As the COVID-19 crisis began to take shape, all eyes were on Italy, the first Western country to attempt a response to the deadly pandemic. For institutional decision makers and average citizens alike, it was a time of deep uncertainty. As scientists struggled to understand the nature of the virus and how it spread, the gradualness with which information became available caused only deeper uncertainty, as did the inevitable disagreements over which protective actions the government should put in place. Despite some initial delay in its response, the Italian government eventually implemented a nationwide lockdown, which helped control the spread of the disease but simultaneously created unintended consequences for vulnerable populations, like small business owners, women, the elderly, and workers living paycheck to paycheck. Drawing on data surveys conducted during the transition between the first lockdown and staged reopening, this book examines people's risk perception and their willingness to trust the sources and channels of information that were available to them. It also looks at their attitudes toward the protective behaviors they were asked to adopt and the ways in which their own cultural worldviews impacted their support for pandemic response policies. With remarkable depth and candor, respondents reflected on what a post-COVID-19 Italy might look like, filling out the book with the hopes and fears of real people who had stared death in the face and lived to tell about it. The book looks ahead to possibilities for future research, policy, and practice. COVID-19 in Italy elaborates and tests several aspects of the Protective Action Decision Model (PADM) in the Italian context, introducing the concept of ontological security and insecurity as an explanatory change factor to help interpret the Italian experience of responding to COVID-19.

This volume presents a new perspective for discussing the European social contract and its main challenges, bringing together single-nation and comparative studies from across Europe. Presenting both theoretical discussions and empirical case studies, it explores various aspects of social cohesion, including social protection, the labour market, social movements, healthcare, social inequalities and poverty. With particular attention to the effects of the international economic and financial crisis on social cohesion, particularly in the light of the implementation of so-called 'austerity measures', authors engage with questions surrounding the possible fragmentation of the European model of social cohesion and the transformation of forms of social protection, asking whether social cohesion continues to represent - if it ever did - a common feature of European countries. Breaking new ground in understanding the future of Social Europe and its main dynamics of change, The European Social Model Adrift will appeal to scholars of sociology, social policy and politics, with interests in social cohesion, the effects of financial crisis and the European social model.