Autori
Mozzana, Carlotta
Polizzi, Emanuele

Titolo
Introduzione al focus. Welfare di chi? Il welfare di comunità tra pratiche, discorsi e istituzioni
Periodico
Politiche Sociali
Anno: 2025 - Fascicolo: 2 - Pagina iniziale: 309 - Pagina finale: 329

This introductory article examines the emergence and consolidation of the notion of "community welfare" within the Italian welfare system over the past fifteen years. It reconstructs how this concept – initially associated with philanthropic programmes and local experimentation – has progressively become central in the design and discourse of social policies, especially after the 2008 financial crisis and, more recently, in the aftermath of the Covid-19 pandemic. The article situates community welfare within the broader transformations of European welfare regimes, highlighting its intrinsically ambivalent nature: while it can promote social innovation, participation and proximity, it can also act as a vehicle for neoliberal reorganisation and depoliticization. Drawing on the analysis of discourses, practices and institutional arrangements, the article argues that community welfare operates as both a symbolic and operational field in which tensions between rights and responsibilities, universalism and selectivity, and participation and inequality are continuously renegotiated. The paper concludes by calling for renewed critical reflection on how this paradigm is reshaping welfare governance, professional practices and the relationship between citizens, institutions, and social rights, and by stressing the need to anchor any community-oriented approach to a stable infrastructure of public resources and social guarantees.



SICI: 2284-2098(2025)2<309:IAFWDC>2.0.ZU;2-D
Testo completo: https://www.rivisteweb.it/download/article/10.7389/119275
Testo completo alternativo: https://www.rivisteweb.it/doi/10.7389/119275

Esportazione dati in Refworks (solo per utenti abilitati)