he aim of this dissertation is to assess if and how institutional features are likely to shape fields of study differentials in the overeducation risk. This issue is addressed with two different perspectives. First it is comparatively analysed how the differential incidence of overeducation among graduates from different fields of study is affected by labour market institutions. Then the effect of the university reform dictated by the guidelines of the Bologna Process on tertiary graduates’ risk of overeducation is evaluated. Italy is selected as a relevant case study for these analyses since, in comparison with other developed countries, it displays both low graduation rates and modest returns to tertiary education.

The study focuses on artists who adopt performance art as a form of creative expression within the world of contemporary visual art. Some performances are extreme exhibitions which often assume violent and aggressive forms; others are quasi-visible events like communication misunderstandings or reiterated behaviors which make the flow of ordinary interaction unusual and sometimes create a feeling of anxiety in the audience. There are of course basic differences between these kinds of performance; nevertheless, in the case of both the most spectacular events and «minimal performances», the artist acts at the borderline of what is explainable, and his/her artistic practices highlight the need to traverse the frontiers between traditional genres, mixing them up or forsaking them. A performance essentially consists in the creation of an interactive event, and artists manage the central elements of the interactive order: the dimension which, according to Erving Goffman, represents a reality in itself, possesses its own logic, and cannot be reduced either to macro-structural dimensions or to individual psychology. The topic of the research reported here can be summarized in the following question: how is it possible to turn a «social interaction» into an «artistic object»? The answer can be articulated on different dimensions: how a performance is projected, arranged and carried out; what happens during performance events; how such events can be recorded and conserved. A performance results from cooperation among a group of people which cannot be defined as a «system»: there are no formal roles, there are no fixed positions, there are no decisional centers. Nevertheless, the basic elements are in place for it to be possible to talk of the existence of an interactional unit: different social actors act together in an intentional, reiterated and settled manner. It is possible to find a great number of events which take place on specific sites and during which artists, venue managers, critics, collectors and performance audiences meet, work together, and share their interests. It is thus possible to use the term «sphere» to refer to a place to which admittance is granted only after an initiation process and rite of passage. In such «spheres» people follow careers based on internal, formal and informal hierarchical ladders. Moreover, there are subjects who act as gatekeepers, and myths and symbols are shared. The research was conducted in Northern Italy, where several towns were selected as central nodes in the Italian contemporary art field. I conducted in-depth interviews with subjects occupying the three main roles in the artistic field: artists, venue managers and curators, and art critics. The selection of the interviewees was based on their strategic position in the field. My purpose was to investigate the node that they occupied in the art world by combining two criteria: first, the spatial position of the environment in which they lived and worked (marginal, peripheral, central); second, the stage of their professional career (beginning, emerging, established).

La ricerca mira a ricostruire la definizione della situazione politica che alcuni elettori italiani hanno prodotto per maturare la propria scelta di voto in occasione delle Elezioni Europee del 2014. Per poter agire infatti, gli individui hanno prima bisogno di comprendere la situazione nella quale agiscono. I risultati mostrano che, a seguito dei cambiamenti avvenuti nel panorama politico italiano l'anno precedente, elettori, partiti e leader si sono mossi a velocità diverse, faticando nel condividere una medesima definizione. Rilevare questa situazione di disallineamento aiuta a comprendere, in generale, gli effetti della valence politics sul voto e, nello specifico, il percorso politico dei partiti italiani.

The dissertation explores the intricate interplay between wealth and family dynamics across human life courses, motivated by recent shifts in wealth distribution and demographic trends in Western countries. A comprehensive framework is introduced, delineating the examination of wealth accumulation and distribution within and across families. Via conceptual, theoretical, and empirical work, this dissertation seeks to advance the understanding of the wealth-family nexus from a comparative and historical perspective, with a focus on post-war European countries. To achieve this, cross-sectional (GESIS Panel) as well as prospective (SHARE) and retrospective (SHARELIFE) longitudinal large-scale survey data are analyzed. The first chapter explores the heterogeneity of wealth accumulation trajectories across ten European countries (Austria, Belgium, Denmark, France, Germany, Greece, Italy, Spain, Sweden, and Switzerland), adopting a categorical approach to wealth ownership. The second chapter examines the context-specificity of the relationship between family life course trajectories and subsequent wealth accumulation across Scandinavian (Denmark and Sweden), Continental (Austria, Belgium, France, Germany, and Switzerland), and Southern (Greece, Italy, Spain) European countries, situating it within the broader discourse on family change. The third chapter delves into population heterogeneity in norms concerning family estate division among siblings in Germany.

La tesi presenta l’analisi relazionale di una Organizzazione di Terzo settore. La ricerca, di stampo qualitativo, si è posta nell’ottica di proseguire nell’approfondimento teorico-metodologico dell’approccio relazionale al Lavoro sociale di rete. Il caso studiato è rappresentato dai Centri di Ascolto di Caritas Ambrosiana, organizzazioni che si trovano in prima linea nel fronteggiamento dei problemi sociali e comunitari. Finalità della ricerca è stata comprendere in che modo le strategie organizzative possono promuovere, o meno, l’adozione di un approccio relazionale al lavoro sociale da parte dei propri operatori impegnati sul campo. Le Organizzazioni di Welfare esprimono relazionalità nella misura in cui i loro attori sono orientati reciprocamente e nei confronti dei destinatari dei loro interventi. L’analisi è stata condotta a tre livelli di definizione delle policy, management e fieldwork, a partire da alcune definizioni di organizzazione che ne mettono in luce i fattori costitutivi quali finalità, personale, strumenti e processi operativi. Per ciascuno di questi fattori organizzativi si sono verificate le dimensioni di relazionalità presenti sia nei contenuti, sia nei processi di definizione degli stessi. Gi studi teorico-metodologici sul lavoro sociale di rete (Folgheraiter 1998; 2007) hanno fornito i riferimenti scientifici per condurre tale analisi relazionale dell’organizzazione dei Centri di Ascolto. / The thesis is a relational analysis of a non-profit organization. The qualitative research has the aim to continue the study of the theoretical and methodological approach of the relational social work. The case study is represented by Counseling Centres of Caritas Ambrosiana (Milan), that are organizations in frontline to cope with the social and community problems. The purpose of the research was to understand how organizational strategies facilitate the practitioners to work in a relational way. The analysis was conducted at three levels: policy making, management and fieldwork. The analysis starts from some definitions of organization that highlight the elements constituting the organizations such as purpose, staff, tools and processes. For each of these organizational elements, the researcher has studied the characteristics of relationality in the content and in the processes for their definition. The theoretical and methodological studies of relational social work (Folgheraiter 1998, 2007) have provided the scientific references to conduct that relational analysis of these organizations.

This study enters the world of migrants women daily involved in the work of caregiving to elderly people in Modena. The multidimensional analysis that characterizes this work brings together elements which are examined, simultaneously, as bounds and/or opportunities within the migratory experience of these women. The interviews collected will be analyzed in parallel and linked to the international debates on contemporary migrations: the meaning of transnational migrations, the role of the networks in guiding integration, the limits and strengths of multiculturalist theories, the concept of ‘superdiversity’, the link among entitlement, rights and access to citizenship. The present study place at the centre of its observation the “daily practices” that allow every migrant to negotiate its ‘power’, its ‘freedom’ and its ‘rights’, so as to recognize agency to these women in the creation of their strategies and social boundaries. Moreover, the study focuses on the ability and power of the State, and its institutions, to create categorizations among migrants based on their social and economic ‘usefulness’, which produce effects in the daily lives of these workers.

Education continues to define social positions and reproduce social inequalities. Deficiencies in education may lead to disadvantages at both the individual and societal levels, and lower qualifications are usually obtained by already disadvantaged youths. One of the biggest problems in this regard is dropping out (also named early school-leaving)—i.e. young people who leave the education system before completing upper secondary school. Many interventions have attempted to prevent or discourage students from dropping out of school. Among them there are two straightforward systemic policies: raising the age of compulsory schooling and creating alternative tracks for completing education. They aimed to achieve the same goal—reducing dropping out—but using different strategies. Despite the diffusion of these reforms, it is not clear to what extent one or both may succeed in their goal. Both of these policies were actively pursued in Italy in a less than five-year period—from 1999 to 2003. In 1999, the so-called Berlinguer reform extended compulsory schooling from age 14 to 15, and in 2003 the State-Regions Congress introduced experimental vocational and training programmes (IFP). These intensive changes allow for the comparison of these two interventions in a single context one after the other, but no extensive studies have been made so far. The dissertation seeks to address this lacuna by making the best use of the available data. The broad question of the thesis is whether the extension of compulsory schooling and/or the creation of new vocational and training programmes have modified students’ (and families’) dropping-out decisions. To answer, propensity score matching, counterfactual time series, segmented regression, region fixed effect and individual multilevel cross-classified logistic analyses are used. The results are framed in the theoretical debates about education: its roles, its expansion, its contribute to (in)equality and its policies.

Nei servizi di tutela del minore di frequente il lavoro sociale con le famiglie assume una connotazione fortemente sanitaria, caratterizzata dalla tendenza da parte degli operatori sociali di concentrare in capo a sé, in forza del mandato istituzionale a cui devono rispondere e in nome della loro riconosciuta expertise, il processo di aiuto, escludendo dalla scena altri soggetti significativi. Per poter realmente parlare di tutela del minore e di supporto alla famiglia è necessario assumere uno sguardo includente che coinvolga nel processo di presa di decisioni, i genitori, il minore e altre relazioni motivate a partecipare alla costruzione del benessere familiare, perché insieme si pensi ad interventi che trovino una significativa rispondenza nel mondo della vita. Le Family Group Conferences sono un modello di presa di decisioni attraverso il quale la famigli allargata (parenti, amici, vicini di casa…) predispone un Piano di protezione ed assume delle decisioni a favore di un minore che si trova in situazione di rischio o pregiudizio per tutelarlo e garantirgli una situazione di benessere. Il modello proposto dalle FGCs è ascrivibile nella categoria dei servizi relazionali perché valorizza le relazioni esistenti, ne produce delle altre e coinvolge i diretti interessati, favorendo processi di empowerment. / The social work in child protection is often characterized by a disabling and authority based work; as a matter of fact the professionals use to centralize the power in their hands, in the name of their expertise, cutting the family out of the decisions regarding their lives . This is not the right way to work to build the parents and children welfare because, if the aim is to promote a real change in families, it is necessary the involvement of the family itself in the decision making process. A family group conference (FGC) is a decision making and planning process whereby the wider family group makes plans and decision for children and young people who have been identified either by the family themselves or by service providers as being in need of s plans that will safeguard and promote their welfare It is possible to define FGC as relational service because it is based on participatory approach in which social service work together with parents, children and others important relations to find the right way to care and protect the child.

La presente ricerca di dottorato si pone tre principali obiettivi: 1) studiare i processi di integrazione dei migranti, intesi nella loro bidirezionalità, multidimensionalità e processualità, con un focus specifico sulle pratiche di cittadinanza; 2) elaborare un set di indicatori al fine di misurare le pratiche di cittadinanza dei migranti nelle società riceventi; 3) identificare, tramite un modello di regressione logistica, la probabilità di essere un cittadino attivo considerando una serie di variabili indipendenti, quali classe di età, genere, background migratorio ecc. La ricerca è stata condotta mediante l’utilizzo combinato di metodi qualitativi e metodi quantitativi. Nello specifico in Svezia, paese scelto come caso studio, sono state realizzate 23 interviste semi-strutturate ad attori chiave della società, tra i quali rappresentanti istituzionali nazionali (Ministero del Lavoro), regionali e locali, sindacati, ONG, equality body, associazioni di migranti e migranti stessi. Successivamente, anche sulla base delle risultanze di questa fase, è stato elaborato un set di indicatori volto a misurare la partecipazione dei cittadini e, utilizzando tali indicatori, si è proceduto all’analisi secondaria dei dati della European Social Survey Round 6. / Citizenship practices are a central issue in migration studies, but not yet adequately reflected in the social sciences. In line with this, the three main objectives of this work may be summarised as follows. The first objective is to offer an analytical definition of citizenship practices capable of encompassing, both analytically and empirically, different forms of participation and at different levels (local, national, international, and transnational). The second is to elaborate a comprehensive set of indicators able to measure the level of migrant participation. Finally, an additional objective is to identify migrant-specific patterns of participation in Europe, with a particular focus on Sweden. The findings of my work are the result of the combined use of both qualitative and quantitative research methods. I conducted 23 semi-structured interviews with key actors of Swedish society (institutional actors, representatives of NGOs and of equality bodies, representatives of migrant associations). In the light of the results of the desk research and interviews, I have constructed a set of 25 indicators aiming at measuring the level of migrant participation, in the political, socio-economic and cultural-religious fields. Thus, using these indicators, I analyse data of the European Social Survey Round 6.

L’obiettivo della ricerca è stato quello di indagare le esperienze delle persone e delle famiglie che stanno vivendo le prime fasi della demenza all’esordio, con lo scopo di comprendere come potrebbero essere forniti aiuti specifici per sostenere le persone, con i loro particolari bisogni, proprio in questa prima e delicata fase della malattia. Considerato il suo campo di indagine e il suo oggetto, tale ricerca si è prestata particolarmente all’applicazione di una metodologia di ricerca di tipo partecipativo. La ricerca infatti ha visto coinvolti attivamente in tutto il processo di ricerca i soggetti che hanno un’esperienza di vita diretta, personale o legata al loro lavoro quotidiano, del fenomeno da studiare. Sono stati utilizzati lo strumento dell’intervista semi-strutturata e del diario per indagare il punto di vista dei caregiver familiari e degli anziani affetti da deterioramento cognitivo e/o demenza in fase iniziale. I risultati ottenuti, molteplici ed eterogenei, hanno permesso di comprendere sia i vissuti dei caregiver familiari sia dei soggetti che in prima persona affrontano la malattia. Tali risultati sono stati divisi per aree tematiche, proponendo delle mappe concettuali: sei che si focalizzano sul punto di vista dei caregiver, quattro che focalizzano l’attenzione sul vissuto degli anziani. I risultati permettono di comprendere il significato che ha il prendersi cura per il caregiver e il ricevere assistenza per l’anziano; gli atteggiamenti e le emozioni di entrambi riguardo la malattia e gli aspetti legati ad essa; il ruolo della famiglia e di altre figure significative in questa situazione; il rapporto con i servizi e le modalità con cui le famiglie affrontano questo problema. / The research aim was to investigate the experiences of people and families who are experiencing the early stages of dementia, in order to understand which specific helps could be provided to support people, with their particular needs, in this first and delicate phase of the disease. Considering its field of investigation and its object, this research has been particularly suited to the application of the participatory research methodology. The research in the entire research process has actively involved people who have a direct, personal or job-connected experience of the disease. Tools as a semi-structured interview and a diary has been used to investigate the point of view of family caregivers and their elderly relatives with cognitive impairment. The results obtained have been multiple, heterogeneous and allowed us to understand the experiences of the family caregivers and of the subjects who face the disease directly. These results have been divided by different areas and have been organized using concept maps. Six maps have been focusing on the point of view of the caregivers and four maps focusing on the experience of the elderly. The results allowed the researcher to understand different elements: what caring means for the caregivers and what to be assisted means for the elderly with cognitive impairment; the attitudes and emotions of both players about the disease; the role of the family and other significant figures in this situation; the relationship with the services and how families face this problem.