Continuities and changes in the Italian poverty regime

Abstract

The concluding chapter argues that the financial crisis both exposed and strengthened the weaknesses in all four dimensions whose interplay constitutes the specific Italian poverty regime. Gender arrangements within the family and exclusive expectations of family solidarity proved both risky and not always feasible. The fragmentary system of social protection became increasingly unable to protect a growing population of unemployed or precarious workers. Workers’ organizations (trade unions), while losing part of their constituency because of unemployment and labour market changes, had difficulty in representing a changed workforce. NGOs and charities were increasing under the pressure to act as substitutes of the deficiencies and failures of the welfare state. These combined weaknesses, while strengthening long-term vulnerabilities and inequalities, also created new ones. Problematic developments are also occurring in the representation of the poor, even within the new income support measure, that ignores both the scarcity of demand and the crucial role of household composition and gender division of labour in exposing to the risk of poverty. More and more a moralisation of the discourse on poverty distinguishes between deserving and undeserving poor