Suchergebnisse

Although political responsibility lays at the core of social professions, until recently it has only been weakly exerted. Effectively acting for social justice in a context shaped by neomanagerialism, economic crisis and (permanent) austerity has become crucial for the profession, the users and democracy but is particularly difficult. Based on a critical policy theoretical framework, this chapter illustrates and interprets the features of social workers' policy practice in Italy and Spain in the austerity age. Against deactivation hypotheses, social workers' potential in affecting welfare politics is enriched in both countries through the action of collective bodies from within the profession. Beyond flat visions of social workers' policy practice, the analysis also shows that different mobilisation paths exist. The peculiar interactions between the political opportunities' structure and the characteristics of professional bodies (political culture, resources, skills) in the medium term can account for the divergence. These interactions seem to be pushing social workers' policy practice towards particularistic/professional or universal/political achievements.

L'articolo sviluppa considerazioni di carattere metodologico e sostanziale sull'impatto che le riforme ispirate al New Public Management e alla governance hanno avuto sul lavoro sociale. Nella prima parte dell'articolo sono sinteticamente esposti i caratteri fondamentali dei due paradigmi di riforma. La seconda parte si focalizza sull'approccio di studio all'innovazione nel campo della Pubblica Amministrazione. La terza parte espone alcune evidenze empiriche della letteratura internazionale sui cambiamenti del lavoro sociale. Sull'Italia viene proposta una rilettura dei dati di due ricerche nazionali svolte a cavallo del ciclo di riforme del welfare degli anni 2000. L'articolo giunge alla conclusione che lo studio dell'impatto delle riforme sul lavoro sociale richiede di considerare una pluralitŕ di "variabili di traduzione" delle riforme (pathdependent e actor-dependent). Siul piano teorico ciň sollecita a verificare la possibilitŕ di un incontro tra il neo-istituzionalismo sociologico e l'Actor-Network Theory.

Local alternative consumerism practices supported by organized citizens seem to provide the only way to save small agro producers from economic failure. At the same time, organized small producers provide incentives to new forms of co-production. By relying on semi-structured and in depth interviews, a focus group, document analysis and participant observation, in this article, we show how Tuscan Solidarity Purchase Groups, together with producers, act in the context of the economic crisis, and how the crisis has influenced them. First, we show how organized political consumers and small producers are intensifying their relations to overcome the threats of the crisis. Secondly, we illustrate how these consumer-producer relations concretize in a co-production experience. Our case study shows that, in the adverse context of the economic crisis, local alternative consumerism practices can develop alternative processes through civic food networks and (re)discover radical forms of food democracy. That is they build a local Sustainable Community Movement.

This Paper deals with the current transformations of Solidarity Purchase Groups (SPGs) in Italy. We particularly wonder if and eventually how the economic crisis and austerity policies have affected SPGs. Through an approach based on the literature on political consumerism and social movements, six hypotheses are proposed: 'less economic resources, less SPGs,' 'cultural path dependency,' 'increased op-portunities,' 'isomorphism,' 'civic traditions,' and 'resilience.' Empirical data focus on Italian and Tuscan SPGs, by both articulating different research methods and focalizing on different levels. Although our work has only an explorative aim, our analysis shows that the amount of available economic resources cannot per se lead to a satisfying understanding of the evolution of SPGs. Hypotheses based on culture and politi-cal processes seem to be more promising and can point to the resilience capacity of those groups. Post-materialistic values resulting from economic well-being might have produced organized practices of political consumerism. However, once political consumerism gets structured—this is our tentative argument—not only does it resist to external shocks but also it transforms itself and adapts to the new conditions imposed by crises, that is, it becomes 'resilient.' The 'resilience hypothesis' applied to SPGs nevertheless has to face some social cleavages.

1 Introduction -- 2. Varieties of and changes in volunteering. Challenges for a global research agenda -- 3. Different contexts, different data. A review of multinational sources on volunteering and some steps beyond -- 4. New global standards for measuring volunteering. The Revised UN Handbook: The ILO Manual and the TSE satellite account -- 5. The global standards on volunteering and the varieties of Italy. A local test with an international relevance -- 6. A glocal and multiactorial methodological strategy. The implementation process of the global statistical standards in a complex country -- 7. Reading the local through the (adapted) global standards. Advancements in accounting for the scope and the varieties of the Italian volunteering -- 8. The social and ecological antecedents of volunteering. A step forward -- 9. Volunteering and trust. New insights on a classic topic -- 10. School of democracy. Volunteering and political participation -- 11. Doing good, to others and to oneself. Volunteering and individual wellbeing -- 12. Emergent professions. Volunteering and labour market -- 13. Conclusions.

Bringing together international case studies, this book offers theoretical and empirical insights into the interaction between social work and social policy. Moving beyond existing studies on policy practice, the book employs the policy cycle as a core analytical frame and focuses on the influence of social work(ers) in the problem definition, agenda setting, policy formulation and implementation of social policy. Twenty-three contributors offer examples of policy making from seven different countries and demonstrate how social work practitioners can become political actors, while also encouraging policy makers to become aware of the potential of social work for the social policy-making process