Beyond the pandemic emergency: what remains today of social Innovations and services for the elderly in inner and rural areas?

Journal title ECONOMIA E SOCIETÀ REGIONALE
Author/s Marco Alberio, Rebecca Plachesi
Publishing Year 2025 Issue 2025/2
Language Italian Pages 12 P. 55-66 File size 254 KB
DOI 10.3280/ES2025-002005
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This paper analyzes the evolution of local responses implemented during the pandemic in three Italian inner areas, focusing on services aimed at the elderly population (over 70). Based on two phases of research (semistructured interviews with social and healthcare professionals and older adults conducted between 2021 and 2022; a followup through structured interviews with the same professionals between 2024 and 2025), the study explores the continuity, changes, interruptions, and fragility of the adopted solutions. The analysis shows that, in some contexts, social innovations found forms of consolidation thanks to the presence of rooted relational networks, collective reflexivity, and inclusive local leadership. In other cases, however, these responses dissolved, revealing the structural fragility of territorial welfare. Social innovation emerges as a situated process, whose sustainability depends on local balances between resources, institutions, and social relations.

Keywords: Social Innovation, Local Development, Inner Areas, Elderly, Pandemic

Jel codes: O35

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Marco Alberio, Rebecca Plachesi, Oltre l’emergenza pandemica: cosa resta oggi delle innovazioni Sociali e dei servizi per gli anziani nelle aree interne e rurali? in "ECONOMIA E SOCIETÀ REGIONALE " 2/2025, pp 55-66, DOI: 10.3280/ES2025-002005