Tra partecipazione e privatizzazione: i discorsi della programmazione sociale in quattro grandi città italiane

This article analyzes the social planning program contained in the programmatic documents of four major Italian cities: Genoa, Milan, Rome and Turin. These documents are explicitly aimed at facilitating the participation of the entire citizenry to decisions concerning social policy. Notwithstanding the intentions declared by the authors of the documents, the kind of participation promoted by the Plans seems to be reserved to a scarce number of stakeholders, rather than open to all citizens. This article aims to show how the rhetoric of participation contained in the documents analyzed, are not supported by adequate instruments for the involvement of the entire citizenry, and could ease the process of privatization of social policies.