The title of this paper explains the reading key needed to analyse the Italian third sector,
namely to verify its internal inclination to the realisation of social partnership. The study of the
forms that the social partnership tends to assume is, as a matter of fact, object of a diffused
interest, witnessing the growing pluralization of the social subjects involved in personal and
intersubjective welfare actions. The route followed starts from the awareness of the internal differentiation
characterising the Italian third sector, analyses it under the sociological profile, puts
the theme of social differentiation in relation with the theme of social partnership, whose sociological
character is highlighted, and finally it proposes to offer some empirical indications concerning
the inclination to partnership of the subjects of the third sector with a particular insight
on the organised voluntary service connoting itself as a strategic component of the Italian third
sector.
The presence of ideology seems to be a common feature in the sociological perspective.
Therefore a dialectical debate is required. The policy as implementation of knowledge cannot
be considered at the same level of scientific work. Various existential aspects are in question in
the scientific field, especially when the religious identity is analysed, in terms of desacralization
and sacralization. Beyond civil religion à la Rousseau, other solutions are viable. But cultural
relativism is not outside the Church and it is in relationship with religious belonging. Finally a
non conflictual secularism is set out.
In Italy many immigrant women work in domestic services and they replace the role of
Italian women not only in typical domestic chores but also in taking care of the elderly and people
with disabilities. This article explores the relation between immigrant women and aged people
whom they take care of, starting from the point that in everyday life the social distance
between Italian and immigrants could become shorter and shorter. The research is based on indeep interviews to immigrant domestic workers who work and live with Italian aged people.
Referring to E. Goffman, the focus is on the organization of setting inside the house, the invasion
of territories of the Self, the type of communication and the language used, the existence of
a stage and a backstage. The findings point out that immigrant women enter into a close relation
with the Italian elderly: they become a sort of family member and they get involved in a
relation which is outside of the domestic work and which implies a high level of empathy.
Political inclusion, meaning by that the direct involvement and participation of social actors
in the shaping of public policies, is today very much at the centre of debate of social sciences
and has been growingly practised by public bodies. Inclusion practices do represent an interesting
and new phenomenon concerning the functioning of our public bodies: their aim is to provide
institutions with a stronger legitimacy, to prevent conflict, and to get to know and successfully
govern increasingly complex social settings. The objective of the article is a) to analyse and
discuss the theories and practices underpinning political inclusion exercises by the direct
involvement of social groups (the theory of neocorporativism and of associative democracy); of
citizens (the theory of direct democracy and participatory democracy); of stakeholders (theory of
deliberative democracy); b) to assess the strengths and weaknesses of these political inclusion
models; c) and to point out issues within this area that necessitate further reflection and empirical
investigation.
In the world there are a lot of industrial facilities abandoned or under-used or at risk of
turning only in commercial or residential areas because the deindustrialisation due to globalization.
A number of researches and publications are made about regeneration of obsolete industrial
facilities, contaminated sites, brownfields. Nevertheless, a few of researches investigated
how to turn brownfields into jobfields avoiding deindustrialisation. That is a problem of public
participation, seeking environmentally sound sustainable solutions and imaging in the future a
new ecological way to industrial production. This could be the case of Valle Seriana (Italy), an
area among the Alpine valleys under threat of deindustrialisation in a province (Bergamo), that
is one of the most industrialised provinces of Europe.