points on the themes of public, future and democracy are developed. Copyright © 2011 John Wiley & Sons, Ltd.

This article analyses four cases of governance in Italian local welfare systems. Following Law 328/2000, the design and management of the social services system in Italy involve different public responsibility levels, mainly regional and municipal. In order to manage social policies, Italian municipalities have to join in new inter-municipal groupings called 'Piani di Zona' (Area Plans). Moreover, the law provides for engaging in these Plans even local third-sector organizations and citizens. The article attempts to highlight the implications of this complex system that is leading local authorities to open new governance arenas. We hereby present the results of a research project on two Piani di Zona in the Region of Lombardy (Northern Italy) and on two in the Region of Campania (Southern Italy), carried out by means of institutional analysis. We particularly focus on the dynamics of participation triggered by the Piani di Zona. Our hypothesis is that the role of public administration is a fundamental variable to understand the different ways of participating. In this sense, we discuss the dynamics of local governance by relaying them to four main questions: who participates in what, where and how? © Journal compilation © 2008 Blackwell Publishing Ltd.

This article deals with the development of local welfare in Italy and is grounded on a research project focusing on activation as a main feature of change in Italian social policies. Along with decentralization processes, many Italian regions have been acting as policy laboratories, developing and testing very different approaches according to their political attitude. On the one hand this results in a fragmented policy landscape which is difficult to recompose, and, moreover, in growing inequalities in the Italian welfare system. On the other hand, it opens opportunities for experimentation on institutional and organizational structures on a regional scale, creating a variety of practices for research and policy analysis. In the article we first describe the main trends in national social policies, with a specific focus on the dynamics of change referring to activation. We will then focus on a pilot programme which is aiming at the promotion and implementation of innovative practices in health and social care services in Friuli-Venezia Giulia, a region in which there is a significant orientation towards enhancing social citizenship and enforcing the central position of the public actor. We investigate how the dynamics of territorialization and personalization, implied by the programme, trigger specific logics and practices of activation. Finally, referring to this case study, we propose an analytical overview of some relevant issues in the development of ‘local active welfare’ in Italy.

This book promotes an alternative impact on youth policy in Europe to overcome the situation of vulnerability and discrimination of a growing number of young people in their transition from school to work. It follows a human development perspective in using the Capability Approach (CA) as an analytical and methodological guiding tool to improve the social conditions of the most socially vulnerable young people in European societies. Contributions from the interdisciplinary authors aim to expand the actual chances of the young to actively shape their lives in a way they have reason to choose and value. This book is based on the research of the European Union (EU) Collaborative Project 'Making Capabilities Work' (WorkAble), funded by the EU within the Seventh Framework Programme. It is the first empirical project to pursue a justice theory perspective on a European level. It also contributes to a fundamental change in, it is argued, the currently mostly insufficient attempts within the human capital approach to use the labour market to ensure desired lifestyle forms and a secure income for vulnerable youth.

The discourses on the so-called "post-bureaucracy" emphasizes the importance of autonomy and freedom in present-day organizations. Yet, differently to the discourses, the practices are not univocal and there is a mix of continuity and transformation to be investigated. The article addresses these issues aiming to understand if and how organizational cages are changing, in particular in the public sector. After discussing the issues of autonomy and freedom in the contemporary organizations, the analysis focuses on the New Public Management in Italy on the basis of a case study. The research highlights the role of institutional and social resources that mediate freedom and autonomy. © 2010 Springer Science+Business Media, LLC.

As the sectors of intervention traditionally assigned to the responsibility of the State gradually become spaces of mobilization for a plurality of actors, the notion of "public" appears problematic: it is difficult to define what distinguishes the structures of governance, the actors involved, and the problems and interests treated, as being of a public nature. This article tackles these issues with particular attention given to governance of social policies in Italy. The aim is twofold: to shed light on the ambivalence of the current transformations of the public realm and to outline their implications with respect to public administration. © 2011 SAGE Publications.

The 1990s witnessed the spread and broadening in Europe of different types of relationships between public administration and private organisations (both for-profit and non-profit), derived from the two main categories of contracting out and accreditation. These models, linked to the process of developing new modes of governance, also focus on forms of contracting between providers and users of services. This contractual configuration of local welfare systems appears to encourage ‘civil society’ and recipients to play a more active role in designing interventions and putting them into practice. Nonetheless, several questions still remain to be answered, mainly concerning the different position adopted by the beneficiaries in the case of intervention theoretically aimed at ensuring or increasing their ‘freedom of choice’. This article sets out to analyse these questions with specific reference to the implementation of the Italian legal reform of social services. The field of observation covers interventions based on economic benefits looking to promote recipients' independence. Our intention is to focus on whether and how the present structures incorporate and elaborate this impulse towards change, with particular reference to the new configuration of the users' own position.

Il volume raccoglie, sotto forma di glossario, le riflessioni sviluppate nell’ambito del Labora- torio di ricerca sull’azione pubblica “Sui Generis” e ispirate al lavoro di Ota de Leonardis, cui è dedicato. Da circa un decennio il Laboratorio promuove la ricerca e il dibattito su questioni concernenti le trasformazioni delle istituzioni e dell’ordine normativo: sulle politiche pubbliche, sulle forme e tecnologie di governo, sulla partecipazione sociale e politica, sulle innovazioni sociali, sulle basi informative delle decisioni, sugli spazi e sulla loro qualità sociale, guardando soprattutto alle riorganizzazioni del welfare e alla città. Il filo rosso è la necessità di riconoscere l’importanza della dimensione cognitiva dei processi istituenti. Qui è in gioco infatti non solo la possibilità di comprendere l’azione pubblica, confrontandosi con il suo incerto presente e ancor più incerto futuro, ma anche la possibilità di pensare ad altre e differenti prospettive.

Il volume in cui si inserisce il contributo raccoglie le riflessioni sviluppate nell’ambito del Laboratorio di ricerca sull’azione pubblica “Sui Generis”. Da circa un decennio il Laboratorio promuove la ricerca e il dibattito su questioni concernenti le trasformazioni delle istituzioni pubbliche e dell’ordine normativo: sulle politiche pubbliche, sulle forme e tecnologie di governo, sull’argomentazione pubblica, sui luoghi e i modi della partecipazione sociale e politica, sulle innovazioni istituzionali e sociali, sulle basi informative delle decisioni, sugli spazi e sulla loro qualità sociale, guardando soprattutto alle riorganizzazioni del welfare e alla città. Nella riflessione sulla dimensione istituzionale la messa a fuoco del potenziale democratico del cambiamento istituzionale occupa un posto di primo piano e tra le tracce esplorate in quella direzione vi sono i processi di produzione di conoscenza su cui si basano le decisioni per l’azione pubblica. Il lavoro risulta uno dei terreni chiave sui quali portare questa prospettiva di analisi, a partire dal modo in cui il lavoro – sia esso svolto nell’ambito di organizzazioni di mercato o meno, formalmente regolato o svolto in ambito informale – rappresenta una dimensione fondamentale della publicness: i suoi contenuti, le condizioni attraverso cui si esercita, il tipo di architettura formale o informale che lo regola, il modo in cui esso interagisce con altre dimensioni dell’essere cittadino e così via, sono fattori costitutivi del modo in cui una collettività definisce ed organizza se stessa.