Il ruolo della Croce Rossa Italiana nella welfare society. Assistenza in pace e in guerra sullo sfondo dell'evoluzione del welfare state italiano

This thesis is a sociological case study about the Italian Red Cross (IRC) and its role in the welfare society, in light of the recent reform that transformed it from a public body into a Third Sector Body. It is intended to note whether the effects of the reform (2012), intersected with that of the Third Sector (2017), have had mainly positive or rather negative consequences in terms of public interest, for the IRC, for the State and generally for the Italian society. Furthermore, the thesis aims to start exploring a so far rarely considered field of sociological studies. The work is divided into three parts. In the first one, the research topic is theoretically framed within the welfare sociology: the work analyzes the welfare state sociological models, the most recent European social policy guidelines, as well as the Third Sector role in welfare systems. In the second part, the focus is concentrated on the Red Cross Body, first through the examination of the distinctive features of the Movement and of some most important National Societies, and then through a reconstruction of IRC history. The third part of the paper is dedicated to the exposition of the empirical research results, during which various investigation techniques, mainly qualitative, were used. In particular: a) the analysis of IRC official documentation, in order to highlight several structural dimensions (legal status, organization, finances, staff, objectives); b) the illustration and comment of twenty semi-structured interviews addressed to privileged witnesses (IRC executives, public Institutions representatives, Third Sector members, welfare sociologists). The emerged results, although not definitive, show a substantial positive outcome of the reform: the IRC is currently a vital, well structured, up with the times humanitarian organization, although hampered by some critical issues, which are considered in detail in the work.