Mediterranean Models of Welfare Towards Families and Women

After an historical Excursus on Malta's history, society, culture and institutions with their effects on female condition and on family structure and concept, the paper gives a survey of most recent Malta's economic and demographic trends with special attention to families and women, based on statistical data of the National Institute of Statistics and on the results of a sample research. After drawing this scenario, the paper makes a short History of Malta's Welfare State specially concerning family and women. In this treatment a deeper investigation is devoted to the latest "Action Plan", the national social plan in its general lines of intervention towards family and women. The strategic lines (public, private, non profit) of welfare mix are examined in relation to their amounts, results and to the coherence with the moving social context. Finally the paper develops a comparison between different european models of welfare towards family, more specifically between Malta and Italy.

Mediterranean models of Welfare towards families and women

After tracing a Malta’s short historical excursus with its effects on female condition, family’s structure and concept, organizational model of non profit sector, the paper gives a survey of the most recent economic and demographic trends with special attention to families’ well-being and women’s working and social conditions, based not only on statistical data of Malta’s National Institute of Statistics and of Eurostat, but also on the results of some empirical studies based on some surveys carried out into the archipelago. The main islands’ social problems are outlined with the indication of the principal sources of aid to face peoples’ different needs (first of all family, followed by the State, while the Third Sector, with its strong component of foundations, heritage of English culture, is not pre-eminent yet). The paper also shows that the same citizens’ expectations of satisfaction of social needs are still mainly placed in the State, according to the collective image. After drawing this scenario, the paper makes a short history of Malta’s Welfare State specially considering legislation concerning families and women. In addition to the description of the legislative measures, a deeper investigation is also devoted to other programs realized at european and national level: Equal Program (2004-2006) and Malta’s latest “Action Plan”, alias the National Social Plan in its general lines of policy towards families and women. Besides the illustration of the services provided to families by the Ministry of Family and Social Solidarity in the context of the National Action Plan, three other articulations of the Plan are briefly examined: Gender Equity National Action Plan (2003-2004), National Action Plan on Poverty and Social Exclusion (2004-2006), National Action Plan for Employment (2004). The correlative institutional framework is also reviewed: the National Family Commission established in 2001 and the National Commission for the Promotion of Equality for Men and Women considered by the “Equality for Men and Women Act” of 2003. Finally the paper classifies Malta’s Welfare State among the Mediterranean models of social assistance for its specific characteristics though, differently from the evolutive tendencies of these last ones, the passage from Welfare State to Welfare Mix is still problematic and slow in Malta. In spite of the increasing forms of collaboration between public and non profit organizations, Malta’s Third Sector has still a too weak role, in comparison with family and State, in supporting people’s life on both factual and symbolic dimension. In this missing transition, specially as regards elderly care, Malta can not see yet the growth, inside Welfare Mix, of the more informal components formed by immigrated women to detriment of the services offered by private or non profit organizations (“care drain” phenomenon), which is very strongly in course in other Mediterranean countries (Italy, Spain, Greece).Family and Social Policy, Social Segregation, Poverty

Politiche orientate al bene comune e politiche attive del lavoro

La gravità della crisi economica che ha duramente colpito anche il nostro paese con pesanti ricadute sul versante della perdita di posti di lavoro (-380.000 occupati ed un tasso di disoccupazione che nel 2010 è salito all’8,8%) impone di ripensare le politiche del lavoro italiane, sia quelle passive che attive, per un recupero della loro incisività. Un mercato del lavoro che realizzi, tramite un mix appropriato di politiche passive ed attive, un’allocazione efficiente ed equa delle forze di lavoro può essere legittimamente considerato come una componente centrale del “bene comune” proponibile per un certo territorio ad un certo tempo, se il “bene comune” viene inteso come il complesso delle condizioni che consentono il perfezionamento dei singoli e della collettività. A questo scopo il paper si propone in primis di delineare quali sono in generale i requisiti in base ai quali un politica può essere considerata al servizio del «bene comune», tentando quindi di verificare se l’attuale configurazione giuridico-economica delle politiche attive italiane del lavoro (e, più in particolare, di quelle umbre) sia rispondente o meno a suddetti requisiti. Il vantaggio di questa analisi può essere duplice. Infatti, sia i problemi strutturali del mercato del lavoro italiano (ed umbro) sia le criticità che emergono dalla valutazione delle politiche attive del lavoro richiedono interventi correttivi che appaiono in linea proprio con i presupposti attribuibili ad un approccio orientato al bene comune. Inoltre, assumere coscientemente la prospettiva del bene comune con riferimento al mercato del lavoro (che dovrebbe diventare, per tale motivo, a maggior ragione più efficiente ed equo) può essere altrettanto importante in quanto favorisce l’acquisizione della consapevolezza del comune beneficio che ne deriva ai cittadini, nonché dello spessore etico richiesto in corrispondenza.Bene comune, Politiche attive del lavoro

Mediterranean Models of Welfare Towards Families and Women

After an historical Excursus on Malta's history, society, culture and institutions with their effects on female condition and on family structure and concept, the paper gives a survey of most recent Malta's economic and demographic trends with special attention to families and women, based on statistical data of the National Institute of Statistics and on the results of a sample research. After drawing this scenario, the paper makes a short History of Malta's Welfare State specially concerning family and women. In this treatment a deeper investigation is devoted to the latest "Action Plan", the national social plan in its general lines of intervention towards family and women. The strategic lines (public, private, non profit) of welfare mix are examined in relation to their amounts, results and to the coherence with the moving social context. Finally the paper develops a comparison between different european models of welfare towards family, more specifically between Malta and Italy

L’interpretazione dello spirito del dono

Il paper è una sintesi di una ricerca empirica interdisciplinare, finanziata nel 2007 dall’Assessorato alle Politiche Sociali della Regione dell’Umbria, che ha avuto come primo obiettivo quello di verificare quale è la interpretazione del dono attualmente prevalente tra un gruppo di giovani studenti e neolaureati in discipline economiche della regione Umbria. Il secondo obiettivo della ricerca è stato quello di analizzare, attraverso il contributo della Psicologia, i tratti di personalità degli intervistati in relazione, più o meno coerente, alla loro rappresentazione mentale del dono. Praticamente ciò è consistito nel verificare quali livelli di energia, amicalità, coscienziosità, stabilità emotiva, apertura mentale fossero corrispondenti alla concezione di dono prevalentemente riscontrata tra gli individui oggetto di indagine e se tali livelli fossero concordanti con essa per intensità e tipologia. Quindi si è proceduto ad individuare l’influenza che altre variabili, di natura non personologica, possono aver esercitato sull’affermazione, nell’universo investigato, di una determinata concezione del dono. Infine la ricerca si è posto il problema di verificare l’entità dei doni effettuati (suddividendoli per tipologia: doni in famiglia, doni agli amici, doni agli estranei), quale misura, seppur approssimata, del capitale sociale della comunità (dato che il dono crea/rafforza il legame sociale) e di accertare la eventuale congruenza tra la concezione prevalente di dono ed i comportamenti donativi concretamente posti in essere dai giovani intervistati. In questo quadro si è anche esaminata l’influenza che alcune variabili (appartenenza di genere, età, legami personali, modalità di vita, condizione professionale), in aggiunta al loro particolare background formativo, esplicano sulla effettuazione delle varie categorie di doni da parte dei giovani formulando al riguardo anche delle indicazioni di policy, sia dal punto di vista didattico che operativo.Gift, Reciprocity, relational goods

Global solution to the Allen-Cahn equation with singular potentials and dynamic boundary conditions

We prove well-posedness results for the solution to an initial and boundary-value problem for an Allen-Cahn type equation describing the phenomenon of phase transitions for a material contained in a bounded and regular domain. The dynamic boundary conditions for the order parameter have been recently proposed by some physicists to account for interactions with the walls. We show our results using suitable regularizations of the nonlinearities of the problem and performing some a priori estimates which allow us to pass to the limit thanks to compactness and monotonicity arguments.Comment: Key words: Allen-Cahn equation, dynamic boundary conditions, maximal monotone graphs, initial boundary value problem, existence and uniqueness result

Global existence and uniqueness for a singular/degenerate Cahn-Hilliard system with viscosity

Existence and uniqueness are investigated for a nonlinear diffusion problem of phase-field type, consisting of a parabolic system of two partial differential equations, complemented by Neumann homogeneous boundary conditions and initial conditions. This system aims to model two-species phase segregation on an atomic lattice; in the balance equations of microforces and microenergy, the two unknowns are the order parameter and the chemical potential. A simpler version of the same system has recently been discussed in arXiv:1103.4585v1. In this paper, a fairly more general phase-field equation is coupled with a genuinely nonlinear diffusion equation. The existence of a global-in-time solution is proved with the help of suitable a priori estimates. In the case of a constant atom mobility, a new and rather unusual uniqueness proof is given, based on a suitable combination of variables.Comment: Key words: phase-field model, nonlinear laws, existence of solutions, new uniqueness proo

A nonlocal quasilinear multi-phase system with nonconstant specific heat and heat conductivity

In this paper, we prove the existence and global boundedness from above for a solution to an integrodifferential model for nonisothermal multi-phase transitions under nonhomogeneous third type boundary conditions. The system couples a quasilinear internal energy balance ruling the evolution of the absolute temperature with a vectorial integro-differential inclusion governing the (vectorial) phase-parameter dynamics. The specific heat and the heat conductivity $k$ are allowed to depend both on the order parameter $chi$ and on the absolute temperature $theta$ of the system, and the convex component of the free energy may or may not be singular. Uniqueness and continuous data dependence are also proved under additional assumptions

L'attualità del pensiero di Giuseppe Toniolo

Secondo l’Autore la configurazione ottimale di economia e società proposta da G. Toniolo, secondo l'interpretazione di Mons. Domenico Sorrentino, può considerarsi pienamente in linea con il modello di “welfare responsabile” proposto per un miglioramento della condizione sociale dell’Italia