Gaetano Gucciardo

Social work online: a recognition of experiences and practices in Italy

ABSTRACT ‘The Internet is the fabric or our lives’ [Castells, M. (2001). The Internet Galaxy: Reflections on the Internet, Business, and Society. Oxford: Oxford University Press, p. 1] – but which are the weaves that nowadays connect Italian social workers into such a fabric? Herein we aim at answering this question through a survey of on-line resources, nodes and practices of e-Social Work in Italy. We shall be discussing ICT impact on the Italian context, and the utilization of ICT by Italian social workers, in order to build up the internal and external factors that determine the current utilization levels of these emerging tools within the professional community. A review of the major on-line social work portals will identify their key features and peculiarities and aim to provide an overview of the substance and current on-line functions of Italian social work, with a summing-up of criticalities and opportunities that might prompt reflection on possible future developments.

Il valore del capitale sociale : una rassegna critica della letteratura

The aim of this paper is to show the various ways in which the concept of social capital is used through a critical analysis of the scientific literature. The analysis of the concept has to end by showing its pronounced ambiguity. In literature can be found two definitions of the concept which are difficult to reconcile. One definition considers social capital as a property of the social system, the other as an individual property. Apart from these fundamental differences, the number of factors which are dealt with as social capital is so vast that one legitimately doubts whether it is possible to create a theory of social capital. Even in light of empirical observations, there is a great variety of operationalization which can not be reconciled. Social capital seems to be more a metaphor than a concept and what constitutes social capital, rather than being defined abstractly, can and, in fact, is defined each time in relation to specific contexts and the subjects being examined.