LIBRI DI REMO SIZA

Assunta la centralità dell’assistente sociale come figura esperta nel far emergere nuove risorse sociali e potenzialità creative soggettive, nel presente volume l’attenzione si focalizza sulla specificità storica di questa professione, oggi minacciata dalla crescente burocratizzazione del sistema pubblico. Il lavoro è volto sia a comprendere il ruolo degli assistenti sociali nell’attivazione di comunità responsabili, sia ad analizzare i nodi critici della loro formazione accademica.

Over the last decades a large body of theoretical and empirical research has documented the declining living standards and loss of security of the middle class. This paper argues that a large part of this research captures neither the extent and intensity of the hardship endured by the middle classes, nor its impact on civil coexistence and the functioning of economic and political institutions. Among the middle class, confidence in institutions, civic values and trust in other people have all been declining. The paper argues that this condition of economic and relational difficulty needs a new social policy strategy capable of protecting these social groups against the growing risk of instability and of contributing to the rebuilding of a sense of belonging and identity.

The transformation of Italian National ealth system is an attempt to respond to growing social risks associated with the ageing of the population and lack of selfsufficiency. This transformation underestimates other social risks, in particular those arising from the widespread diffusion of living conditions characterized by impoverishment and financial constraints. Public welfare seems less and less capable of addressing the needs of the central classes of the social stratification and the emerging private welfare plays a compensatory role almost exclusively for social groups with consolidated incomes and job positions. A further reduction of the welfare state would worsen the living conditions of these parts of the population: families who are at risk of not having sufficient public services, which have limited possibilities to access a supplementary welfare, frequently working in small companies that do not provide their employees with welfare benefits. In this ‘half-way society’, the loosening of social ties and relationships, family instability, and deregulation of the work system create the conditions for the development of and individualism that is neither regulated nor easily manageable, disconnected from any form of belonging. The development of social innovation is an urgent task defined as a novel solution to a social problem that is more effective, efficient, sustainable, or just than existing solutions, and for which the value created accrues primarily to society as a whole rather than private individuals.

The development of Italian National health system is an attempt to respond to growing social risks associated with the ageing of the population and lack of selfsufficiency. This development underestimates other social risks, in particular those arising from the widespread diffusion of living conditions characterized by impoverishment and financial constraints. Public welfare seems less and less capable of addressing the needs of the central classes of the social stratification and the emerging private welfare plays a compensatory role almost exclusively for social groups with consolidated incomes and job positions. A further reduction of the welfare state would worsen the living conditions of these parts of the population: families who are at risk of not having sufficient public services, which have limited possibilities to access a supplementary welfare, frequently working in small companies that do not provide their employees with welfare benefits. In this ‘half-way society’, the loosening of social ties and relationships, family instability, and deregulation of the work system create the conditions for the development of and individualism that is neither regulated nor easily manageable, disconnected from any form of belonging. The development of social innovation as an urgent task defined as a novel solution to a social problem that is more effective, efficient, sustainable, or just than existing solutions and for which the value created accrues primarily to society as a whole rather than private individuals.

La ricerca evidenzia come la povertà, seppure con intensità e durata differente, non riguardi soltanto individui e gruppi sociali marginali, ma si estenda, in modo crescente, ad altri gruppi sociali, che hanno condizioni di vita normalmente adeguate. La povertà non è il prodotto di processi di esclusione sociale irreversibili, ma è espressione di una instabilità delle relazioni sociali, di una precarietà che coinvolge il lavoro, le relazioni familiari e riguarda l’insufficienza degli attuali sistemi di welfare.

Lower and Middle Class Poverty - Several studies carried out using a dynamic approach show that poverty, although at different degrees of intensity and duration, is no longer an issue concerning only a defined portion of the population living in typically disadvantaged circumstances (e.g. in deprived areas), but is increasingly affecting other social classes that would normally benefit from adequate living conditions, including the growing poorer middle class and those with insecure or low paid jobs. We are not just referring to socially isolated groups of people, but to an intermediate heterogeneous social area, a dissimilar aggregate of individuals experiencing different trajectories of social mobility: members of the impoverished middle class, low income families reduced to poverty by different life events, people with unstable jobs and inadequate family and social support. Although with a different background, they have in common a more lasting precarious condition and a higher risk of poverty compared to other members of the middle class who can rely on better incomes and stronger social support and to the wealthier social classes. These social groups share, at least for a short period of their life, very difficult living conditions potentially affecting several aspects of their existence and limited resources to rely upon to sustain their life projects.

In order to give a contribution to the study of territorial social policies the case study of Sardinia within the wider Italian context is explored. The main focus is on how public institutions, informal and community actors, as well as third sector and social private subjects come to build up a system of services. Another aspect treated is how design, discourse and practices become social policies. The Regional Law n° 4 (1988) recognises the role of local territory in elaborating social policies based on the assessment of local needs. That is why such important normative provisions can be thought of as anticipation of the national framework law n° 328 (2000). Nonetheless, attention must be driven on some contradictions that shed a light on the distance between enunciation and its actual implementation.