SPECIAL ISSUE N. 172(2)/2025 CALL FOR PAPERS

BACKGROUND

Over the last decades, in the large majority of EU member states, the public sector has

undergone relevant transformations triggered by multiple “pressures”. If until the 1970s the expansion of the sector was perceived as a sign of development, from the following decade the dominant perspective was reversed, also due to the increase in public debt. The level of expenditure in the sector − including that for the personnel – was not only exposed to stricter controls, leading to a situation of “permanent austerity” (Pierson 1998), but it became the main financial lever exploited by governments. At the same time, the New Public Management program (Osborn and Gabler 1992), with its recommendations (privatization of employment relations, market or quasi-market mechanisms in the provision of services, adoption of managerial practices in personnel management, etc.) spread across Europe, although to a different extent and in different ways in the various countries (Walsh 1995; Ridley 1996). In Italy, these processes started in the 1990s and then experienced rapid acceleration. Following the financial crisis of 2008-10, pressures for cost containment strengthened considerably, together with the pressure towards the implementation of austerity measures (Streeck 2014; Van Gyes and Schulten 2015). This was especially true in southern European countries, which were particularly dependent on external financial support and subject to more stringent public finance control (Pavolini et al. 2015; Di Mascio and Natalini 2022). These pressures triggered further and often deeped “cuts” in public expenditure for the different areas/activities (Vaughan- Whitehead 2013; Bach and Bordogna 2016).

All these pressures had significant impacts on public employment and jobs: specifically, on the employment levels; the quality of work; as well as on industrial relations. Extant research,

dealing with different institutional contexts, has highlighted common trajectories of deterioration: the loss of jobs and the shrinkage of employment; the increase in temporary and precarious contracts in the sector; the stagnation or decline of wages; the deterioration of other working conditions; the weakening of social dialogue; and the gradual increase in unilateralism in the definition of working conditions and the organization of work in the public administrations (Glassner 2010; Bordogna and Pedersini, 2013; Bach et al. 2016; Keune et al.

2020). Importantly, previous literature showed the negative consequences these transformations had also on the quality of services and users’ satisfaction (Bordogna and Neri 2014; Pedaci et al. 2020). Moreover, the growing fragmentation of the “public value chain”, pursued through

forms  of  mixed  public-private  management,  accreditation  mechanisms  and  outsourcing practices, especially in the context of labour-intensive services (for example cleaning, provision of meals, but also care, social-welfare and socio-educational services) has further contributed to the reduction in the quality of work and services. This phenomenon, particularly widespread in Italy (Dorigatti et al. 2020; Di Nunzio and Pedaci 2023), has triggered a generalized competition on costs, reinforcing, among other things, inequalities in the workforce employed in the “supply chain” of public services (Dorigatti et al. 2018; Mori 2020; Giullari and Lucciarini 2023).

More recently, the pandemic crisis and the related health emergency have made clearer, on the one hand, the cruciality of the role of the public sector and its employees (de Beer and Keune 2022), celebrated by public opinion and policy-makers as the ‘new heroes’. On the other hand, however, the emergency has not reversed – or only partially – the dynamics just mentioned.

Conversely, these trajectories intertwined with new pressures and transformations: the ‘twin transition’ relating to the growing digitalisation and to the need to start a ‘green transition’, as well as the increase in inflation.

 

THE CONTRIBUTIONS

Despite the relevance of the trends mentioned above, the scientific debate (including the sociological one) has paid only little attention to the dynamics of transformation of public

employment − with some important exceptions, however mainly focused on the pre-pandemic or even pre-financial crisis period. These studies shed light on a series of contradictions and critical issues (Carrieri and Damiano 2010; Dell'Aringa and Della Rocca 2017; Cavalli and Argentin 2010; Gagliardi and Accorinti 2014) which then heightened during the very last years (Vicarelli 2022; Naldini and Poggio 2023). The pandemic crisis has, in part, revitalized the interest in the public employment, even if with the specific perspective focused on remote working experiences (Previtali et al. 2020; Pirro et al. 2022).

The goal of the special issue is to fill this knowledge and research gap by promoting a broad discussion with an inter- and multi-disciplinary approach. The proposal draws upon the acknowledgment of the growing importance of public employment at a time in which the role of public administration represents a decisive factor for economic recovery and growth, as well as for improving access to rights and social cohesion.

In this perspective, the special issue aims to collect original contributions of theoretical reflection, but above all of empirical analysis, of a qualitative and/or quantitative nature. The monographic section will focus on the Italian context, to ensure a broad and in-depth discussion on an articulated and complex country. Particular attention will be devoted to both the national and the local trajectories of development − also in a multi-level perspective − and to in its intra- and inter-sectoral distinctiveness. However, contribution adopting a comparative perspective of Italy with other countries are encouraged, to grasp similarities and differences.

Specifically, contributions may include (but are not limited to) the following topics:

−    dynamics of change in public employment;

−    meanings and attractiveness of work and jobs in the public sector;

−    personnel selection policies/methods;

−    models of work organization;

−    employment and career paths, unstable/precarious contractual situations;

−    quality (in its various dimensions) and job satisfaction;

−    technological and organizational innovations and consequences for working conditions;

−    inequalities and discrimination in the workplace;

−    inclusion practices; diversity management experiences;

−    quality of work and quality of services;

−    initiatives by industrial relations actors or other collective actors to improve working conditions.