Call for Papers Welfare & Ergonomia 2/2025

2024-11-28

Preventing and combating gender-based violence is a privileged field to question the welfare system and identify innovative strategies capable of responding to emerging needs (Strid et al. 2021), while also considering the digitalisation of society.

Historically, where state institutions have struggled to intervene, feminist movements have provided concrete responses to women survivors of male violence (Corradi and Stöckl 2016), mainly through the creation of safe spaces and specialised services. This has been characterised in our country by the primacy of politics over professionalism and the affirmation of women’s desire and projectuality (Creazzo 2008), signalling the urgency of a welfare system capable of addressing the structural roots of violence and a broader reflection on the role of public policies (Bimbi 2019).

The ratification of the Istanbul Convention was a decisive push for the development of legislation and the planning of policies to prevent violence, protect victims and prosecute perpetrators (Demurtas and Misiti 2021; Re, Rigo and Virgilio 2019). However, there are still undeniably critical areas when we look, for example, at the mechanisms for transferring funds to support anti-violence centres and shelters (Molteni and Mauri 2023), at the different practices of specialised and general services (Cannito and Torrioni 2024; Demurtas, Misiti and Toffanin 2021) and at the integration between anti-violence measures and sectoral policies aimed at promoting the economic, labour and housing autonomy of women survivors of violence (Busi and Toffanin 2024).

These and other critical issues were highlighted during the recent COVID-19 pandemic (Nocenzi and Crespi 2022; Romito et al. 2021), which nevertheless called for innovations such as the introduction of structural funding for programmes dedicated to the recovery of perpetrators of violence (Demurtas and Peroni 2023) as well as economic support for centres and shelters dedicated to queer victims of violence, an emerging reality with specific characteristics (Demurtas and Peroni 2024; Costa and Magino 2021). Moreover, the pandemic period has amplified the changes in the communicative dynamics of contemporary society, fostering a greater awareness of the continuum of offline-online violence and the new forms of violence perpetrated in digital environments (Donato, Eslen-Ziya and Mangone 2022). Phenomena such as cyberstalking, the distribution of sexually explicit images and online hate speech disproportionately affect young women and members of the LGBTQIA+ community (FRA 2020; EIGE 2018), increasing vulnerabilities and creating new challenges.

These trends require a rethinking of the way in which welfare policies are planned and implemented (Giullari, Withfield and Caselli 2019; Mangone 2016), to combine available resources and the improvement of the living conditions of people who have survived violence, while guaranteeing the enforceability of rights throughout the country. From this perspective, the integration of social, territorial and technological networks is therefore a necessity, as well as the active participation of all subjectivities, not only as recipients, but as partners in the design of policies.

We therefore invite the submission of proposals for analysis and critical reflection (theoretical or empirical), also from a comparative perspective, in order to gather elements that may contribute to finding answers to the following questions:

How can the integration of a reflection on the different forms and dynamics of gender-based violence contribute to broadening and redefining welfare paradigms, considering the structural, cultural and political implications it generates?
What territorial differences are there in the management of policies against gender-based violence? Which governance models have proved most effective in balancing the resources and quality of services offered?
Which possible synergies on the territory make it possible to overcome the difficulties that arise in the relationship between specialised and general services? To what extent can integration between anti-violence policies and social, health and digital policies help to respond more effectively to victims’ needs?
In an intersectional perspective, which needs are not met, and which possible strategies can be devised for this purpose?
What approaches and tools are needed to address new forms of digital violence while ensuring inclusiveness and sustainability?

Potential authors for this issue of Welfare and Ergonomics are invited to submit an abstract of max 3,000 characters (including spaces) by 31 January 2025. If accepted, the full-format contribution must be submitted by 15 July 2025 according to the breakdown and modalities specified below:

- theoretical contributions (subject to peer review) of no more than 25,000 characters (including spaces).

- empirical research (subject to peer review) of no more than 25,000 characters (including spaces).

To be evaluated, the abstract should consist of:

- introduction to the topic

- scientific framework within which to place the contribution; reconstruction of the national and international debate;

- methodological framework adopted and hypotheses formulated;

- most important and innovative results;

- essential bibliographical references.

E-mail address for sending abstracts: welfarergonomia.rel@irpps.cnr.it

After the acceptance of the proposals by the journal editors, the authors will have to register online on the OJS platform of the publisher Franco Angeli:

https://journals.francoangeli.it/index.php/we/user/register

Once the registration is completed, the authors will be able to upload the article by clicking on the «Make a new proposal» link on the dashboard. If the proposed article is not relevant to the journal’s topics, the authors will be informed.

Bibliography:

Bimbi, F. (2019). Tra protezione e care. Ripensare le violenze maschili contro le donne. Studi sulla questione criminale, 1-2, pp. 35-60.

Busi, B., Toffanin, A.M. (2024) Relazione sulle politiche europee e nazionali volte a favorire l’empowerment femminile, con un focus riservato alle donne in situazione di violenza. Rapporto disponibile al sito: htps://viva.cnr.it/deliverable-e-rapporti/

Cannito, M., Torrioni, P.M. (a cura di) (2024). Reti in azione. Strumenti teorici e pratici nel campo dell'antiviolenza. Bologna: Il Mulino.

Costa, G., Magino, S. (2021). Giovani LGBT+ senza dimora trovano casa. Autonomie locali e servizi sociali, 44(2), 317-332.

Corradi, C., Stöckl, H. (2016). The lessons of history: The role of the nation-states and the EU in fighting violence against women in 10 European countries. Current Sociology, 64(4), 671-688.

Creazzo, G. (2008). La costruzione sociale della violenza contro le donne in Italia. Studi sulla questione criminale, 2, pp. 15-42, doi: 10.7383/70696

Demurtas P., Misiti M. (a cura di) (2021). VIVA. Violenza contro le donne in Italia. Orientamenti e buone pratiche. Milano: Guerini.

Demurtas, P., Misiti, M., Toffanin, A. M. (2021). Il contrasto alla violenza sulle donne: attori, processi e pratiche di un campo in evoluzione. Nota introduttiva. La Rivista delle Politiche Sociali, 3-4, pp. 9-20.

Demurtas, P., Peroni C. (2024). La violenza anti-queer: voci dal campo dei rifugi LGBT in Italia. In Coppola M.M., Donà A., Reale C. M. e Tuselli A. (a cura di), Gender R-Evolutions: immaginare l'inevitabile, sovvertire l'impossibile. Quaderni del dipartimento di sociologia e ricerca sociale 8, pp. 329-340.

Demurtas, P., Peroni, C. (2023). Valutare per prevenire: la rilevazione del cambiamento negli autori di violenza tra procedure standard e indicatori qualitativi. Culture e Studi del Sociale, 8(2), 9-26.

Donato, S., Eslen-Ziya, H & Mangone E. (2022). From offline to online violence: new challenges for the contemporary society. International Review of Sociology, 32(3), pp. 400-412. doi: htps://doi.org/10.1080/03906701.2022.2133405

EIGE (2018). Gender equality and youth: opportunities and risks of digitalisation. Luxembourg: Publications Office of the European Union.

FRA (2020). A long way to go for LGBTI equality. Luxembourg: Publications Office of the European Union.

Giullari B., Caselli D. e Whitfield D. (2019). A job like any other? Working in the social sector between transformations of work and the Crisis of welfare. Sociologia del lavoro, n. 155, pp. 33-53.

Mangone, E. (2016). Implicazioni normative e istituzionali nello sviluppo integrato del welfare. In M. Del Forno (a cura di), Nel complesso mondo del welfare. Idee, metodi e pratiche, Milano: FrancoAngeli, pp. 93-104.

Molteni, L., Mauri, A.M. (2023). Relazione finale di valutazione del Piano Strategico Nazionale sulla violenza maschile contro le donne 2017-2020. Rapporto disponibile al sito: htps://viva.cnr.it/deliverable-e-rapporti/

Nocenzi, M., Crespi, I. (2022). Il contrasto alla violenza di genere e la pandemia covid-19 : rischi e ambivalenze nelle politiche di welfare: un'introduzione al tema. Critica sociologica, 223(3), pp. 41-52.

Pasian, P., Proia, F. (2021). I centri antiviolenza nelle politiche regionali: eterogeneità e prospective. La rivista delle Politiche Sociali, 3-4, pp. 55-68.

Re, L., Rigo, E. e Virgilio, M. (2019). Le violenze maschili contro le donne: complessità del fenomeno ed effettività delle politiche di contrasto, «Studi sulla questione criminale», voll. 1-2, pp. 9-34.

Romito, P., Pellegrini, M., Saurel-Cubizolles, M. J. (2021). Pensare la violenza contro le donne: una ricerca al tempo del Covid. Torino: Rosenberg & Sellier

Strid, S., Humbert, A. L., Hearn, J., & Balkmar, D. (2021). States of violence: Exploring welfare state regimes as violence regimes by developing a violence regimes index. Journal of European Social Policy, 31(3), 321-336.