82447 - New Local Welfare and Networks of Social inclusion

Learning outcomes

By the end of this course, students will be able to understand the social innovations that lead beyond the traditional welfare state towards a welfare society stemming from formal and informal networks linking public and private actors at the local level. The relational paradigm in the social sciences will provide the sociological basics useful to analyze society as a web of relations and the dynamics through which local communities can build up networks of social inclusion. Then the course will illustrate a set of best practices of social innovations dealing with the fight against poverty, the role of the third sector, the co-production in public services, public-private partnerships, the personalization of welfare provisions, local family policies. On the whole, the course will provide the students the skills to: - develop a reflexive understanding of what it means to produce local welfare through relational lens (observing, thinking and acting relationally); - understand how a new culture of sustainable welfare can emerge through morphogenetic processes in primary networks and civil associations; - assess the changing relationships between multi stakeholders (producers, consumers and prosumers) of welfare services and their outcomes; - analyze the impact of relational welfare on the development of local communities vis-à-vis the processes of globalization

Course contents

The course will illustrate; 1) first part, the relational theory of society (i.e. the relational paradigm for the analysis of social processes) and then 2) a set of best practices of social innovations dealing with the fight against poverty, the role of the third sector, the co-production in public services, public-private partnerships, the personalization of welfare provisions, local family policies. The contents will be the following: Relational theory of society, Social morphogenesis, Social networks, Social policies (principles and paradigms), Welfare state, welfare society, Relational state, Social inclusion, Civil society and relational welfare, Relational goods, Solidarity and subsidiarity, Network analysis, Local development, Social innovation, Fight against poverty Role of the third sector, Co-production in public services, Public-private partnerships, Personalization of welfare provisions, Local family policies & local alliances for families, Family group conferences, Community foundations.

Readings/Bibliography

Basic text:

P. Donati, Beyond the traditional welfare state: ‘relational inclusion’ and the new welfare society, Working Paper No. 1, Italian Sociological Association (AIS), December 2015. DOI: 10.13140/RG.2.1.2737.7687

Another text chosen by the student among the following:

(References)

• (preferential) P. Donati, Relational Sociology. A New Paradigm for the Social Sciences, Routledge, London and New York, 2011.

• (preferential) P. Donati and L. Martignani (eds.), Towards a New Local Welfare. Best Practices and Networks of Social Inclusion, Bononia University Press, Bologna, 2015.

• J. Ashcroft, R. Childs, A. Myers and M. Schluter, The Relational Lens. Understanding, measuring and managing stakeholder relationships, Cambridge: Cambridge University Press, 2016.

• J. Rushworth and M. Schluter, Transforming Capitalism from Within. a Relational Approach to the Purpose, Performance, and Assessment of Companies, Cambridge: Relationships Global Report No. 1, October 2011.

• J. Seikkula and T.E. Arnkil, Dialogical Meet Social Networks, London: Karnac Books, 2006.

• J.J. Rodger, From a welfare state to a welfare society, MacMillan, London, 2000.

• G. Bertin & S. Campostrini (eds.), Equiwelfare and social innovation. An European Perspective, FrancoAngeli, Milano, 2015.

• M.S. Archer (ed.), Social Morphogenesis, Springer, New York, 2013.

• E. Lazega, Réseaux sociaux et structures relationnelles, Puf, Paris, 2007.

• E. Lazega. Cooperation among Competitors. Its Social Mechanisms through Network Analyses. Sociologica, 1, 2009 (Doi: 10.2383/29560).

• F. Moulaert, D. MacCallum, A. Mehmood, A. Hamdouch (eds.), The International Handbook on Social Innovation, Edward Elgar, Cheltenham UK, 2013.

• Stacy Clifford Simplican, Geraldine Leader, John Kosciulek and Michael Leahy. 2015. “Defining social inclusion of people with intellectual and developmental disabilities: An ecological model of social networks and community participation.” Research in Developmental Disabilities 38: 18–29. http://dx.doi.org/10.1016/j.ridd.2014.10.008

• Mary Daly and Jane Lewis. 2000. “The concept of social care and the analysis of contemporary welfare states.” British Journal of Sociology 51(2): 281–298.

• Marie Connolly. 2006. ‘Up Front and Personal: Confronting Dynamics in the Family Group Conference.’ Family Process, 45 (3), 345-357. C’è

• UNO, Analysing and Measuring Social Inclusion in a Global Context, United Nations, Department of Economic and Social Affairs. New York, 2010.

• Patricia A. Alexander, Denis Dumas, Emily M. Grossnickle, Alexandra List & Carla M. Firetto. 2016. Measuring Relational Reasoning. The Journal of Experimental Education 84(1): 119-151. DOI: 10.1080/00220973.2014.963216

Teaching methods

Frontal lessons, interactive dialogues, common readings and criticism of texts given by the teacher, and exercises consisting in personal researches on websites of the internet.

Assessment methods

The final exam consists in writing a paper of about 3,000 to 4,000 words in English or Italian to be presented at the end of the course (according to instructions that will be given by the teacher).

Teaching tools

Documents distributed by the teacher, such as essays, articles and research reports.

Office hours

See the website of Pierpaolo Donati