European Integration and Europeanization Processes in Welfare Systems: A Comparative Analysis with Typological Purpose

European Integration and Europeanization processes in social field are the focus of the analysis here proposed. Starting from the social implications and from the effects that the different European welfare regimes have on them, it will be shown a possible re-arrangement of the differences within the various regimes, as well as of their relationships and their new characterizations. The aim is highlight the dual thrust between Europeanization and decentralization of social policy in some European countries, which are considered as a guidance of specific welfare regimes, in order to understand at what level of governance the decisions that shape this area can be attributed. However, the analysis involved five Nations (Italy, Germany, France, Spain and United Kingdom) and ten local contexts, two for each Nation (Milan and Naples, Berlin and Munich, Paris and Rouen, Barcelona and Vigo, London and Liverpool). What result is a comparative geographic and policy analysis based on a mixed methods approach intended as a merge of quantitative and qualitative approaches, techniques and tools. The analysis contemplates jointly the study of supranational, national and subnational directions, but also the study of local dynamics concerning the spread of specific: models of implementation, kind of decision-making processes in social policies and type of regimes that this decision generates. The structure of the study is growing both in macro perspective (through multivariate and multi-level analysis of social indicators and subsequent cluster analysis) as well as in the micro perspective (through the analysis of projects in different local contexts and in particular by applying impact, implementation and comparative network analysis). The conclusion was the realization of a general model of interpretation and classification of the changes occurred in the different European welfare regimes.