Search results

Despite the pandemic is fortunately only a memory, and we hope it remains so, other clouds have meanwhile been gathering on the horizon of our households: war in Ukraine and resumption of inflation, to name but two. The Household consumption monitoring centre at the Department of Human Sciences at the University of Verona, in this new wave of its national survey on consumption in Italy, must once again come to terms with the general impoverishment and the daily difficulties of families. The group of people struggling to make ends meet has, in fact, widened, and strategies for increasingly careful comparison of both purchases and consumption have become a daily occurrence even for those least affected by economic hardship. In addition to the more usual topics of evolving household purchasing and consumption strategies and economic needs, and that of personal networks of support and consumption – with a focus on the resilience shown in the face of the energy crisis – the research investigates the topic of values and principles of social justice that shape consumption, and that of the pursuit of happiness. Although they daily have to struggle to defend their way of life, people are beginning to hope again.

In this contribution, the financial and planning instruments that can promote the development of a Community-based cooperative are analysed. In particular, EU cohesion policy and rural development programs are considered. A focus is then made on the so-called InvestEU Fund, and another in-depth look is given to Smart Villages, which are defined as communities in inner areas using innovative solutions to improve their resilience, building on local strengths and opportunities: a very well suited definition to the potential role of Community-based cooperatives.

Covid-19 has dramatically shown some of the limits of our cities. Labor market, tourism, service sector have suffered a backlash that can be read as an "explosion" of pre-existing inequalities. The slow and progressive process of recovery we are experiencing let us talk about a "post-Covid" phase, characterized by a forced coexistence with the coronavirus and its mutations, while the health emergency still affects the organization of urban life. Adopting a multidisciplinary perspective, this book provides a wide reflection on the multifaceted impacts of the pandemic on the city of Bologna. On the one hand, the chapters show how people are not "all on the same boat" in the pandemic context, with pre-existing inequalities and other vulnerabilities contributing to determine different individual experiences and outcomes. On the other hand, many authors illustrate how the socio-economic fabric of the city has given proof of resilience, with new perspective of social and territorial development in the fields of technological innovation and sustainable mobility.

The Covid-19 pandemic highlighted the strengths and weaknesses of the Italian healthcare system. The pandemic not only caused the enactment of extraordinary tools that severely restricted people's freedoms to counteract the spread of the virus, but it also raised the question of the reasons of the very high number of victims, among the highest in the world.
Among the causes of the spread of the virus are unpreparedness of the Italian authorities, failure to update the national pandemic plan, lack of coordination amongst the public authorities involved, failure to prepare adequate stocks of medical devices and related supply problems; but also problems that have long been highlighted, such as the lack of attention to primary and local care, to general medicine, to hygiene and occupational medicine. The research aims to examine the strengths and weaknesses of the national health system and the reaction of the Italian system to the pandemic, to verify recent developments (especially those being financed by the National Recovery and Resilience Plan), to propose tools and actions to be able to adequately deal with future health emergencies.