LA PARTECIPAZIONE ASSOCIATIVA IN ITALIA: UN CONFRONTO TRA DIVERSE SURVEYS.

Social participation is considered not only an important resource for society, but also an indicator of social capital. Thus, bearing in mind these features, this paper analyses the trend of the associative participation in Italy. The data used come from different international surveys, such as Eurobarometer, ESS and EVS, and also data from the Italian survey Istat ("Aspects of daily life"). Particular attention is paid to people who are more than 50 years old in the SHARE survey. The results confirm previous studies: a reduction of participation in trade union and political party membership, and a stable situation with regard to the participation in voluntary associations. The conclusions point out some possible pathways to follow in order to develop the analysis of the social participation. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]