Early childhood services and territorial cohesion. A comparative analysis of supply trajectories in Emilia Romagna and Calabria regions of Italy,

The monography presents the first results of a study developed in the context of the COST Action IS1102 ‘Social services, welfare state and places’, on the regulatory trajectories and the current organizational frameworks of Early Childhood Education Care (ECEC) in Italy, with particular attention to two ‘extreme’ regional case studies, Emilia Romagna and Calabria. The study is based on secondary sources (sectoral reports, statistics, regional legislation) and interviews to privileged witnesses. Differences among the two regions in the programming and development of ECEC services are critically described and some hypotheses about the reasons for their divergent trajectories are put forward. The analysis covers a forty years period, starting with the establishment of daycare as a public service in 1971 with the national Law 1044/1971, but particular attention is given to the years 2000s, i.e. when the national framework Law 328/2000 on social services was enacted and a renewed national effort in support of daycare services was launched with Law 448/2001 and Law 296/2006. Two aspects are especially investigated in each region: a) the regional programming approaches; b) the impacts of the national investment plans in terms of service coverage, with some consideration of the relationship between public and private daycare. The paper concludes the comparative exercise putting forward some explanatory hypotheses: the importance of path-dependency and structural factors in shaping the different regional programming ‘cultures’ (i.e. the ‘ordinary integrated programming’ approach of Emilia Romagna, vs the ‘ad hoc sectoral programming’ approach of Calabria); the role of actors – the state at its different scales, capital, trade unions, the civil society – and their relations in conditioning agency and change; the gender perspective.