Politica sociale e welfare locale

For some time there has been a trend toward the reconfiguration of the welfare system in Italy. Such a development is based on the the subsidiarization of social policies. With this process, social policy has incorporated two crucial issues: the local dimension within a pluralist framework, which should be analytically disentangled. The outcome has been a profile of social policy which seems appropriate and convincing. The new structure of social policy has also brought the emergence of local welfare, which is the production of welfare marked by a strong interconnection with the community and its distinctive characteristics. In order for the social policy to foster local welfare it is however necessary that some of the key concepts (governance, planning, participation) are reformulated so that they can nurture new practices. The book offers an analysis of the local welfare through the description of its specific features and the account of the recent Italian history. In particular, it is focused on: - definitional and operational aspects of the concept of "social planning" - the conditions that consent at the "governance" to promote a reorientation of social policy - the theoretical foundations and the practical experiences with which the issue of "participation" is situated in the development of social policy - how the local welfare, in recent years, has developed in Italy: in the beginning there was a steady rise and then a rapid decline that calls into question the whole process.

Da qualche tempo è in atto un processo di riconfigurazione del sistema di welfare alla cui origine si colloca la sussidiarizzazione della politica sociale. Con tale processo, la politica sociale ha pienamente incorporato e messo al centro due questioni decisive (la dimensione locale, un impianto pluralista) assumendo infine un profilo nuovo, appropriato e convincente. Il nuovo assetto della politica sociale ha comportato l'emergere del welfare locale, che è un orizzonte di produzione del benessere delle persone contraddistinto da una forte interconnessione con la comunità di riferimento e con i suoi caratteri peculiari. Affinché la politica sociale alimenti il welfare locale è tuttavia necessario che alcuni dei suoi concetti chiave (governance, programmazione, partecipazione) vengano riformulati e trovino una pratica inedita. Il libro propone una analisi del welfare locale attraverso l'inquadramento dei suoi tratti specifici e la descrizione della sua vicenda italiana.