The Unbalanced Welfare of Italian Fragile Rural Areas

The aim of this paper is to describe fragile rural areas in Italy with especial attention to welfare measures, considered as factors crucial for achieving people’s wellbeing. The diversified development trajectories of rural areas require welfare services calibrated on specific disadvantages. Yet Italian rural welfare is ‘unbalanced’ for several reasons: it has followed regional disparities instead of compensating for them; it is retreating from peripheral areas because of the state’s fiscal crisis; it is too closely centred on cash benefits rather than interpersonal services. There are sporadic local welfare mix schemes attempting to moderate these processes, but the situation remains all in all unfair. The paper is structured as follows: first, it places Italy in an international scenario concerning the links between economic development and wellbeing; second, it analyses the disparities internal to Italy, paying especial attention to the rural-urban dimension; third, it comments on the welfare policies necessary to reduce Italy’s territorial disparities.