I. General considerations
II. Italian society in 2010
The slippery slope towards a "flat" society
(Italians have given up investing in work; The consequences of entrepreneurial de-specialization; No major changes in the way families invest their savings)
The proliferation of consumerism
(The deliberate promotion of consumption; The multiplication of unwanted expenditure; Excessive urbanization)
The virtues and dangers of sub-system networks
(Company networks gain strength; The welfare mix continues to change; The family: the unavoidable protagonist in school affairs; The black market drain on the Italian economy; The ingrained clusters of organized crime)
The fragmentation of power
(The pros and cons of a vertical political system; Decisions that turn out to be empty promises; Fiscal federalism: the challenge of devolved responsibilities)
III. Areas of social policy
Education and training
(Digit education: high expectations in hard times; The growing importance of financial support to schools by families and private individuals; Post-secondary and tertiary technical education: will this be our lucky day?; Challenges to relaunch the Italian University system; A slowdown in the increase of non-Italian students; Work-study training programs on the rise)
Employment, professions and representation
(The alarming situation of young workers; Year zero for bargaining; The Jigsaw puzzle of the service sector; The steadfast resistance of women; Occupational safety - a goal still unmet)
The welfare system
(The long-term impact of communication regarding health; The new frontiers of pharmaceutical consumption; Invisible disability; Voluntary work as a pillar of the community; Social protection measures and crisis, beyond effective short-term actions; Neither retired nor employed: older workers in a trap)
Territory and networks
(The unshakeable confidence of Italian households in real estate investment; The urban lever and the public-private tradeoff: the risks entailed in the real estate drift; How economically relevant public services get mired: the case of water; Why the energy sector plays such a central role in the country's economy; Business and employment opportunities stemming from the "green twist" of the economy)
Economic players of development
(Competitive de-industrialization needed to go beyond the current crisis; The inexhaustible protagonism of industrial districts; The metamorphosis of the third sector industries; Intermodal logistics needed to make Italy grow; For a new policy to support businesses and localisms; New consumption trends: end of a cycle or just a pause for reflection?)
IV. Means and procedures
Communication and media
(The future of the web, from transaction safety to the free download of content; Escaping the news: bad information flattens the audience; Reading in the future: will digital overtake paper?; Medical information runs more and more on the web; Social responsibilities of the media and the opaqueness of rules)
Public administration
(The apnea of public finance; Public Administration, a possible driving force for innovation; Universities push R&D towards businesses; Italians' fideistic Europeanism)
Security and citizenry
(Awaiting the Prisons Plan; The rise in contraband; Public and private services become integrated for the sake of security; A National Agency to return Mafia assets to the community; Knowledge of the Italian language: an obligation that requires further investment; Immigrants provide an opportunity to re-examine employnment services
Appendix
Looking through figures
Foreword
Tables
Background
Societal self-awareness: from great goals to the emergence of spontaneous processes (1967-1971)
From the "submerged" to the "emerged" economy (1972-1977)
The pride of stability (1978-1981)
Difficult relations between society and institutions (1982-1983)
Consolidation and the need for maturity (1984-1987)
Beyond proliferation (1988-1992)
From revolutionary euphoria to an endless, wearisome transition (1993-1998)
Something is moving in the enduring static nature of Italy's atomized society (1999-2002)
From the search for new exit routes to the prospect of a neo-bourgeois recovery (2003-2006)
The "mush" society. Italy on its way to its second metamorphosis (2007-2008)
Censis: an observer on the watch
(What is Censis?).

Serie: Varie

Subjects: Politics, Italian Society - Economic Sociology, Sociology of Work and Organizations

Level: Scholarly Research