Different processes and facts seem to indicate the emergency of new social agendas in Latin America, and more generally, new strategies of economic and social development. The trend can be identified in the growing criticism about the so-called Neoliberal paradigm, that ruled the region for the last quarter century; but also, recently, in the electoral victories of political leaders of left and centre-left, supposedly committed to different and socially more progressive alternatives of economic growth and international insertion; and, finally, in the reforms of social security and education that started in Chile in 2006. A central question is whether the model of growth that oriented the region in the recent past may be reaching its limit. only subscribers can see the full article

The article analyses the subject of equality of university experience, dwelling on the implications of using various combinations of welfare resources (deriving from the state, the family and the labour market) on the levels of dependence and stratification of young English and Italian university students. The first section uses Eurostudent and national data to explore similarities and differences in support policies in Italy and England, and their effects on young students’ transition to adult age. The second section analyses the impact of the reforms of 2010 in the two countries, bringing out, alongside the continuing substantial differences, the recent mechanisms of hybridization between the English and Italian systems, due to the growing role of family resources. The impact of these phenomena will be analysed in the light of the salience of concepts of «meritocracy» and «social mobility» in the national debates. only subscribers can see the full article

Spending on social protection constitutes a large part - between a fifth and a third - of total resources produced by advanced economies. The Social State is however a recent institution which mainly developed in the post war years. Today however many believe it to be in crisis. After a brief outline of the historical development of the Welfare State, this paper will go on to analyse the present extension and distribution of social spending in Italy and in the rest of the Eu. Lastly it will highlight future prospects and challenges in the light of the modified economic context with particular reference to the rise in integration between countries, to the slowdown in economic growth in Europe and the spreading of new technologies. Consolidated knowledge as well as clichés devoid of any empirical foundation will be illustrated. only subscribers can see the full article

Since the late 1970s, all the developed welfare states of the European Union (Eu) have been recasting the basic policy mix on which their national systems of social protection were built after 1945. Intensified global competition, industrial restructuring, budgetary austerity, changing family relations and demographic ageing have thrown into question the once sovereign and stable welfare systems of the «Golden Ag». Moreover, domestic issues of work and welfare have more recently become ever more intertwined with processes of European political and economic integration. In this respect, it is fair to say that in the Eu we have entered an era of semi-sovereign welfare states. This paper tries to capture the comprehensive character of the ongoing effort to recast the architecture of the post-war social contract in terms of the concept of welfare recalibration for both heuristic and prescriptive purposes. only subscribers can see the full article

The article takes an aspect of female migrant care work that is fundamental for social policies, but relatively ignored: the care drain, and, more generally, the social effects of emigration on the fabric of family and community life in the countries of origin. After discussing the main facets of the welfare-migration relation from the point of view of the society of origin, it offers some observations on the potentialities and limits of policies to combat the care drain, and on the ambivalent effects of migration on welfare, both social protection and at the same time the creation of new needs and inequalities. only subscribers can see the full article

Culture pervades the rights and expectations of citizenship. Recent decades have seen increasing cultural diversity in western nations, yet their multicultural condition has been little recognised in theories of citizenship and social policy. This paper looks at three theoretical accounts of the relation between multiculturalism and citizenship with a view to making the study of welfare state citizenship more responsive to the issues raised by cultural diversity. only subscribers can see the full article

Each year the Commission on social exclusion presents a «Poverty Report» which illustrates, through a series of indicators and analyses, the main features of poverty in Italy and the policies which have been implemented to contrast it in the previous year. Most of the data presented initially seem to be easily interpreted but it is not always the case: in the construction of some indicators, there may be some hidden conceptual traps which can be misleading and offer a distorted vision of the reality. Without a «preventative» clarification of what is really meant by poverty, you run the risk of misinterpreting the real condition of poor families and the most appropriate policy measures needed to improve their standard of living. It is thus necessary to clear up any possible confusions to prevent any policy mystification from causing policy errors.only subscribers can see the full article

The paper intends to show that, as to the forging of the new welfare state, the past close to two decades of post-communist transformation has brought about Central Europe’s remarkable departure from the track of Western developments. Besides steady slowing down of economic growth since the late 1990s, a review of the key indicators of social development reveals the emergence of previously unknown fault-lines in the new social structures. it is argued that the actual reality of the post-1990 systemic transformation has brought about ever more remarkable retreats of bifurcation in provisions that have concluded, in turn, in an ever more visible disintegration in day-to-day social relations. Taking the case of Hungary, it is demonstrated that the new reforms in welfare have assisted integration into the market for the well-to-do, while the very same reforms have brought further marginalisation and social exclusion for the truly poor. only subscribers can see the full article

The article highlights the different dimensions and meanings that the concept of individualization has assumed in the debate on the changes in welfare: from individualization as a process concerning the nature of the new social risks to individualization as a more general factor of change in contemporary societies, in the dual and ambivalent interpretations that can be derived from it – or as a gradual loss of certainties and individualistic regression, but also as the possibility of liberation for individuals who are more alone than they were in the past, but at the same with more self-determination and freer to make to choose their own destiny. This second interpretation also brings out the possibility of a new paradigm whose aim is to remove the barriers that intervene at every level of individual fulfilment, and in this perspective some social and labour policies are analysed that are connected with empowerment.only subscribers can see the full article

This article deals with the question to what extent welfare states help or hinder inter-ethnic cohesion. Derived from socio-psychological theories, two indicators are proposed: meeting and mobility. The first points towards the possibilities of real and repeated contact, while the second refers to the absence of insider/outsider boundaries. The Dutch welfare state is presented as an illustration of how to analyse social policy when looking through this lens. In both dimensions the Dutch welfare state is acting poorly. Educational policies as well as labour market policies reduce the possibilities of meeting and mobility. only subscribers can see the full article