From the Good Factory towards a New Sustainable Post-war Social Order in Italy. The Remarkable “Utopian” Welfare Work Policies of Adriano Olivetti and His Typewriter Company in the 1950s

Abstract

In this paper, welfare work at Olivetti, a former well-known Italian typewriter and office machines company, will be analysed. Welfare work at Olivetti had reached its peak in the 1950s. This was relatively late in comparison to other noteworthy enlightened welfare work initiatives in the industrialized West. The heyday of welfare work in Europe and the United States occurred during the period from 1880 until 1930. From World War II onwards, the extensive Olivetti welfare work programs were embedded in a deliberate and encompassing communitarian social philosophy. Adriano Olivetti’s main objectives were twofold: to prevent worker alienation at the shopfloor level in his factories and to resolve political and social conflict in post-war Italy. This plan was to be carried out in a sustainable way by means of strengthening regional development. Within quite a short time span, the country underwent a rapid and intensive transformation from being a traditional agrarian society into one of the leading industrialized nations of Europe. A response will be provided to the question concerning to what extent Olivetti’s experiment can be considered unique in comparison to other significant enlightened welfare work experiments that took place between 1880 and 1930. Finally, the topicality of the Olivetti experiment will be considered.