Lavinia Bifulco
Biographic Data
| ID | 3601483 |
|---|---|
| NAME | Lavinia Bifulco |
| GIVEN NAMES | Lavinia |
| FAMILY NAME | Bifulco |
| SIGNATURE | BIFULCO L |
| AFFILIATIONS | University of Milano-Bicocca |
| ORCID | 0000-0001-9379-1021 |
| VERIFIED | Yes |
| TOTAL WORKS | 19 |
| TOTAL CITATIONS | 53 |
| AUTHOR COUNT | 17 |
| EDITOR COUNT | 2 |
| FIRST PUBLICATION YEAR | 2006 |
| LATEST PUBLICATION YEAR | 2024 |
| H-INDEX | 5 |
Con la sociologia pubblica
In recent years, interest in the perspective of public sociology has grown in Italy, alongside a renewed focus on the relationship between sociology and the public sphere. Michael Burawoy’s well-known proposal has become, from this point of view, a source of inspiration for a variety of approaches and practices. Following this trend, we propose to highlight the possible connections between public sociology and other approaches by working with som…
Transformative Institutions and Capabilities to Aspire in the Context of Radical Uncertainty
The article addresses the issue of transformative institutions and capabilities to aspire by framing it in the context of the radical uncertainty arising from today's structural crises, which strongly challenge the very ways and possibility of prefiguring a desirable future. Following the reflections of Amartya Sen and Arjun Appadurai, capabilities to aspire are not just an individual matter, as the conditions that enable their development are de…
The depoliticisation of social policy through financial inclusion
Purpose The purpose of this paper is to explore two financial inclusion measures adopted within the local welfare context of the city of Milan, Italy, examining their functioning and underpinning representations. The aim is also to understand how such representations take concrete shape in the practices of local actors, and their implications for the opportunities and constraints regarding individuals' effective inclusion. To this end, this paper…
Research Handbook on Public Sociology
Engaging with the key debates and issues in a continuously evolving field, Lavinia Bifulco and Vando Borghi bring together contributions from leading social scientists to debate the enduring relevance of public sociology in light of ongoing changes in the social world. \n \nThis incisive Research Handbook explores the critical authors, texts, and research perspectives foundational to the discipline of public sociology. Multidisciplinary in approa…
Finanza, welfare e governo dell’incertezza
This article focuses on financial education with the aim to explore the relationship between finance, welfare policies and the governance of uncertainties and risks also in the light of the Covid-19 pandemic. The article discusses the normative substratum that lies at the intersection of daily life and changes in the institutional and regulatory structures of welfare policies. In doing so, it shows how financial education turns protection from cr…
New philanthropy, social impact and social work
The article aims to suggest two different scenarios for the transformation of social policy and social work in Italy in relation with the emergence of new trends in the philanthropic sector. Over the past two decades, a growing body of literature has pointed to the shift that philanthropy is undergoing at the global level under the influence of Venture Philanthropy and Impact Investing. Distinctive features of this ‘new philanthropy’ are the blen…
The Italian National Health Service
At the time of its inception, in 1978, prevention and primary care were set as fundamental pillars of the Italian National Health Service (NHS), emphasizing the collective and social dimension of health. These principles were progressively neglected over the following four decades. Marketization, managed competition and managerialization privileged the individualized, highly specialized healthcare services mainly provided in hospitals, to the det…
Foundational Economy and Healthcare Services
This paper introduces the FSE special session ‘Healthcare, Covid-19 and the Foundational Economy’, which uses the Foundational Economy (FE) approach to analyze the public health crisis determined by Covid-19. First, the paper briefly presents the FE approach, which consists of two macro-areas. The former, identified as a 'material' foundational economy, comprises the supply of basic goods and services (i.e. water, electricity, gas, food or bankin…
Perché e come studiare la filantropia
The current debate on philanthropy, while following the established research path on the nature and social determinants of giving, considers the close interweaving of charity and business as the distinctive, innovative core of the phenomenon.The article aims at moving this debate forward by outlining a research agenda on the most recent developments of philanthropy at the global level and identifying four main directions of investigation: philant…
Social Policies and Public Action
The concept of public action is a magnifying lens for shedding light on the plurality of institutional and social actors interacting in policies. Taking into account a changing social world that is redefining the State and its instruments, it is well suited for picking out transformations that have been affecting European social policies for some twenty years or so now: the territorial reorganization of powers; the spread of a public-private mix …
Competences and social participation in local social policies
Drawing on the results of research on 20 Area Social Plans, the article analyses the competences for participation and the role that they perform as a linkage between models/theories and practices of participation. We investigate in particular the conceptual models and representations of officials and politicians in regard to the competences deemed important for promoting social participation. Besides giving voice to those who actually design and…
Facing Trajectories from School to Work
Citizenship and governance at a time of territorialization
The paper investigates the territorialization process with a twofold aim: to focus on the territory as the medium of the current relation between citizenship and governance; and to analyse the problems and opportunities created by governance and territorialization. After outlining an interpretative frame for territorialization in Europe, the paper concentrates on the Italian case and on two policy instruments: Area Social Plans and Neighbourhood …
Citizen participation, agency and voice
Citizen participation, by now one of the main topics on the institutional agenda in many European countries, involves different fields of public action, mostly on a local level - social inclusion, urban renewal, development, the environment, health/social services, etc. It still remains, however, vague as a concept with a great variety of actors, procedures and powers involved in its practices. In this scenario, the present article asks two quest…
The public at a time of crisis
The article focuses on some dynamics affecting the public in Italy in connection with the financial and economic crisis. The hypothesis is that, faced with a growing desire for state, processes of institutional mediation underway are further weakening. The analysis goes into depth in some Italian policy cases: university and secondary school on a national level and vocational training policies in a regional context. These cases show rather critic…
Becoming Public Notes on Governance and Local Welfare in Italy
As the sectors of intervention traditionally assigned to the responsibility of the State gradually become spaces of mobilization for a plurality of actors, the notion of “public” appears problematic: it is difficult to define what distinguishes the structures of governance, the actors involved, and the problems and interests treated, as being of a public nature. This article tackles these issues with particular attention given to governance of so…
Activation and Local Welfare in Italy
This article deals with the development of local welfare in Italy and is grounded on a research project focusing on activation as a main feature of change in Italian social policies. Along with decentralization processes, many Italian regions have been acting as policy laboratories, developing and testing very different approaches according to their political attitude. On the one hand this results in a fragmented policy landscape which is difficu…
Governance and Participation in Local Welfare
This article analyses four cases of governance in Italian local welfare systems. Following Law 328/2000, the design and management of the social services system in Italy involve different public responsibility levels, mainly regional and municipal. In order to manage social policies, Italian municipalities have to join in new inter‐municipal groupings called ‘Piani di Zona’ (Area Plans). Moreover, the law provides for engaging in these Plans even…
Contracting for Welfare Services in Italy
The 1990s witnessed the spread and broadening in Europe of different types of relationships between public administration and private organisations (both for-profit and non-profit), derived from the two main categories of contracting out and accreditation. These models, linked to the process of developing new modes of governance, also focus on forms of contracting between providers and users of services. This contractual configuration of local we…
Contracting for Welfare Services in Italy
The 1990s witnessed the spread and broadening in Europe of different types of relationships between public administration and private organisations (both for-profit and non-profit), derived from the two main categories of contracting out and accreditation. These models, linked to the process of developing new modes of governance, also focus on forms of contracting between providers and users of services. This contractual configuration of local we…
Citizen participation, agency and voice
Citizen participation, by now one of the main topics on the institutional agenda in many European countries, involves different fields of public action, mostly on a local level - social inclusion, urban renewal, development, the environment, health/social services, etc. It still remains, however, vague as a concept with a great variety of actors, procedures and powers involved in its practices. In this scenario, the present article asks two quest…
Activation and Local Welfare in Italy
This article deals with the development of local welfare in Italy and is grounded on a research project focusing on activation as a main feature of change in Italian social policies. Along with decentralization processes, many Italian regions have been acting as policy laboratories, developing and testing very different approaches according to their political attitude. On the one hand this results in a fragmented policy landscape which is difficu…
Citizenship and governance at a time of territorialization
The paper investigates the territorialization process with a twofold aim: to focus on the territory as the medium of the current relation between citizenship and governance; and to analyse the problems and opportunities created by governance and territorialization. After outlining an interpretative frame for territorialization in Europe, the paper concentrates on the Italian case and on two policy instruments: Area Social Plans and Neighbourhood …
Governance and Participation in Local Welfare
This article analyses four cases of governance in Italian local welfare systems. Following Law 328/2000, the design and management of the social services system in Italy involve different public responsibility levels, mainly regional and municipal. In order to manage social policies, Italian municipalities have to join in new inter‐municipal groupings called ‘Piani di Zona’ (Area Plans). Moreover, the law provides for engaging in these Plans even…
The Italian National Health Service
At the time of its inception, in 1978, prevention and primary care were set as fundamental pillars of the Italian National Health Service (NHS), emphasizing the collective and social dimension of health. These principles were progressively neglected over the following four decades. Marketization, managed competition and managerialization privileged the individualized, highly specialized healthcare services mainly provided in hospitals, to the det…
The depoliticisation of social policy through financial inclusion
Purpose The purpose of this paper is to explore two financial inclusion measures adopted within the local welfare context of the city of Milan, Italy, examining their functioning and underpinning representations. The aim is also to understand how such representations take concrete shape in the practices of local actors, and their implications for the opportunities and constraints regarding individuals' effective inclusion. To this end, this paper…
Foundational Economy and Healthcare Services
This paper introduces the FSE special session ‘Healthcare, Covid-19 and the Foundational Economy’, which uses the Foundational Economy (FE) approach to analyze the public health crisis determined by Covid-19. First, the paper briefly presents the FE approach, which consists of two macro-areas. The former, identified as a 'material' foundational economy, comprises the supply of basic goods and services (i.e. water, electricity, gas, food or bankin…
Competences and social participation in local social policies
Drawing on the results of research on 20 Area Social Plans, the article analyses the competences for participation and the role that they perform as a linkage between models/theories and practices of participation. We investigate in particular the conceptual models and representations of officials and politicians in regard to the competences deemed important for promoting social participation. Besides giving voice to those who actually design and…
Contracting for Welfare Services in Italy
The 1990s witnessed the spread and broadening in Europe of different types of relationships between public administration and private organisations (both for-profit and non-profit), derived from the two main categories of contracting out and accreditation. These models, linked to the process of developing new modes of governance, also focus on forms of contracting between providers and users of services. This contractual configuration of local we…
Activation and Local Welfare in Italy
This article deals with the development of local welfare in Italy and is grounded on a research project focusing on activation as a main feature of change in Italian social policies. Along with decentralization processes, many Italian regions have been acting as policy laboratories, developing and testing very different approaches according to their political attitude. On the one hand this results in a fragmented policy landscape which is difficu…
Governance and Participation in Local Welfare
This article analyses four cases of governance in Italian local welfare systems. Following Law 328/2000, the design and management of the social services system in Italy involve different public responsibility levels, mainly regional and municipal. In order to manage social policies, Italian municipalities have to join in new inter‐municipal groupings called ‘Piani di Zona’ (Area Plans). Moreover, the law provides for engaging in these Plans even…
The public at a time of crisis
The article focuses on some dynamics affecting the public in Italy in connection with the financial and economic crisis. The hypothesis is that, faced with a growing desire for state, processes of institutional mediation underway are further weakening. The analysis goes into depth in some Italian policy cases: university and secondary school on a national level and vocational training policies in a regional context. These cases show rather critic…
Becoming Public Notes on Governance and Local Welfare in Italy
As the sectors of intervention traditionally assigned to the responsibility of the State gradually become spaces of mobilization for a plurality of actors, the notion of “public” appears problematic: it is difficult to define what distinguishes the structures of governance, the actors involved, and the problems and interests treated, as being of a public nature. This article tackles these issues with particular attention given to governance of so…
Citizen participation, agency and voice
Citizen participation, by now one of the main topics on the institutional agenda in many European countries, involves different fields of public action, mostly on a local level - social inclusion, urban renewal, development, the environment, health/social services, etc. It still remains, however, vague as a concept with a great variety of actors, procedures and powers involved in its practices. In this scenario, the present article asks two quest…
Citizenship and governance at a time of territorialization
The paper investigates the territorialization process with a twofold aim: to focus on the territory as the medium of the current relation between citizenship and governance; and to analyse the problems and opportunities created by governance and territorialization. After outlining an interpretative frame for territorialization in Europe, the paper concentrates on the Italian case and on two policy instruments: Area Social Plans and Neighbourhood …
Facing Trajectories from School to Work
Social Policies and Public Action
The concept of public action is a magnifying lens for shedding light on the plurality of institutional and social actors interacting in policies. Taking into account a changing social world that is redefining the State and its instruments, it is well suited for picking out transformations that have been affecting European social policies for some twenty years or so now: the territorial reorganization of powers; the spread of a public-private mix …
Competences and social participation in local social policies
Drawing on the results of research on 20 Area Social Plans, the article analyses the competences for participation and the role that they perform as a linkage between models/theories and practices of participation. We investigate in particular the conceptual models and representations of officials and politicians in regard to the competences deemed important for promoting social participation. Besides giving voice to those who actually design and…
Perché e come studiare la filantropia
The current debate on philanthropy, while following the established research path on the nature and social determinants of giving, considers the close interweaving of charity and business as the distinctive, innovative core of the phenomenon.The article aims at moving this debate forward by outlining a research agenda on the most recent developments of philanthropy at the global level and identifying four main directions of investigation: philant…
Finanza, welfare e governo dell’incertezza
This article focuses on financial education with the aim to explore the relationship between finance, welfare policies and the governance of uncertainties and risks also in the light of the Covid-19 pandemic. The article discusses the normative substratum that lies at the intersection of daily life and changes in the institutional and regulatory structures of welfare policies. In doing so, it shows how financial education turns protection from cr…
New philanthropy, social impact and social work
The article aims to suggest two different scenarios for the transformation of social policy and social work in Italy in relation with the emergence of new trends in the philanthropic sector. Over the past two decades, a growing body of literature has pointed to the shift that philanthropy is undergoing at the global level under the influence of Venture Philanthropy and Impact Investing. Distinctive features of this ‘new philanthropy’ are the blen…
The Italian National Health Service
At the time of its inception, in 1978, prevention and primary care were set as fundamental pillars of the Italian National Health Service (NHS), emphasizing the collective and social dimension of health. These principles were progressively neglected over the following four decades. Marketization, managed competition and managerialization privileged the individualized, highly specialized healthcare services mainly provided in hospitals, to the det…
Foundational Economy and Healthcare Services
This paper introduces the FSE special session ‘Healthcare, Covid-19 and the Foundational Economy’, which uses the Foundational Economy (FE) approach to analyze the public health crisis determined by Covid-19. First, the paper briefly presents the FE approach, which consists of two macro-areas. The former, identified as a 'material' foundational economy, comprises the supply of basic goods and services (i.e. water, electricity, gas, food or bankin…
Research Handbook on Public Sociology
Engaging with the key debates and issues in a continuously evolving field, Lavinia Bifulco and Vando Borghi bring together contributions from leading social scientists to debate the enduring relevance of public sociology in light of ongoing changes in the social world. \n \nThis incisive Research Handbook explores the critical authors, texts, and research perspectives foundational to the discipline of public sociology. Multidisciplinary in approa…
Con la sociologia pubblica
In recent years, interest in the perspective of public sociology has grown in Italy, alongside a renewed focus on the relationship between sociology and the public sphere. Michael Burawoy’s well-known proposal has become, from this point of view, a source of inspiration for a variety of approaches and practices. Following this trend, we propose to highlight the possible connections between public sociology and other approaches by working with som…
Transformative Institutions and Capabilities to Aspire in the Context of Radical Uncertainty
The article addresses the issue of transformative institutions and capabilities to aspire by framing it in the context of the radical uncertainty arising from today's structural crises, which strongly challenge the very ways and possibility of prefiguring a desirable future. Following the reflections of Amartya Sen and Arjun Appadurai, capabilities to aspire are not just an individual matter, as the conditions that enable their development are de…
The depoliticisation of social policy through financial inclusion
Purpose The purpose of this paper is to explore two financial inclusion measures adopted within the local welfare context of the city of Milan, Italy, examining their functioning and underpinning representations. The aim is also to understand how such representations take concrete shape in the practices of local actors, and their implications for the opportunities and constraints regarding individuals' effective inclusion. To this end, this paper…
Political science (17 works) · Sociology (13 works) · Economics (11 works) · Politics (8 works) · Public relations (8 works) · Law (7 works) · Corporate governance (6 works) · Economic growth (6 works) · Social Policy and Reform Studies (6 works) · Welfare (6 works)