Social Housing in Italy: Cultural Continuity, Social Change and Future Scenarios

The aim of this paper is to give a general overview of the main aspects of development of the Social Housing System in Italy, considering its hereditary transitions and current trends in order to identify the principal actors, processes and practices that have established the primacy and social legitimacy of the person. This concept is illustrated through a multidimensional modeling of Social Housing. Furthermore, this paper proposes the Structural Analisys for the Social Housing system by referring to what the experts envision and by applying their theories as planning tools for strategic management. Structural analysis allows the construction of a simplified image of the system and, in particular, permits the identification of the variables that are essential to the system’s evolution beyond future scenarios. Once some future scenarios are defined, the public actor can act in various ways in order to achieve the desired scenario or to avoid problematical alternatives. In this context, it becomes indispensable to support public actors in making strategic choices and, consequently, a Decision Support System (DSS) for Social Housing is proposed.