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The paper addresses a topic still largely under-researched in comparative welfare state literature: the role of right parties in the reform of last resort safety nets. More precisely, the study investigates minimum income schemes' reforms promoted during the Great Recession (2008-2013) by centre-right governments in three countries belonging to the European periphery: Italy, Portugal and Latvia. Despite common political orientation and increased problem pressure, these countries have gone through distinct reform trajectories in their social safety nets that may be labelled expansion (Latvia), retrenchment (Portugal), and continuity (Italy). Against this backdrop, the paper suggests that right parties display substantially different positions and pursue different reform strategies in anti-poverty policies. These differences can be explained by the diverse types of right parties and varying competition and coalition dynamics in the three countries. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This article explores the relationship between the emergence of a 'crisis society', social innovation and community resilience in Italian inner areas. Arguing that the concept of 'crisis society' – as a further development of a 'risk society' – can help to frame both the increasing of uncertainty and the possibility for social change, the paper outlines a theoretical reflection on how context of crisis can influence social arrangements and forms of solidarity. In particular, it proposes to adopt the analytical lenses of social innovation and community resilience to discuss the relation between crisis, local dynamism and collective action. Secondly, it identifies Italian inner areas as an interesting field of research were to analyse how innovative initiatives and narratives can emerge in context of crisis, with a special focus on the Covid-19 pandemic. Without denying the negative consequences of this crisis, this early research paper sheds light on how crisis can be redefined on a double level. Firstly, by opening new windows of opportunities for collective action and bottom-up resilience. Secondly, by reframing inner areas, usually represented as vulnerable territories, as spaces where the creative capacity of local community can emerge. Finally, the paper identifies further trajectories of investigation for empirical research. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The role of the Vatican in the mobilization against the so-called gender ideology is structural and well established in the public arena, in Italy as in Europe. However, signs of a growing ambivalence in its attitude towards the protest have lately emerged, for example in relation to the visibility of far-right movements and aggressively right-wing parties within the movement. The paper investigates the same ambivalence among Italian Catholics groups and networks involved in the anti-gender fight. The analysis is based on 17 interviews with Catholic mothers and/or teachers who attended anti-gender conferences in 2015 and expressed their willingness to engage in school surveillance in order to prevent allegedly pro-gender activities. Results show a broad convergence towards the idea that the 'ideology of gender' exists and represents a serious danger for children. At the same time, interviewees express different political and cultural stances in relation to their protest. The dissimilarity detected in anti-gender narratives shed some lights on the different ways Italian Catholic activists try to oppose, manage, or solve issues related to state secularization and sexual pluralism. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This paper analyses how unstable employment influences becoming a mother in Italy and Spain. Results suggest that institutional factors foster dynamics of social inequality and hinder family formation. We show that in southern Europe (Italy and Spain), but not in other institutional contexts, the lack of employment stability produces a delay in fertility decision. We attribute this impact of the employment situation on demographic decisions to the sub-protective southern European welfare systems and the insider–outsider labor market configuration, as enhanced by the partial and targeted labor market deregulations of recent decades. In the context of low levels of welfare, unstable employment often comes with persistently reduced entitlement to social and welfare rights, and, therefore, with notable social and demographic consequences. We provide support for this institutional argument by showing that fertility decisions are independent of employment stability in other contexts. Analyses are based on longitudinal data using event history analysis and simultaneous equation models. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Considering gender role attitudes as part of a broader cultural change related to the modernization process, this study adopts a path-dependency approach to analyze the support for the role of women in the public sphere in Italy since 1988. Modernization processes varied across Italian regions and the paper explores how different gender patterns developed accordingly. Using pooled data from European Values Survey, World Values Survey, and International Social Survey Program, the author assesses if this specific change is part of the postmaterialist shift and investigates the mechanisms of change carrying out cohort decomposition methods. The results address a reinforcement of traditionalism mainly due to the period effect that shows regional differences given by history. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Italy has always been characterized by low rates of career mobility. However, whilst the essential features of intragenerational (im)mobility in Italy are relatively well known, much less is known about the pattern of the specific paths linking the class of the first job with later class positions. To date, no studies of career mobility have been conducted in holistic terms; that is, based on examination of the entire sequence of the class positions occupied by an individual during his/her work history. This paper develops a typology of sequences of transition from one social class to another which preserves the qualitative differences among individual sequences. We introduce a new method to measure resemblance among sequences in order to identify the main career paths observable in Italy. We then examine how these profiles have changed over time because of transformations in the economic system and of the changing size of different social classes. Furthermore, we will try to determine whether and how social origins and education affect the probabilities of following those paths. The results show that social origins: 1) still influence the career patterns of younger cohorts); and 2) play a very important role in modifying the chances of highly-educated people to enter the upward career patterns leading to the service class or to white-collar positions. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Previous research has found parental divorce to have negative effects on children's educational attainment; in addition, it has been noted that the effects of divorce are not the same in all western societies. However, research on Catholic and southern European countries is missing. The aim of this paper is to add to the research on the relation between parental divorce and the educational attainment of children in catholic and southern European societies. Italian society differs from other western societies with respect to many characteristics of its family structure, its cultural and religious systems, its social welfare system, and also with respect to the legislation, frequency and characteristics of divorce. Based on data of the Bank of Italy Survey of Households' Income and Wealth, we find that the educational level of the children with divorced parents is lower than the educational level of children with married parents. The analysis indicates that the education of children born to the least educated divorced mothers lags significantly behind children of the least educated married mothers, while the educational level of children of highly educated mothers does not deviate from that of children of highly educated mothers who remain married. Next, contrary to what has been found in other European societies, this research shows that widowhood has a significant negative effect on children's educational attainment as well. Finally, the study also demonstrates that the negative effect of divorce cannot be explained by the negative impact of the religious climate of the region of residence. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Italy has one of the highest incidences of long-term unemployment among OECD countries. The share of first-time jobseekers among the long-term unemployed is outstanding compared to that of the unemployed who have lost a job. Using data from the Italian Household Panel survey and event history analysis, this paper investigates the impact of individual, familial and institutional factors on the duration of unemployment spells of Italian first-time jobseekers and those unemployed who have lost their job, and assesses the issue of duration dependence. Findings emphasise the importance from a policy perspective of analysing these two unemployment experiences separately. The two unemployed groups undergo very different processes of exiting unemployment due to some specific institutional and structural features of the Italian socio-economic context. Results indicate that in Italy the chances of finding a first job decrease with time, and education proves to be effective only after long job searches. On the contrary, among Italian adult unemployed the probability of finding a new job largely depends on individual and familial characteristics rather than on mechanisms associated to the length of time spent unemployed. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The impact that the COVID-19 pandemic had on the lives of many is indisputable. Among the possible strategies to cope with the feeling of insecurity that comes with this, religion can play a significant role. Using first-hand data from the ResPOnsE COVID-19 rolling cross-section survey, this article shows that Italian people who reported a COVID-19 contagion in their family reported also higher religiosity both in terms of attendance at religious services (via web, radio and tv) and prayer during the pandemic. The result holds primarily for those who received religious socialization during their childhood, and this reinforces the role of family transmission as a way to shape religious beliefs and behaviours and to provide individuals with religious coping strategies. These findings suggest that under dramatic circumstances a short-term religious revival is possible, even in contexts where the process of secularization is ongoing. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This article investigates the ways in which social distancing and home confinement restrictions have been experienced and perceived in the Italian socio-cultural context, in order to assess how they reshaped everyday life, and which are their social implications. Drawing on 60 in-depth semi-structured interviews, this article sheds light on the sense-making processes and the construction of inter-subjective meaning around home confinement and social distancing that emerged during the lockdown. Results support that during the national quarantine individuals had to reframe everyday practices, thereby redefining the boundaries of their experience. Indeed, individuals had to deal with a lack of personal spaces, a following stress overload and a collapse of the typical boundaries between the professional and private sphere, which required a complex management of everyday activities. Implications of these preliminary findings are discussed, as well as suggestions for future research. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This article investigates whether changes in women's and men's contributions to household income in Germany and Italy during the COVID-19 pandemic are associated with changes in unpaid work. The current health crisis represents a unique opportunity to explore these topics, because the restrictive measures imposed during the lockdown are likely to have generated an unexpected shock to both domestic work and individual ability to contribute to household income. Using data from two novel datasets collected in Germany and Italy during the pandemic, this article shows that changes to both contribution to household income and unpaid activities during the crisis have been gendered, affecting women more negatively than men. In addition, we suggest that economic disturbances during the pandemic are associated with gendered changes in unpaid work that seem to be driven by changes in bargaining power in both countries. Our results also show some support for enhanced traditionalization of domestic life among German couples during the crisis, as predicted by gender display theories, albeit only regarding childcare. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

In the last few years, much sociological debate hasfocusedon individualisation theory, especially on Beck's risk society version. According to this theory, contemporary social change can be interpreted as the progressive weakening of the influence of social structures on individual behaviour. Individualisation theory has been adopted in many fields of study (voting behaviour, consumption behaviour, etc.). Although much of the debate has a theoretical character, there have been some attempts to empirically assess individualisation theory. As far as poverty is concerned, scholars supporting individualisation theory, as well as scholars opposing it, have adopted one of the following methodological strategies: highlighting the role played by individual variables (especially by life course variables) rather than structural variables; controlling for individual rather than structural variables. Both these approaches focus on short observation windows; however, it is necessary to consider long periods in order to assess the core of individualisation theory, i.e. the decreasing influence of social structures. Our approach assesses the change (rather than the stability) of the individual-level relationship between structures (occupational classes, education, etc.) and poverty over a long time period. This changing-parameter model is implemented through multilevel modelling with families at level one and years at level two. The analysisfocuseson the Italian case and it is based on data from the Family Expenditure Survey (Indagine sui Consumi delle Famiglie) that was collected by the Italian Statistical Institute (ISTAT). It covers the period from 1985 to 2011. The results seem to indicate that there is stability in the relationship between structures and poverty. [ABSTRACT FROM PUBLISHER]

This article contributes to understanding the relatively early residential independence of young Northern Europeans, by comparison to their Southern European peers. It explores the norms and underlying meanings that influence the departure from the parental home and the feelings attached to it. Analysing qualitative, biographically oriented interviews with Italian and German university students and their parents (43 participants), two patterns are identified. The first is an ‘independence’ pattern, which prioritizes the importance of leaving homein orderto grow up. The second is an ‘interdependence’ pattern which supports the togetherness of the family and sees the family home as the best environment for young adults –i.e., they leave home only for ‘inevitable’ reasons related to work, education, or family formation. Both patterns are handed down over generations and are transmitted in the socialization process. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

One of the characteristics of the Italian peninsula is a sharp North-South gradient on many economic and labour market variables. This gradient is particularly marked in relation to female employment, making Italy a particularly useful ‘laboratory’ for studying changes in gender roles. Esping-Andersen's description of the decline of the ‘male breadwinner’ model and the search for a ‘new equilibrium’ in gender roles is suggestive, but the assumption that current processes will inevitably converge towards a relatively homogeneous social configuration (exemplified by the Scandinavian countries) is rather unconvincing. We will show in this article that the Italian case comprises macro-regions with very different female employment rates and highly differentiated welfare systems. Furthermore, one of the effects of the economic crisis has been to obstruct the entry of women into paid work, particularly in the South where employment rates are already at a very low level. When discussing trends and changes in women's roles, it is important to remember that the resulting transformations are plural, contingent and discontinuous and strongly shaped by prevailing socio-economic conditions. In the context of a prolonged and severe crisis, the differences between Northern and Southern Italy have been further accentuated, impeding the development of coherent policy responses and obstructing change in gender roles. [ABSTRACT FROM PUBLISHER]

This article shows how deep moral issues can impinge upon popular culture without this losing its commercial appeal, a process made possible by the role of consecrating institutions in the music market. The article focuses on the fabrication and establishment of a new genre within Italian musical culture and music market, the so-calledcanzone d'autore, and it is set after the suicide in 1967 of singer-songwriter Luigi Tenco during the most important Italian song festival (Sanremo'sFestival della canzone italiana). Drawing upon Zelizer's notion of ‘circuits of commerce’ and Bourdieu's theory of cultural fields, the article will shed some light on the specific dynamics of the interplay between moral issues and commercial appeal in the Italian music market. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The objective of this research is to understand the nature and diffusion of antisemitism and Islamophobia in Italy. It is based on 1528 interviews among a representative sample of the Italian population stratified according to age, gender, and residence. The questionnaire used was built by a set of different scales: antisemitic, Islamophobic, and three others scales to take into account authoritarian, ethnocentric, and anomic attitudes. To test assumptions regarding the impact of these predictors of antisemitic and Islamophobic prejudice, it was decided to adopt the statistical technique of path analysis. Outcomes of our research draw attention on the distribution of antisemitism and Islamophobia among Italian people, their nature as a combination of old and new prejudices, and their linking with broader sets of attitudes such as anomie, ethnocentrism, and authoritarianism. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This article examines the role of social origins and education for career mobility in contemporary Italy by means of growth curves models. We find that opportunities for career advancement are rather limited and that risks of downward mobility are virtually negligible. Although this picture displays a noticeable degree of stability over time, a moderate increase of career fluidity across cohorts can be detected. Moreover, social origins and education exert a marked influence on the first occupation, while the subsequent career-adjustment of these initial social inequalities is rather limited. Furthermore, the small influence of origins and education on career opportunities does not display any systematic trend across cohorts. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

A priori , Italy and France would appear as unfit for activation policies. Yet, when activation is seen as a diversified strategy of restructuring welfare states across Europe, and not only the 'activation' of individuals from assistance, then the empirical picture over the last 20 years is much more complex. One of the main differences between both countries is with regard to the role of the state, whilst at the same time they share many common features. However, French achievements in matters of activation seem to be important, whereas in Italy institutional features have consistently impaired the development of comprehensive strategies. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This article offers a comparative study of rights and controls with respect to migration, based on research in Germany, Britain and Italy. These three countries were chosen both for their differing histories and for their contrasting contemporary circumstances, as a means of identifying the problems which confront any attempt at harmonization. The analysis offers an approach midway between an exaggerated view of national closure and control, and an over-emphasis on the power of transnational rights. Focusing instead on stratified rights or 'civic stratification', the article examines the different legal statuses available to non-EEA migrants, and identifies key contrasts in the management of migration in each of the three countries studied. It offers a tentative typology to capture these contrasts, and reflects on their significance for a harmonized Europe. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The public debate around food confidence stimulated by food scares, the opening up of wider food markets and the introduction of GM foods provides an opportunity to analyse citizens' identification with their community sociologically, as it is reproduced through mundane practices. In order to do so, this article examines the GM food debate in Italy and the implications for food and agricultural policy of Austria's entry into the EU. Britain, with its highly industrialized agriculture and political commitment to open markets and new technologies, acts as a bench-mark. We distinguish between disembedded and embedded trust regimes; the former being predominant in freer markets and the latter a resource which can be mobilized in cases where remnants of 'traditional' agricultural production and supply can still be found (Italy and Austria). The increasing emphasis upon the regional origin of food, its traceability and organic production by key actors - the state, consumers' movements, retailers and marketing boards - we interpret as a confidence-building strategy which attempts to address deficits in disembedded trust resulting from widening chains of interdependency, crises such as BSE and the introduction of unfamiliar new technologies. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]