The value of social work. Extractive dynamics and images of the non profit sector

Journal title SOCIOLOGIA DEL LAVORO
Author/s Sandro Busso, Silvia Lanunziata
Publishing Year 2016 Issue 2016/142
Language Italian Pages 18 P. 62-79 File size 120 KB
DOI 10.3280/SL2016-142004
DOI is like a bar code for intellectual property: to have more infomation click here

Below, you can see the article first page

If you want to buy this article in PDF format, you can do it, following the instructions to buy download credits

Article preview

FrancoAngeli is member of Publishers International Linking Association, Inc (PILA), a not-for-profit association which run the CrossRef service enabling links to and from online scholarly content.

The article deals with social workers conditions in non profit organizations, and with value extraction mechanisms occurring in this sector. Particular attention will be paid to the strategies allowing organizations to respond to market uncertainty by making work less paid and more flexible. In such strategies, the positive rhetoric built around the non profit sector plays a pivotal role, together with intagible rewards that seem to influence workers satisfaction and to restrain or avoid conflicts The analysis contribute to the general debate about work in the foundational economy by highlighting some critical points. First, the presence of profits is not necessary for value exctraction dynamics to occur. Second, the positioning within the foundational economy can boost value extraction instead of hampering it. The social value of the services offered, indeed, can act as a legitimating factor of workers exploitation, since the society as a whole can benefit from it.

Keywords: Non profit, social work, social workers, value extraction, third sector, foundational economy

  1. Ambrosini M. (1999). Tra altruismo e professionalità: terzo settore e cooperazione in Lombardia. Milano: FrancoAngeli.
  2. Armano E. (2012). Alcune parole chiave della soggettività nel lavoro della conoscenza. In: Ead., Murgia A., a cura di, Mappe della precarietà. Knowledge workers, creatività, saperi e dispositivi di soggettivazione. Bologna: Odoya.
  3. Armano E., Murgia A. (2013). The Precariousnesses of Young Knowledge Workers: a Subject oriented Approach. Global Discourse, vol. 3(34): 116.
  4. Ascoli U., a cura di (1999). Il Welfare futuro: manuale critico del terzo settore. Roma: Carocci.
  5. Boltanski L., Chiapello E. (1999). Le nouvel esprit du capitalisme. Paris: Gallimard.
  6. Borzaga C., Tortia E. (2006). Worker motivations, job satisfaction, and loyalty in public and nonprofit social services. Nonprofit and voluntary sector quarterly, 35.2: 225-248.
  7. Bowman A., Froud J., Johal S., Law J., Leaver A., Moran M., Williams K. (2014). The end of the experiment?: From competition to the foundational economy. Oxford: Oxford University Press.
  8. Brophy E., de Peuter G. (2007). Immaterial labor, precarity and recomposition. Knowledge workers in the information society, 2/2007: 177-192.
  9. Busso S., Gargiulo E. (2016). Convergenze parallele: il perimetro (ristretto) del dibattito italiano sul Terzo settore. Politiche Sociali/Social Policies, 1/2016: 101-122.
  10. Busso S., Negri N., a cura di (2012). La programmazione sociale a livello locale: innovazione, tradizione, rituali. Roma: Carocci.
  11. Busso S., Rivetti P. (2014). What’s Love Got to Do with it? Precarious Academic Labour Forces and the Role of Passion in Italian Universities. Recherches sociologiques et anthropologiques, 45-2: 15-37.
  12. Chicchi F., Leonardi E., a cura di (2011). Lavoro in frantumi. Condizione precaria, nuovi conflitti e regime neoliberista. Verona: Ombre Corte.
  13. Couldry N., Littler J. (2011). Work, Power and Performance: Analysing the ‘Reality’ Game of The Apprentice. Cultural Sociology, vol. 5(2): 263-279.
  14. Curcio R., a cura di (2014). La rivolta del riso, a cura di R. Curcio, Sensibili alle Foglie, Roma.
  15. De Leonardis O. (2002). In un diverso welfare: sogni e incubi. Milano: Feltrinelli.
  16. Donati P., a cura di (1996). Sociologia del terzo settore: Roma: Nuova Italia Scientifica.
  17. Eikenberry A.M., Kluver J.D. (2004). The marketization of the nonprofit sector: civil society at risk? Public administration review, 3/2004: 132-140.
  18. FIERI (2013). Multiwelfare. Le trasformazioni dei welfare territoriali nella società dell’immigrazione. Rapporto di ricerca. Torino: FIERI.
  19. Gori C., Ghetti V., Rusmini G., Tidoli R. (2014). Il welfare sociale in Italia. Realtà e prospettive. Roma: Carocci. Hochschild A.R. (1979). Emotion work, feeling rules, and social structure. American journal of sociology, vol. 85, n. 3: 551-575.
  20. Lasch C. (1981). La cultura del narcisismo. Milano: Bompiani.
  21. Marcon G., a cura di (2015). Lavorare nel sociale, una professione da ripensare. Bologna: Edizioni dell’asino.
  22. Mc Robbie A. (2002). From Holloway to Hollywood: Happiness at Work in the New Cultural Economy. In: Du Gay P., Pryke M., a cura di, Cultural Economy: Cultural Analysis and ommercial Life. London: Sage.
  23. Murgia A. (2012). Gendered Ways of Knowledge Work? Stories of Gender Hegemony and Resistance in Temporary Jobs. In: Knauss S., Wobbe T., Covi
  24. G., a cura di, Gendered ways of Knowing in Science. Scope and Limitations. Trento: FBK Press.
  25. Ross A. (2008). The New Geography of Work Power to the Precarious? Theory, Culture & Society, vol. 25(78): 3149.
  26. Ross A. (2001). No-collar labour in America’s “New Economy”. Socialist Register, 37(37): 77-87.
  27. Sennett R. (2008). The craftsman. New York: Yale University Press.
  28. Vercellone C. (2009). Lavoro, distribuzione del reddito e valore nel capitalismo cognitivo. Una prospettiva storica e teorica. Sociologia del lavoro, n. 115/2009: 31-54.
  29. Von Osten M. (2007). Unpredictable Outcomes: a Reflection after some Years of Debates on Creativity and Creative Industries’. In: Lovink G., Rositer
  30. N., a cura di, My Creativity Reader: a Critique of the Creative Industries. Amsterdam: Institute of Network Cultures, pp. 49-58.

  • The Third Sector Reform in Italy: an Opportunity for Matching Social Innovation and Youth Policies? Luca Raffini, Anna Reggiardo, Andrea Pirni, in Youth and Globalization /2021 pp.135
    DOI: 10.1163/25895745-03010006
  • A job like any other? Working in the social sector between transformations of work and the crisis of welfare Davide Caselli, Barbara Giullari, Dexter Whitfield, in SOCIOLOGIA DEL LAVORO 155/2019 pp.33
    DOI: 10.3280/SL2019-155002
  • Spaces of Social Recomposition: Resisting Meaningful Work in Social Cooperatives in Italy Valentina Castellini, in Antipode /2021 pp.1661
    DOI: 10.1111/anti.12752
  • Linee di cura. La mobilità biografica nello spazio del Terzo Settore Anna D’ascenzio, in WELFARE E ERGONOMIA 2/2023 pp.43
    DOI: 10.3280/WE2022-002004
  • Away from Politics? Trajectories of Italian Third Sector after the 2008 Crisis Sandro Busso, in Social Sciences /2018 pp.228
    DOI: 10.3390/socsci7110228
  • Professioni di confine. Indagine sulla ridefinizione del lavoro sociale Edoardo Esposto, Cecilia Ficcadenti, Francesca Messineo, in SOCIOLOGIA DEL LAVORO 155/2019 pp.74
    DOI: 10.3280/SL2019-155004
  • Sfruttare dentro le regole. Esternalizzazioni in agricoltura e nei servizi socio-educativi Chiara Davoli, in WELFARE E ERGONOMIA 1/2024 pp.85
    DOI: 10.3280/WE2024-001007

Sandro Busso, Silvia Lanunziata, Il valore del lavoro sociale. Meccanismi estrattivi e rappresentazioni del non profit in "SOCIOLOGIA DEL LAVORO " 142/2016, pp 62-79, DOI: 10.3280/SL2016-142004