The present paper analyses the relationship among social support and personal networks by focusing on social anchorage, which is a specific dimension of social support conveying to what extent people feel integrated into their personal networks. Specifying when, why, and how personal relationships play a significant role in individual lives is a common concern at the core of studies on social support. For this reason, the study adopts a strategy of analysis for ego-centred social support networks based on a mixed-methods approach. Hence, the strength of social networks analytical tools and multilevel logistic regression models is combined with the opportunities stemming from qualitative data provided by in-depth interviews. Firstly, statistical tools are used to describe the patterns of social support relationships in ego networks and to estimate the main determinants of social anchorage; secondly narratives are considered to understand the content, the meaning, and the significance that social relationships have for egos. The case of single mothers, which represent a clear instance of the relevance of social support derived from personal networks, is investigated

In the present study, we discuss how social network analysis approach can be fruitful exploited to study social support within family studies. An ego-centred network approach is adopted within a case study about social support networks of low income single mothers living in a city of southern Italy. We address three main issues. First, we aim to describe and explore the structure of social relationships that single mothers activate in order to obtain different kind of supports. Second, we investigate the main factors that affect the amount and variety of resources embedded in the single mothers’ support networks. Third, we analyse the relationship between the received social support embedded in the ego network and the support perceived by mothers. Beyond the description of composition and structure of ego-centred networks through network measures and factorial methods, a series of regression models was estimated to assess factors explaining received and perceived support of single mothers.

Although the relation between accountability and learning is a key issue in the field of evaluation, the existing conceptualizations include significant gaps and shortcoming. This article seeks to bridge some of the identified gaps, overcoming the dichotomy between learning and accountability and the overemphasis on accountability, and offering a more nuanced account of various forms of positive and negative learning. We propose a theory-informed reconceptualization of both accountability and learning in order to develop an interpretative framework that recognizes their plurality and brings them together through evaluation. To make visible the analytical potential of our reconceptualization, we present the Italian higher education evaluation system as a source of illustrative examples. Our analysis confirms that accountability and learning are inextricably interconnected and that multiple forms of learning can be envisaged by taking into account the mutual relationship among organizational arrangements, evaluative practices and cultural codes. We argue that such kind of analysis allows to remove the taken-for-granted aspects of evaluation practices, challenging the often-implicit assumptions about their virtues as well as their weaknesses in order to see what evaluation actually does in a particular situation.

This article explores how new public management policy ideas and technologies circulating in the globalised education space have been re-contextualised in the re-design of the Italian Higher Education System. In doing so, it uses the governmentality studies as a sensitising framework to problematise what we term here as\ud the ‘calculative and instrumental turn’ in the evaluation of Higher Education. The work reflects on the complex assemblage of forms of knowledge, technical means and collective and individual subjects through which the evaluation of the Italian universities unfolds in its current form. The attempt is to highlight the\ud changes produced in how Higher Education and its ethical subjects are thought and their qualities are conceived and appraised. The article presents some conclusive remarks on some of the paradoxical risks of the Evaluation turn, namely contractualisation, depoliticisation and fabrication, but also insists\ud on its reflexivity potential, interpreting the current developments as a missed opportunity

No abstract