Local Welfare

Local welfare systems have come to the fore of welfare studies in recent years for a variety of reasons. To start with, countries like Italy have always featured significant geographical differentiation and local historical, social, economic, political and institutional peculiarities. On the other hand, complex rescaling of social policies has taken place since the 1990s. Furthermore, new social risks, typical of post-fordist societies, have more than in the past called for the provision of services (in the areas of care or employment) necessarily reserving a more important role to local levels of government. Lastly, in times of economic crisis and austerity, local governments have been at the frontline of social needs that have become more serious, more urgent, more diffused, more diversified. Squeezed between increasing needs and decreasing resources, cities have also often become the laboratories for social and institutional innovation. LPS has been involved in several comparative studies of local welfare, on a variety of topics and using a variety of approaches (see WILCO, FLOWS, COHSMO).