1- Study of the changes in the social welfare organisations
following the introduction of Ict for the service network's
management;
2- The problems of conciliation between work and family
life;
3- Young people's school-to-work transitions in specific local
contexts;
4- Social policies and balances between institutions and
citizens, between the public and private sector, between
universalism and selectivity;
5- The practices of reflexivity emerging at the territorial level
about local development, especially in areas subject to
industrialization processes.
The research carried out by Prof. Paolo Zurla over the last few
years has focused on the following topics:
1- Study of the changes in the social welfare organisations
following the introduction of Ict for the service network's
management;
2- The problems of conciliation between work and family
life;
3- Young people's school-to-work transitions in specific local
contexts;
4- Social policies and balances between institutions and
citizens, between the public and private sector, between
universalism and selectivity;
5- The practices of reflexivity emerging at the territorial level
about local development, especially in areas subject to
industrialization processes.
1 – As to the analysis of the relation between organizational
contexts and technological innovation, attention has been focused
on the impact that the introduction of information and
communication technologies may have on social welfare services.
Considered a resource for the strengthening of the services network
and a support for the identification of welfare paths within social
welfare services, technological innovation has to face poorly
formalized professional practices and organizational cultures as
well as the increasing pluralisation of the various public and
private suppliers. An empirical study has been recently carried out
within the Telematic Plan of the Emilia-Romagna region – Research
and development for Information society, aimed at the development
of a continuous welfare path at the territorial level able to
identify the specific features of the various situations, the
complexity of the relations and the people's needs through the
introduction of a software program allowing for the sharing and
management of information.
2 – The problems of conciliation between work and family
life have been elaborated with reference to the particularly
delicate situation arising with maternity. Through some researches,
the aim was to identify the reasons why women left their job in
order both to identify the socio-economical influences and
constraints resulting from entrepreneurial selectivity and to
suggest some action lines about social policies and equal
opportunities.
3 – As to the transition from school to work, over the
last few years research has focused mainly on the study of the life
of young people facing considerable and fast institutional changes
within specific local societies. In this respect, bibliographical
and empirical elaborations were carried out about the following
aspects: the dynamics of the increasing mismatch between labour
demand and labour offer in the areas with widespread economic
development and full employment; the process of increasing the
training levels and, at the same time, the persistence of a share
of young people dropping out of school; the difficult relation
between labour requirements of small enterprises included in some
production sectors and the attitudes of local young people, who
tend to refuse such employment opportunities because they have
other job and life expectations.
4 – As to social policies, research has focused mainly on
the observation of the experiences of coordination between
different public and private parties and different types of
policies, in compliance with the new institutional system provided
for by the Italian act no. 328/000 “Framework act for the
realization of an integrated system of social actions and
services”. Attention has been focused particularly on the critical
aspects and opportunities resulting from the new system,
highlighting the emerging relational dynamics and the resulting
leadership figures.
5 – As to the issues of local development, research has
based primarily on the theoretical hypothesis that the dialectics
between local society and globalisation processes occurs in
different ways in different territorial contexts according to the
socio-economical characteristics and local policies. On the basis
of this assumption, some experiences of reflection occurred at the
local level through the collaboration between public and private
parties were analysed. In particular, some industrial districts in
the Romagna area were examined, which are characterised by
discontinuities in the development process that reflect the
transformations in progress in the production system and in the
socio-cultural basis of the district.