Vita e Pensiero

This article focuses on the most meaningful aspects of a research aimed at the analysis of the state of the art of cross-border cooperation in Europe – through qualitative systems and analysis of quantitative data in fifty-three European border areas – taking into account actors, shapes and objectives with a particular attention to the Euroregional process. The research hypothesis is that putting into action mechanisms of cross-border welfare systems, organized in Euroregional structures, can be the basis not only for the elaboration of an original model for local development, which can be applied in areas influenced by a border, but also for legitimating more strongly the cross-border dimension of integration, on a cultural, economic and institutional level. The article is divided into two parts. The first part aims at providing a theoretical framework on the concept of border, crossborder cooperation and Euroregion, subsequently developing them through the analysis and evaluation of cross-border cooperation in Europe, with a particular attention to Euroregional variables. The second part concerns the concepts of local development and welfare, overlapping them, with the aim of setting them within a strict cross-border dimension and so to understand those factors which allow for their development. The model for such a cross-border welfare system was applied to the Italian-Slovenian cross-border context, analysed in terms of the quality of its cooperative process, of the Euroregional prospects, of the cross-border third sector, and of the development of institutionalised cooperation in the context of cross-border health care. Key words: cross-border cooperation, Euroregions, cross-border welfare System.

The paper suggests a reflection about participation in making social policies, moving from the results of a research focused upon the Piani di Zona, the instrument wanted by L. n. 328/2000 for planning social policies, in Friuli Venezia Giulia (a Region in the Nord Est of Italy). The paper reflects upon the main questions of the research that is how to incentive and maintain the partecipation of local associations, cooperatives and citizens in making social policies, overcoming to set against approaches that promote participation and approaches that promote deliberation and without falling in rethoric. The reflection remarks the necessity to incentive participation in making social policies, the importance of sharing the sense of participation and of organizing the partecipation and, at last, the fundamental role of public administration in ensuring a participation rappresentative and transparent. Key words: participation, social planning, active citizenship, coordination

Working towards a «sociology of the person» and «for the person» is the fundamental inspiration and programmed purpose of the SPE group. In this sense, the concept of «person» is the foundation and aim of a study that seeks to be primarily both scientific and critical. The following document, or manifesto, is intended as a stimulus for reflection on ourselves, to reopen the debate on the centrality of the person, both with reference to the nature of sociology, in its epistemological state, as well as in reference to the capacity to interpret and maybe even tackle the main challenges of today: it is the latest stage of a path began in 1994 that is certainly not over.

The transformation of the welfare system contains incoherencies with the characteristics of the governance process. The diversification and the fragmentation of the system has made evident the increase in its complexity and its consequent inability to govern regulation processes based on hierarchy or on competition. The competition, the hierarchy and the social network are not necessarily alternative governance processes, but in practice they overlap. The competition, the hierarchy and the social network have to be integrated in a hybrid governance process. The distance between the system and its regulation requires a redefinition of governance process. Such realignment must be found on the strengthening of the authority, the thrust and the social capital.

The present study represents a qualitative in-depth research, aiming at pointing out and analyzing, in the light of a more specific theory of social capital, relational good practices of family-based and community-oriented intervention for the rehabilitation and the reintegration of street children in Nairobi, Kenya. Aim of the study will be to explore the existing culture of the care for the street children and re-think it as a multidimensional and complex process that rests upon family and community relations and promotes innovative strategies, able to take into consideration the specific needs of the families and the local communities, and providing a relational answer to such needs. The research rests on a major theoretical framework called «relational sociology», which allows a deeper understanding of the street children phenomenon as a family and community-related issue, whereby macro and meso causal factors have an impact on the micro level of the family, contributing to the raise of the phenomenon itself. Accordingly, in terms of recommendations for social measures, the street children issue can be addressed and tackled only by a family-based and community-oriented approach. The present study, at an empirical level, highlights significant experiences of family-based and community-oriented care for the rehabilitation and the reintegration of street children in Nairobi. The approach hereby employed is that of the so-called «best practices», a research method aiming at drawing theoretical notions from the most effective interventions. A huge work of operationalization of social indicators for both the concept of social capital and good practice was done. From a methodological point of view, three case studies were conducted. They represent three significant examples of good practice in family-based intervention as they are highly innovative; careful of the relational dynamics of the care; addressed to the family as a unit; able to sustain the distinctive manner the family responds to the needs of its members (family empowerment); capable to produce solidarity instead of individualism (intergenerational equity); focused on the family within the local community (community empowerment); sustainable; reproducible; adopting social governance strategies (vertical and horizontal networking with institutional and civil society organizations).