RE.S.O.U.R.C.E. - REshaping Services Organisation for Upcoming Resilient and Community-based Ecosystems

RESOURCE will deal with a groundbreaking innovation in the EU and Italian legal frameworks: the emerging cooperative and participatory models in the organisation of public services. This transformation especially regards social services of general interest and implies a shift from a market-oriented regime toward a more pluralistic framework. Accordingly, a new conceptualisation of relations between public administrations and providers is needed. The new model also requires solutions for ensuring the participation of end-users and workers in the management of services. RESOURCE will frame a cooperative and participatory paradigm apt to capture these perspectives and to introduce resilient and community-based innovations. An interdisciplinary methodology will be adopted, by combining a variety of legal standpoints (private law, EU law, constitutional and administrative law) with sociology in the broad framework of the foundational economy. The investigation will build on an analysis of Italian case studies in order to elaborate models and solutions capable of supporting local municipalities in this transition, by meeting their needs. RESOURCE aims to produce contract templates for managing social services of general interest in a cooperative and participatory way. The goal of providing legal settings and scalable solutions for the involvement of relevant stakeholders will be pursued as well, since enhancing end-users’ entitlements and fostering workers’ participation are two core elements of the new organisational paradigm. With regard to the theoretical framework of the project, RESOURCE will exploit the most innovative research strands in contract law. This will allow public contracts regulating the management and provision of such services to go beyond vertical and antagonistic relations, toward a multi-party cooperation capable of serving multiple either converging or conflicting interests. The Project will provide both the Italian and European scientific community and relevant stakeholders with a new frame of reference for dealing with the alternative between competition and cooperation in the organisation of social services of general interest. Research internationalisation will be pursued, in line with the European relevance of the research topics. Dissemination and exploitation will be pivotal for RESOURCE. At least 4 Italian municipalities will test the model framed by the Project. At least one course on the rise of resilient and community-based management of social services will be organised in collaboration with ANCI for both civil servants and third sector entities. Several outputs of research will be published, including articles, one handbook on the cooperative organisation of social services of general interest and one edited book on the RESOURCE project. The ambition of RESOURCE is to lay the socio-legal foundations for a post-privatisation regime capable of respecting the promise of resilient and community-based ecosystems.