Investire e innovare: metamorfosi del sociale e lavoro sociale

The article focuses on two policy lines that are crucial in the current framework of welfare reorganization in Italy and in Europe: Social Investment and Social Innovation. The aim is to illuminate the dynamics that they nurture in social work and to understand how they open fields of change, adaptation or resistance regarding roles and skills. The starting point is the twofold dynamic through which the domain recognized and treated as “social” expands, extending far beyond its traditional boundaries and at the same time assuming more vague and blurred meanings. The research is based on two empirical fieldworks: the implementation of a measure against poverty in a Lombard territorial area; a project underway in Milan since 2015 aimed at reconfiguring the relationship between demand and supply of care services in the context of a more comprehensive reorganization of the municipal welfare.