Purpose

This paper offers a contribution to the authors’ understanding of the impacts of the COVID-19 pandemic on living conditions of Italian households. A large part of the research, analysis, comments focused on the relation between the spread of the COVID-19 pandemic and income of the Italian households does not capture the extent of the current changes. The focus on the highly differentiated impacts of the pandemic on three core dimensions of social integration (the sphere of work, that of welfare and that of the family) could help the authors to grasp the current transformations.

Design/methodology/approach

The research draws on Castel's distinction between three “zones” of post-Fordist employment societies with the aim to identify the processes and the conditions that carry individuals from one “zones” to the other. Theoretical considerations are supported by the findings of several qualitative and quantitative research carried out during the pandemic mainly by government agencies and international organizations as OECD and WHO. The analysis of healthcare expenditure, labour market and economic conditions of households is based on data of system of health accounts – SHA and from consumer studies undertaken by the Italian National Institute of Statistics (ISTAT). The data on the financial situation and expectations of households during the crisis used in the article were drawn from special surveys carried out by the Bank of Italy.

Findings

What the authors observe in Italian society is not a collapse of the three pillars of social and system integration of contemporary societies: work, family and welfare. The COVID-19 pandemic has reversed two social and institutional trends, that in last two decades had damaged these spheres of life and that seemed relentless. First, what has been reversed are: the progressive privatization of welfare and the enhancement of the politics of retrenchment; second, values and styles of life, radical processes of individualization, that undermined mutual relations of support and care, and households' ability to cope with old and new risks. At the same time, the pandemic is radicalizing the long-lasting tendency towards job insecurity, a high incidence of low-paid workers and a high proportion of undeclared work. The highly differentiated impacts of the pandemic on these three spheres of life are creating a wider plurality of living conditions and risks.

Social implications

The findings suggest that what the authors need is to reopen the debate on welfare priorities, programmes and areas of intervention, on public-private relationship that have been established in many sectors of welfare in the last decades in many European countries. The COVID-19 pandemic has highlighted the importance welfare programmes capable of recognising the autonomous capacities of the family and informal relations to produce well-being, to cope with the crisis and to produce supportive relationships.

Originality/value

The pandemic highlighted that a progressive reduction of expenditure and politics of retrenchment produced welfare not able to face the needs of a large part of households. The pandemic highlighted that the changes that have taken place in the sphere of work, welfare and of the family in the last years have produced less and less governable effects.

中文翻译：

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在 COVID-19 大流行中：意大利家庭的经济不安全和应对策略

目的

本文有助于作者了解 COVID-19 大流行对意大利家庭生活条件的影响。大部分研究、分析和评论都集中在 COVID-19 大流行的传播与意大利家庭收入之间的关系上，并没有反映当前变化的程度。关注大流行对社会融合的三个核心维度（工作领域、福利领域和家庭领域）的高度差异化影响可以帮助作者把握当前的转变。

设计/方法/方法

该研究利用卡斯特尔对后福特主义就业社会的三个“区域”的区分，旨在确定将个人从一个“区域”带到另一个“区域”的过程和条件。主要由政府机构和国际组织（如经合组织和世界卫生组织）在大流行期间进行的几项定性和定量研究的结果支持了理论考虑。对医疗保健支出、劳动力市场和家庭经济状况的分析基于健康账户系统的数据 - SHA 和意大利国家统计局 (ISTAT) 进行的消费者研究。本文使用的有关危机期间家庭财务状况和预期的数据来自意大利银行进行的特别调查。

发现

作者在意大利社会中观察到的并不是当代社会社会和制度整合的三大支柱：工作、家庭和福利的崩溃。COVID-19 大流行扭转了两种社会和制度趋势，在过去的二十年里，这两种趋势已经破坏了这些生活领域，而且似乎是无情的。首先，被逆转的是：福利的逐步私有化和紧缩政治的加强；第二，价值观和生活方式，激进的个性化过程，破坏了相互支持和照顾的关系，以及家庭应对新旧风险的能力。与此同时，这种流行病正在激化长期存在的工作不安全趋势、低收入工人的高发率和高比例的未申报工作。

社会影响

研究结果表明，作者需要重新就福利优先事项、计划和干预领域以及过去几十年在许多欧洲国家的许多福利部门建立的公私关系展开辩论。COVID-19 大流行突出了福利计划的重要性，该计划能够认识到家庭和非正式关系的自主能力以产生福祉、应对危机和建立支持性关系。

原创性/价值

这场流行病凸显了支出的逐步减少和紧缩政策所产生的福利无法满足大部分家庭的需求。这场大流行凸显了过去几年在工作、福利和家庭领域发生的变化产生的可治理影响越来越少。