La trasformazione del lavoro e della regolazione sociale in Italia e in Europa

Abstract

The article discusses the transformations of employment and of the systems of social regulation of work in advanced industrial countries today. The process of change is upsetting the equilibrium conditions typical of the welfare capitalism variants. These conditions were basically represented by the full employment of male breadwinners, the high domestic and care responsibilities of adult women and the consistent growth of the welfare state programmes. The author argues that, in order to understand the transformation of work, both competition and social regulation have to be taken into consideration together and that the combinations of socially regulated forms of work vary in history and space. The new regulation of work is accompanied by important institutional transformations, such as the horizontal spreading of network of firms instead than vertically integrated ones, the increase of adult women employment, a demographic transition centred on highly increased expectations of life and more heterogeneous and unstable households, more articulated labour law. In its final part the article deals with welfare and employment change in Europe and in particular in Italy As regards the Italian case, the author insists on the importance of two questions: the fact that the process of adaptation has reinforced familistic features and avoided welfare reforms and innovation; the impact of the increasing differences between North and South on the radical diversification of the social regulation systems.