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.
Term of reference is the thesis of M.Pera in Why we have to profess christians. Christianism
contributes decisively to the building of western identity, that means modernity and liberalism.
This thesis is elaborated starting from weberian assumptions on Entzauberung and rationalisation
as biblical Weltanschauung: a determinant root of western identity. Christian revolution
upsets the worldview from the «naturality» of ancient cosmocentrism, particularly of Greeks
and Romans, to the «unnaturality» of radical theoanthropocentrism, that is to subjectcentrism,
conceived as embryo of modernity. This «unnaturality» of Christianism is present in two features:the axioogical priority of inner life and the «inverse glorifications» in thr Sermon of the
mountain. These features are realized in many areas and situations typical of western civilisation,
particularly in the Middle Age.
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).