LIBRI DI LUCIA BOCCACIN

During the last decade the Italian third sector has been affected by major changes that can be grouped as internal ones, to do with organizational and cultural trends, and external ones, related to variations in the institutional scenario, particularly the legislative agenda, to social transformation, and to collective meaning attribution processes. A further type of change can be detected in the social relationships forming within thirdsector organizations and the inter-generational exchanges taking place within them. The data emerging from ISTAT’s Census on Non-Profit Institutions point to some (mainly meso-level) changes in social organization and provide a basis for ad hoc processing to highlight inter-generationality as a distinctive trait of the third sector in Italy. The availability of such a large database has made it possible to document in detail some peculiarities of Italian third-sector organizations and highlight some trends that have emerged in the last ten years.

Data from the ISTAT survey on Italian Non-profit Organizations (NPO) show the relations and networks of relations between different organizations that contribute to positive outcomes in terms of services provided at the local level. Among such relations, the social partnership is increasingly gaining importance. This is an equal collaboration between third sector organizations, public agencies (mostly at the local level), and enterprises. Social partnerships are founded on mutual relations, established voluntarily, and in them resources, capabilities and risks are shared for the achievement of a multi-dimensional project which could not be implemented by the single members. Data reveal a moderate propensity of Non-profit Organizations to activate partnerships. NPO’s presence in the country is differentiated in terms of services provided and social actors involved.

La sociologia relazionale offre un originale contributo per comprendere i problemi che la società, la teoria e la ricerca sociale sono chiamate ad affrontare. Il volume rilegge in chiave relazionale alcuni temi fondamentali della sociologia: il concetto di relazione sociale; il ruolo della persona nell’emergenza delle soggettività sociali e quello della cultura nelle trasformazioni sociali; la morfogenesi della famiglia; l’analisi delle reti sociali.

Avendo sullo sfondo la tradizione che affonda le sue radici nel pragmatismo americano e nell’interazionismo simbolico di Mead, il volume propone un’analisi della relazione tra riflessività personale e dimensione dialogica del sé. Tenendosi lontani dagli scogli del sociologismo e del postmodernismo, i saggi presentati intendono ritrovare una giusta collocazione a un sé che è incastonato nelle relazioni sociali e linguistiche, ma che sempre le eccede attraverso la riflessività.