Introduzione

The history and the events that characterize the European Social Fund are inextricably linked with U.E. cohesion and development policies, from the creation of the integration model, to the process of devolution and strengthening of regional identities. For these reasons, ESF co-financed archives and documents are claiming the role of cognitive tools to support decision making, policy-making and European historical and cultural memory. A new light turns on such sources as opposed to the size of oblivion known in recent years in several Italian regions. The book outlines the institutional and political setting of reference and establishes guidelines for the management of the ESF Documentation regional administrations, offering an appraisal in balance between in respect of current archival theory and the fulfillment of the obligations imposed by European legislation, whose implementation at the regional level, it happened too often without the necessary work of adaptation and contextualization.