Multi-level Governance: The General Model and the Italian Experience

During the last twenty years, the introduction of the principle of subsidiarity and the identification of regions as political entities for the coordination of structural expenditure at the local level have led to the adoption of the principle of multi-level governance (MLG), on which principle EU government action is still based. The principle is based on the notion that the spread of governing practices (governance) across various institutions, and hence jurisdictions, results in a greater efficiency of allocation and an improved regulatory capacity compared to what more centralized governmental models are capable of yelding. According to this view, multi-level forms of government are better able to identify the effects of external economies which arise from the supply of public goods at different territorial levels. In other words, a multi-level governmental model enables, more so than other models, these external economies to be internalized and, at the same time, complex and heterogeneous demand from the local populations to be met through territorial intervention policies. Within this framework we will describe the multi level governance (MLG) model adopted from all the Countries of the EU, which constitutes the basis for national and local Public Administrations’ actions in the field of the social and economic development policy addressed to the disadvantaged areas of the Communitarian territory. We will present: a theoretical description of the model MLG in its different categories; the category adopted as a target by the EU with its specific characteristics, and the way those characteristics determine, in terms of operating consequences, the definition of objectives, responsibilities and roles. With reference to the Italian case, we will also describe the practical effects of the MLG model both on the communitarian and national funds governance.Regional development, fiscal decentralization, multi-level governance, panel data

Decentralization of territorial policy in Italy - the coherence with the model of multi-level governance and the effects on responsibilities of public spending

The past twenty years have seen the communitarian system of multi level governance (MLG) being established as a model of territorial policies governance. In the MLG, several levels of jurisdiction participate to decision making and Regions assume a relevant role in managing policies of development. This article highlights how such a system, mostly led by Public Institutions, cuts transaction costs being based on principles aimed at increasing the number of decision makers, as well as at making all governing levels and the processes of institutional coordination more effective. The article investigates two issues: a) to what extent the reorganization of the Italian system is compatible with the main characteristics of Communitarian MLG system in the governance of territorial policies; b) to what extent the decentralization in programming policies of development has gone with a transfer of capital expenses from a central (Central Administration) to local (Regional and Local Bodies) jurisdictions. The hypotheses to be tested refer to the decentralization process so far recorded in Italy: the first hypothesis is that such a process would not be fully shareable, neither with regard to the characteristics of the Communitarian MLG model, nor to the general considerations deriving by the theory of fiscal federalism; secondly, the process wouldn’t seem suitably supported by a symmetrical transfer of the expenses from the Central Government’s jurisdiction to local bodies’.Territorial policy, Multi Level Governance, institutional decentralization, OLS panel fixed-effects models

Digitalization and Datafication:Everyday Management of Menstrual Period

The range of self-tracking digital technologies is very wide: mobile apps available to download; wearable technologies – Google Glass, Fitbit – that can be worn as bracelets or clipped onto clothes; sensors that can be embedded not only in the device for recording biometrics information (i.e. body temperature, hearth rate, blood glucose, etc.), but also in the smart city in order to monitor air pollution, traffic, energy consumption and so on. Self-tracking technologies allow users to track and transform into data – statistical analysis and graphical representations – daily information, practices and activities: calories intake, workout exercises, weight, mood, cigarettes or drink intake, financial expenses, social interaction, social media activities, sleeping hours, chronic diseases, health of urban environment, sexual and reproductive health, etc. The paper is constructed around two main questions: (1) how do self-tracking technologies intra-act with the embodiment of Self? (2) How does expert medical knowledge, inscribed in self-tracking technologies, perform body and personal bodily knowledge. Therefore, after an overview of theoretical framework, the second section provides an exploratory empirical analysis of the period tracker apps’ uses. Thus, the empirical part focuses on the women entanglement in the management of cycle through self-tracking apps that are aimed to map and transform into data daily symptoms and mood in order to visualize correlations and predict fertile windows, PMS and future menstrual periods

Embodied knowledge across self-tracking practices. Rethinking body through the bioknowledge

Our smartphones are becoming an entanglement of health-related apps. This ongoing paper tries to investigate how the smartphone carries the body into data flows that are embodied in self-tracking practices aimed to the self-knowledge. The theoretical-interpretative framework draws on the turn to practice, the embodiment and embodied knowledge; new relational materialism, with particular reference to the feminist onto-epistemology of Barad; and a sociomaterial perspective on the medical field as relates to self-tracking practices. We present the user's experience of a privileged witness in order to investigate how her Smartphone becomes a digital space by which body comes to matter. This empirical example tries to capture the process of embodiment by which the knowledge inscribed in the app is situated in everyday practices.The apps suggest a certain knowledge, that is reconfigured by humans using and/or not using some functions and options. This knowledge becomes a biomedical knowledge since it emerges across the tensions between the personal and tacit knowledge about how the biology of life works and, at the same time, the medical knowledge that is inscribed in the app.The paper is constructed around two concerns: (1) how the body learns “to be affected” through the material entanglements between humans and apps, and (2) how self-tracking technologies are engaged in the process of embodied knowledge

Economic Space Trajectory through Different Regional Growth Models

Since the early 1990s, regional economic growth processes assume a key role in the EU policy agenda as a main tool to enhance social and economic convergence within the EU spatial landscape. Literature on regional economic growth and convergence provides some evidence on the most relevant factors affecting economic processes, mainly assuming homogeneity of production functions and steady state conditions in cross-section and panel regressions. In this framework, assuming a minimal definition of transitional steady state, econometric methods are adopted to identify regional characteristics and examine the determinants of different development models. The quantitative analysis is centred on - LSDV (Least Square Dummy Variables) estimates to cluster EU 11 regions (EU 13 excluding UK and Ireland due to lack of statistical data) by defining homogeneous latent structures affecting different transitional growth patterns; - coupled with multinomial conditional logit models to qualify the spatial distribution of expected vs actual regional gaps. Even conscious of the shortcomings of the described neoclassical production function convergence and divergence mechanisms, a sort of metaphor of substantive economic behaviour, three main findings for an explorative analysis are proposed i) the role of enlarged neoclassical production function and, at same time, its limited weight on average with respect to social and political factors as well as other stock fundamental determinants; ii) the deep differences of above defined weight of enlarged neoclassical production function at regional level in Europe; iii) the need for an adaptive governance of EU finance effort, within the same strategic objective of convergence.Economic regional growth, Panel models

Rethinking Human Body between Lay and Expert Knowledge Suggested by Self-tracking Technologies

The use of digital technologies for monitoring movements, posting messages or following friends on social networks, rating restaurants, or an hotel, a film or a series, generates data tracks that offer new possibilities of visualizing and knowing behavioural characteristics. Particularly, digital technologies are even more used in order to self-track everyday practices and biometrics information, such as weight, calories intake, mood, body temperature, heart rate, blood glucose, etc. (Lupton, 2013; 2016; Bianchieri et al., in Corbasiero, Ruspini, 2016; Maturo, Setiffi, 2016; Pantzar, Ruckenstein, 2015). These technologies rise several questions. If, from one hand, they can contribute at the constitution of democratic spaces of non-formal learning (Benson, Harkavy, 2002; Starke-Meyerring, Wilson, 2008); from the other hand, they can be understood as neoliberal devices that shape ‘ideal citizens’ responsible of their own wellbeing aimed at constant self-improvement (Apple et al., 2012; Lupton, 2016; Selwyn, 2013). This paper draws on literature from self-tracking practices (Lupton, 2018), the field of Science and Technologies Studies (STS) (Latour, 2005; Law, 1994), and the principle of symmetry between social and material – sociomaterial (Landri, Viteritti, 2016; Sørensen, 2009) – in the reconfiguration of agency as a relational capacity realized through the intra-actions between human and nonhuman actors (Barad 2003-2007). The aim is to question the learning processes embedded in self-tracking practices contributing to the discussion on the turn to practice and embodied knowledge (Gherardi, 2017) that is back through the materiality of digital technologies used in everyday life

Bidding for Complex Projects: Evidence From the Acquisitions of IT Services

Competitive bidding (as auctions) is commonly used to procure goods and services. Public buyers are often mandated by law to adopt competitive procedures to ensure transparency and promote full competition. Recent theoretical literature, however, suggests that open competition can perform poorly in allocating complex projects. In exploring the determinants of suppliers’ bidding behavior in procurement auctions for complex IT services, we find results that are consistent with theory. We find that price and quality do not exhibit the classical tradeoff one would expect: quite surprisingly, high quality is associated to low prices. Furthermore, while quality is mainly driven by suppliers’ experience, price is affected more by the scoring rule and by the level of expected competition. These results might suggest that (scoring) auctions fail to appropriately incorporate buyers’ complex price/quality preferences in the tender design.Procurement Auctions, Scoring Rules, IT Contracts, Price/Quality Ratio

Households Food Expenditures Behaviours And Socioeconomic Welfare In Italy: A Microeconometric Analysis

The paper aims to investigate food expenditure behaviours and dynamics of Italian households, by identifying the main characteristics of different socioeconomic groups. In particular, the study focuses on relevant food categories in terms of healthy diet to investigate different food styles consumers. In this framework, the paper stresses the linkages between food demand behaviours and socioeconomic characteristics to give some insights on the difference between wealthy/not wealthy consumers. The analysis uses the 2000 and 2006 Consumption Expenditure Surveys at household level, implemented by the Italian National Statistical Institute (ISTAT), that provide useful data on households socioeconomic conditions and consumption expenditures dynamics on a cross-sectional population sample of about 24000 units. In a first step, the work analyses food expenditures characteristics and dynamics across different consumers classes in order to describe demand profiles. In a second step, the work directly investigates relations between socioeconomic characteristics (e.g. income, age, household size, education) and households food expenditures, by adopting advanced econometric methods, e.g. quantile regression methods, to identify existing differences across socioeconomic groups.Food expenditures determinants, econometric methods, Food Consumption/Nutrition/Food Safety,

The Determinants of Suppliers’ Performance in E-Procurement: Evidence from the Italian Government’s E-Procurement Platform

Participation of small businesses in the market for public contracts is widely recognized as a key policy issue. It is also commonly held that the adoption of e-procurement solutions can be effective in pursuing such an objective. To this end, we analyze the transactions completed in the period 2004-2007 through the Italian Government’s e-procurement platform, that is, the marketplace managed by the Italian Public Procurement Agency (Consip S.p.A.). Although descriptive statistics indicate that micro suppliers are the most represented group of firms in the marketplace, our econometric treatment provides some evidence that the former are less successful than all other suppliers in getting public contracts. Degree of loyalty with buyers, location and the use of other MEPA negotiation tools, also emerge as relevant factors of success in the e-procurement market.E-Procurement, Small Suppliers, Request For Quotations, Performance, Public Contracts, Count Data