BOOKS BY LUCA FAZZI

Social policy and paradigmatic references: the problem of research methodology in an age of globalization - The article addresses the subject of the unresolved challenges that social research faces, as a quantitative comparative analysis approach develops in the field of social policy. This trend of studies, which first started in the ‘90s, seems to be establishing itself in different ways as a new scientific paradigm. The article identifies the reasons for the development of this new trend of studies as a necessity of a heuristic nature, but also to respond to social policy needs for legitimization among modern scientific disciplines. The different fields of study and the historical authenticity of social research is considered the key to avoiding the risk of limiting social policy as a scientific discipline.

L’azione del Fondo Sociale Europeo in Provincia Autonoma di Trento ha rappresentato una formidabile leva per agire sull’innovazione degli strumenti utilizzati dalla Pubblica Amministrazione per rafforzare il proprio sistema di welfare. In fase di bilancio di un’esperienza politica quale il settennio di programmazione Fse 2000-2006, è stato attivato un complesso sistema di valutazione delle azioni sperimentali attuate, che il volume prende in esame. Emerge un sistema in rapida evoluzione, con innovazioni spesso radicali ed efficaci.

Il libro mostra le tante facce della prevenzione: dalla dimensione concettuale a quella operativa, dall’orientamento sul caso a quello sulla politica sociale, dalla percezione implicita (prevenzione inglobata nell’intervento) all’idea di bene comune per una comunità. Il Servizio Sociale, strettamente legato all’idea di prevenzione, agisce da sempre su un territorio di confine dove si colgono le nuove situazioni di disagio ma anche dove si possono affrontare nuove sfide in campo professionale.

The not for profit sector is made up of a plentitude of structures that share the prohibition of the distribution of the profits amongs their members. Actually, under this label non profit we find many kinds of organizations that differ for goals, aims and memberships. These features are present also in the not for profit sector for the enhancement of health policy. The article describes the strategies of the health organization not for profit sector under the following perspectives: the different actions of health promotion; the governace issue in an environment of interdependency of the main health actors; the trends and the conditions for the improvement of health policy in a complex society.

In the effort to understand the dynamics of evolution of the nonprofit sector in Italy, the author examine changes in the structural foms of the ONP during the 1990s. An analysis of this process suggests that the Italian nonprofit sector has undoubtedly grown in the last years to unprecedented proportions. However, the contribution of the ONP has not brought with it any real reform of the national welfare system, because the ONP tended to assumed a form similar to that of the traditional public organizations. This has happened because the sector’s regulatory framework has not been designed to exploit the potentialities and the performance of the ONP to the full. It is consequently necessary to resume incisive discussion of the underlying reasons for a more appropriate development of the nonprofit sector.

The idea of quasi-market in the social care sector is to introduce market principles (and hence market disciplines) into the public sector by separating purchasing from providing, and to change the balance in the mixed economy of welfare such that the state provided fewer services and the private sector provided more. This article examines the implications of the quasi-market idea for the role of the state and the quality of care. In contrast to the consensus in welfare scholarship, this article want to claim that are very important limits to this approach though. A critical point of view point indicates that for the implementation of quasi-market mechanisms in the social care sector is necessary a more comprehensive consideration of problems and changes as they are actually analyzed.