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

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 wo…