Labour policies and social inclusion: a critical analysis of Italy’s National Recovery and Resilience Plan’s Mission 5

The extraordinary resources provided by the #NexGenerationEU programme, implemented in Italy through the National Recovery and Resilience Plan (NRRP), offer an opportunity to rethink policies for inclusion and cohesion. On the one hand, these resources allow to contrast social impact of the COVID-19 pandemic, with particular reference to levels of unemployment, poverty and material deprivation, but also to address some of the main problems that existed long before the pandemic. In the article “Policies and Investments for Inclusion and Cohesion in the National Recovery and Resilience Plan: a critical analysis of the approach, objectives and intervention strategies” (published on the journal L’Industria by Il Mulino) Fabio Landini, University of Florence, and Andrea Ferrannini, ARCO and University of Florence, offer a critical analysis of the approach, objectives and intervention strategies of Mission 5 “Inclusion and Cohesion” of the PNRR.

The crisis generated by the COVID-19 pandemic has affected the entire economic, organisational and employment structure of the country system in Italy, as well as the social and relational structure, with reference to the multiple dimensions of individual and collective wellbeing. In other words, it has affected the sphere of personal freedoms and opportunities of all citizens, influencing the processes of sustainable human development of the society.

The NRRP Mission 5 ‘Inclusion and Cohesion’ has a fundamental relevance in this context as it focuses directly on the pillar of social justice, with reference to some of the main dimensions of wellbeing, such as access to decent and quality work, access to housing and quality of living, and personal autonomy. In other words, it refers to the expansion of capabilities – opportunities and capacities, understood as positive freedoms for each person to which individuals assign value for the satisfaction of their needs, the realisation of their aspirations and human flourishing.

The analysis formulated by the authors aims to pave the way for some possible proactive considerations aimed at strengthening and improving the implementation of the NRRP, particularly in the two branches of Mission 5 dedicated to labour policies and social infrastructure, families, communities and the Third Sector, in the years to come. The considerations aim to enable some of the country’s structural, rather than cyclical, problems to be tackled more effectively with a far-reaching public investment roots.

To read the article click here (available only in Italian).

The work and reflections shared in this article find their origin in the collective debate among a community of scholars from different Italian universities promoted by the Centro Universitario Nazionale di Economia Applicata – CiMET during the 18th Annual Workshop held in Prato (July 2021), during which it was possible to carry out a collective rereading and critical analysis of the PNRR in the light of a common disciplinary background.

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