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ABSTRACT
Social mediation constitutes an alternative method to legal proceedings, providing effective support for the management and resolution of the most common types of conflicts between individuals, within families and among neighbours, as well as other types of disputes that can arise from interactions between people. Over the last 20 years, urban areas in Italy with high concentrations of public housing have gradually become zones of social disadvantage in which conflict is widespread, due to a number of different factors. On the local level, some municipalities have started promoting innovative initiatives, thanks in part to the sharing of successful practices, both nationally and internationally. This paper presents the methodology and results of an innovative intervention of social mediation in public housing contexts, carried out in a number of municipalities in the Marche Region with financing provided under two projects of the European Fund for the Integration of non-EU Immigrants. Particular attention is given to training courses for social workers, as well as to actions carried out in public housing neighbourhoods, together with the public housing tenants, in order to manage the various issues related to housing and to prevent and deal with conflicts by reinforcing relations between neighbours.
SOMMARIO
La mediazione sociale si configura come un metodo alternativo alla via giudiziaria, con il quale viene offerto un supporto efficace per gestire e risolvere i più comuni conflitti interpersonali, familiari, condominiali e altre controversie che possono emergere nell’interazione tra persone. Negli ultimi 20 anni, in Italia, i contesti urbani con un’elevata concentrazione di alloggi di edilizia pubblica sono gradualmente diventati spazi di esclusione sociale, in cui i conflitti sono diffusi, a causa di una molteplicità di fattori. A livello locale le amministrazioni più attive hanno cominciato a promuovere alcune azioni innovative, anche grazie alla condivisione delle best practices a livello nazionale e internazionale. Il contributo presenta la metodologia e i risultati di un intervento innovativo di mediazione sociale nei contesti di edilizia pubblica, realizzato in alcuni comuni della Regione Marche mediante il finanziamento di due progetti da parte del Fondo Europeo per l’Integrazione dei Cittadini di Paesi Terzi. In particolare si pone attenzione ai percorsi formativi rivolti agli operatori del territorio e alle azioni attuate dagli assistenti sociali nei quartieri di edilizia pubblica, al fine di gestire, insieme ai condòmini, le diverse problematiche relative all’abitare, oltre che prevenire e affrontare i conflitti rafforzando le relazioni tra vicini.
Acknowledgements
I would like to take this opportunity to thank the reviewers for their valuable suggestions. Regarding the project of social housing mediation I am especially grateful to: the social mediators, the staff at the Regional Authority for Public Housing and the municipal partners to the project. A special thanks goes to all the public housing tenants who participated and believed in the project.
Disclosure statement
No potential conflict of interest was reported by the author.
Notes on contributor
Carla Moretti is Professor of Social Work and Researcher of Economic Sociology at the Department of Economics and Social Sciences, Faculty of Economics, Polytechnic University of Marche, Italy. Her research is focused on methods of intervention in social work, social and health integration, social planning, social mediation and community work.
Notes
1. The Marche Region is situated in central Italy. From a study (CRISS, Citation2010), undertaken in the province of Ancona, where four of the municipalities (Ancona, Fabriano, Jesi e Senigallia) are located (the fifth being Fano, which is located in the province of Pesaro Urbino), it emerged that in 2009 the average population in the province was equal to 477,167.50, with the population figures for the entire region amounting to 1,573,627.00.
2. In Italy, the INA Casa Plan, responsible for a large portion of the country’s remaining public housing, was established under Law no. 43 of 28 February 1949. The INA Casa administration assigned its social centres to the ISSCAL (Social Services Institute for Workers’ Public Housing), which is headquartered in Rome. ISSCAL has overseen the establishment of social-service centres in building complexes, assigning the organisational and operating tasks to social workers (Leto, Citation1963).
3. The founder of the first school of social services in Italy, Odile Vallin, promoted an Italian model of social services, drawing on her experience in France, having first adjusted it to reflect the reality of the situation in Italy; and all this prior to the introduction of the American methodologies (Canali & Lerma, Citation2011).
4. The two projects were financed by the European Fund for the Integration of Third Country Nationals and by the Department of Civil Liberties and Immigration, Central Office of Policies on Immigration and Asylum, of the Ministry of Interior Affairs. The first project was undertaken by the Polytechnic University of the Marche Region, the lead institution, and specifically by the Centre for Research and Service on Social and Health Integration (CRISS), in collaboration with ERAP (Regional Public Housing Authority), the Province of Ancona (Department of Sustainable Public Housing and Department of Social Services and Immigration), and the municipalities of Ancona, Jesi and Fabriano. The second project was undertaken by the municipality of Fabriano, the lead institution, in collaboration with the Polytechnic University of the Marche (Department of Economics and Social Sciences), the municipality of Ancona, Jesi, Fabriano, Fano and Senigallia, and the COOSS Social Cooperative.