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3. The analysis of the role of local social policies and governance and how the changes impacted on it
 

Local social policies – as an expression of the mechanism of inclusion and exclusion at the very base of citizenship and governance mechanisms – are addressed almost in all recent and ongoing research projects we will consider. The transformations occurring (e.g. the tightening available resources, etc…) impact on the degrees of freedom local policy makers have in facing the effects of these transformations. In turn historically rooted practices influence the strategies developed and the directions taken.
 

Main objectives of this area of research are:
 

1. to analyse the results of recent and ongoing research in terms of interpretations of the emerging differences in local social policies and their success and failure on a comparative basis.

2. to built upon the emerging results to deepen the understanding of how different welfare arrangements (understood as local articulation of national welfare systems) mitigate the effects of economic restructuring, through their effects on employment opportunities, education, income distribution, social welfare and housing.

3. to understand and verify to what extent specific targeted local urban policies (e.g. development programmes, urban renewal projects, activation policies within social assistance schemes, …) have succeeded in promoting social inclusion and urban sustainability, changing the modes of urban governance.

4. to assess how spatial patterns of social exclusion (see results from the achievement of objective 2) should be taken into account in strategies to enhance social integration, combat exclusion and reduce unemployment

5. to produce a coherent analysis and interpretation of the main reasons for the differences - in terms of success and failure of local social policies - on a comparative basis.

6. to verify existing evaluation instruments all local social policies trying to develop a cross-country.

7. to identify the specific European elements of local policies compared to other models (e.g. American, Asian,…).
    

These three sets of objectives are not easy to achieve without considering thoroughly – as we have often stated – the results of recent and ongoing comparative research at the European level. Also relevant ongoing research at the local or national level will be considered if relevant to the achievement of the objectives of this RTN proposal.
 

To these objectives we have to add an additional and very innovative objective: we aim also at providing the visual support to the issues tackled in the different thematic areas. To give an example: when we will address issues of gentrification we will provide images from neighbourhoods of different European cities where this process is taking place. This support will be the result of the training activities taking place during the visual seminar (see http://shakti.uniurb.it/eurex/visual_lab/visual_lab.htm) and will involve most pre and post-doc fellows.

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Last modified: 10/21/05