In the midst of the COVID-19 pandemic: economic insecurity and coping strategies of Italian households

What is it about?

What we observe in Italian society is not a collapse of the three pillars of social and system integration of contemporary societies: work, family, and welfare. The COVID-19 pandemic has reversed two social and institutional trends that in last two decades had damaged these spheres of life and that seemed relentless. Firstly, what has been reversed are: the progressive privatization of welfare and the enhancement of the politics of retrenchment; secondly, values and styles of life, radical processes of individualization, that undermined mutual relations of support and care, and households’ ability to cope with old and new risks.

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Why is it important?

The research draws on Castel’s distinction between three ‘zones’ of post-Fordist employment societies with the aim to identify the processes and the conditions that carry individuals from one ‘zones’ to the other. Theoretical considerations are supported by the findings of several qualitative and quantitative research carried out during the pandemic mainly by government agencies and international organizations as OECD and WHO

Perspectives