Foto del docente

Paolo Zurla

Alma Mater Professor

Alma Mater Studiorum - Università di Bologna

Adjunct professor

Department of Sociology and Business Law

Research

Keywords: Industrial districts Work/family conciliation Governance Youth Social Policy Welfare society smart working

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.

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