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AbstractOver the last decade, in most Western countries, welfare states have faced increasing challenges due to several socioeconomic and cultural transformations. The economic crisis and austerity measures adopted in the aftermath of these challenges have increased the number of vulnerable people. Against this backdrop, this article aims to shed light on the development of company-based welfare in Italy by focusing specifically on the gap between large and small-medium enterprises and on emerging solutions addressed to fill this gap through the constitution of locally rooted, multi-actor networks. How do they originate? What are their main features? What contribution can they make to defusing the dualization between large, medium and small companies and workers? After reviewing these research questions, a description of the development of company-based welfare in Italy is provided in the first part of the article. We then describe and compare four local welfare networks, including small and medium enterprises, by looking at both their genetic and constitutive elements and their outputs.

Italy is one of the countries with the oldest population in the world. In spite of that fact and the alarming estimates about future demographic trends, long-term care (LTC) policy is still struggling to be acknowledged as a relevant issue in the public debate and political agenda. In sharp contrast with the policy inertia prevailing at the national level, in recent years, many territories have been experimenting with new solutions in the field of LTC, addressing the challenge of building more inclusive local care environments for frail (dependent) elderly people and their families. Building upon this, the current paper aims at dealing with the most recent academic literature on social innovation and the policy discourse elaborated by the European Union to i) develop a "working definition" of social innovation, with specific reference to LTC and elderly care; ii) provide a comparative analysis of a set of selected innovative solutions, which fall between full institutionalization and full family-based care, implemented in two Italian regions, namely, Lombardy and Piedmont; and iii) discuss the factors behind the adoption of socially innovative policy solutions at the local level, thereby shedding light on the key role played by new actors and multistakeholder networks. ; Italia es uno de los Países más envejecidos del mundo. A pesar de eso y de las alarmantes estimaciones sobre las tendencias demográficas futuras, la política de cuidado de larga duración (Long Term Care - LTC, por sus siglas en inglés) está encontrando dificultades para ser reconocida como uno de los temas centrales del debate público y de la agenda política. Sin embargo, en contraste con la inercia que prevalece a nivel nacional, en los últimos años, muchos territorios han experimentado nuevas soluciones en el campo de la LTC, enfrentando el desafío de crear entornos de cuidado local más inclusivos para las personas mayores vulnerables (dependientes) y sus familias. El presente documento apunta a la literatura académica más reciente sobre ...