The "Marginal Centrality". Meanings and Cultures of Work: An Italian Case Study.

Currently, the persistence of the centrality of work rises several doubts. In Italy, some studies (Bertolini and Goglio 2023) on the meaning of work among adults and young people show that «it is not work which loses its centrality but rather change preferences and priorities with regard to the type of desired job. The quality of work is central, but it has taken on different connotations in recent years: the quality of work is given by its ability to be reconciled with time for family, care and leisure». However, other research disproves the centrality of work. According to the 2023 Asfor survey «there is a strong discontinuity compared to the past, work seems to have less centrality in the hierarchy of values and a lesser identity». On the basis of the study by Community Research&Analysis for Federmeccanica (of July 2023, conducted on 1020 cases), work is in “condominium” with other aspects of life: it is certainly relevant and shares its importance with other dimensions. But, for a significant part, although important, work is put in the background compared to other values. It could be argued that work has a “marginal centrality” in the symbolic horizon of today’s youth.

The first part of the presentation highlights the results of a survey (January-February 2024) realized by the author on 400 Italian employees of an international company, leader in the business consulting sector. The research, carried out using a questionnaire built on scientifically validated tests from organizational sociology and psychology, shows the aspects that, today more than ever, influence job satisfaction and consequently the value of work for people. In the second part, according to the research findings, an attempt is made to classify ten families of meanings of work that crystallize into as many typologies of subjects.