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Contributing to debates on the unpredictability of middle-class attitudes and their changing relations with the welfare states in Europe, this book identifies key trends in the literature and considers the impact of recent welfare reforms on the middle class.

Contributing to debates on the unpredictability of middle-class attitudes and their changing relations with the welfare states in Europe, this book identifies key trends in the literature and considers the impact of recent welfare reforms on the middle class.

PurposeThis paper offers a contribution to the authors' understanding of the impacts of the COVID-19 pandemic on living conditions of Italian households. A large part of the research, analysis, comments focused on the relation between the spread of the COVID-19 pandemic and income of the Italian households does not capture the extent of the current changes. The focus on the highly differentiated impacts of the pandemic on three core dimensions of social integration (the sphere of work, that of welfare and that of the family) could help the authors to grasp the current transformations.Design/methodology/approachThe research draws on Castel's distinction between three "zones" of post-Fordist employment societies with the aim to identify the processes and the conditions that carry individuals from one "zones" to the other. Theoretical considerations are supported by the findings of several qualitative and quantitative research carried out during the pandemic mainly by government agencies and international organizations as OECD and WHO. The analysis of healthcare expenditure, labour market and economic conditions of households is based on data of system of health accounts – SHA and from consumer studies undertaken by the Italian National Institute of Statistics (ISTAT). The data on the financial situation and expectations of households during the crisis used in the article were drawn from special surveys carried out by the Bank of Italy.FindingsWhat the authors observe in Italian society is not a collapse of the three pillars of social and system integration of contemporary societies: work, family and welfare. The COVID-19 pandemic has reversed two social and institutional trends, that in last two decades had damaged these spheres of life and that seemed relentless. First, what has been reversed are: the progressive privatization of welfare and the enhancement of the politics of retrenchment; second, values and styles of life, radical processes of individualization, that undermined mutual relations of support and care, and households' ability to cope with old and new risks. At the same time, the pandemic is radicalizing the long-lasting tendency towards job insecurity, a high incidence of low-paid workers and a high proportion of undeclared work. The highly differentiated impacts of the pandemic on these three spheres of life are creating a wider plurality of living conditions and risks.Social implicationsThe findings suggest that what the authors need is to reopen the debate on welfare priorities, programmes and areas of intervention, on public-private relationship that have been established in many sectors of welfare in the last decades in many European countries. The COVID-19 pandemic has highlighted the importance welfare programmes capable of recognising the autonomous capacities of the family and informal relations to produce well-being, to cope with the crisis and to produce supportive relationships.Originality/valueThe pandemic highlighted that a progressive reduction of expenditure and politics of retrenchment produced welfare not able to face the needs of a large part of households. The pandemic highlighted that the changes that have taken place in the sphere of work, welfare and of the family in the last years have produced less and less governable effects.

PurposeThe purpose of this paper is to offer a contribution to our understanding of the changing relations of the middle classes with the Italian welfare state. The paper argues that the new interplay between public and private welfare is based on a very simplified analysis of Italian society.Design/methodology/approachThe paper aims to integrate a variety of different theoretical approaches. The paper makes extensive use of the EU-SILC database, as well as the recently updated historic series of consumer studies undertaken by the Italian National Institute of Statistics. The data used in the paper were also drawn from the biennial cross-sectional Survey on Household Income and Wealth carried out by the Bank of Italy.FindingsThe analysis suggests that the problems of Italian society include not only a high incidence of poverty, but also increasing financial constraints for households placed between the established middle class and people in conditions of persistent poverty. The current public-private mix in service delivery appears less and less capable of protecting this social stratum against the growing risk of instability across all life domains, let alone of creating opportunities and fostering social mobility.Originality/valueThe paper explores some ways in which current politics of welfare have been designed with the view of fundamentally changing the welfare regime. It highlights how the public and private welfare mix has been purposefully organized in order to introduce a new model of social protection that aims to overcome certain specific characteristics of Southern European welfare states. It examines the sustainability of this model compared to the real living conditions of the Italian middle classes.

- 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.