Faglie d'Europa. Benessere passivo e povertà in una regione estrema italiana

The economic transformations of recent decades have led to a generalized intensification of social fractures, marked by an increasingly tight interplay between interpersonal income inequalities and quality of life, on the one hand, and the widening gap between dynamic and lagging regions, on the other. Within this scenario of profound change, Italy represents a particularly emblematic case, as it is among the European countries characterized by the most extensive and persistent social and spatial polarizations. This article examines Italy’s distinctive position within Europe in terms of both the magnitude and the persistence of its internal disparities, taking Calabria as an analytical vantage point. Calabria represents an extreme case with respect to two key dimensions of individuals’ quality of life: per capita disposable income and the risk of poverty or social exclusion. The analysis considers both interregional inequalities – at the national and European scales – and intraregional inequalities. The findings reveal a region in which approximately half of the population is exposed to the risk of poverty or social exclusion. The article further reflects on the absence of collective protest, as well as of cultural and political mobilization against such deep social segmentation, and highlights the urgency of multisectoral policy responses aimed at addressing these dynamics through both redistributive and predistributive interventions.