Social Work and Welfare System in Italy: changes, critical issues, resiliencies

Abstract

The emergence and growth of the professional figure of the social worker in Italy dates back to the 20th century, when the concept of social assistance witnessed a more concrete legislative application, through the affirmation of the Social State, the type of State that aims to guarantee not only equality and freedom to its citizens, but also, what is known as, “social well-being”: “the profession of social worker, being the progeny of industrial society, assumes the form of the functional specialization of modern social-welfare activity” (Gui 2004: 3). Since the early years of the last century, the social worker (or “social assistant” as it has been the term given in Italy to the social worker) (Bandolato 1993; Benvenuti & Segatori 2000) is a professional figure with the function of “social” aid, again strongly inter-linked with the development of social policy and characterized by being generally classified as a female occupation. This gender characterization was especially true in the early days but it is still true today, regardless of the Welfare choices adopted in the meantime in Italy and other countries (Di Rosa 2016).