Martina Bonci (p), Elisa Mozzelin

José Manuel Amoedo Meijide

The purpose of this presentation is to outline – by combining theory and practice - the close relationship between space and the concept of justice.
In the first part of the paper, we will try to give a theoretical overview of the theory of social space by explaining why it can be defined a generator of social injustice, especially dealing with Henri Lefebvre's theories of space production and Trialectics (Lefebvre, 1991). In the second part, instead, we will address collective urban actions as practical examples of public space reappropriation (De Rossi, 2018). More specifically, we will discuss the Villa Celestina (Bologna) Case Study as an example of common good reclaiming action by the local community.

Commonly, the concept of space has been treated as a geometric entity spurious from any social and political relationships (Lefebvre, 1991; Elden, 2013). Space, understood as a container of events, objects and occurrences has not been considered in its social and political poignancy, with respect to which, especially the contribution of Henri Lefebvre, helped to refine its understanding. Starting from his analysis, which identifies space both as a product and a producer of social relations it becomes the vantage point from which analyze the intricate network of relations, but above all, the place where a certain hierarchy of power is established (Lefebvre, 1991). The phenomenon of space production, in this sense, is strictly political (Lefebvre, 1991; Vegetti, 2017) and absolutely linked to the power networks established in space.

By orienting the theory of space production in a practical sense, we will question the role of citizens in transforming their daily spaces. In this sense, common goods seem to be a viable way of enabling citizens to regain their own space, reserving it with an internal and conscious focus on social needs.
In order to understand this relationship we will try to interrogate the network of relationships that are formed with the aim of reacting to spatial injustice dynamics (Ferilli et al., 2016) as an attempt of «daily survival in order not to be crushed by the fates of fraying and abandonment of the neighborhood» (Magatti, 2007). Specifically, we will address the Villa Celestina case study (Bologna) showcasing how this space has been reappropriated and rethought as a common good, through the establishment of Patti di Collaborazione (Collaboration Pacts) between the local municipality and the citizens consortium (Labsus, 2022).

Paloma Lanza-León (p), David Cantarero-Prieto, Marta Pascual-Saez

Martina Bonci

Lone parenthood is one of the multiple accepted family types that make up today's societies, in particular, due to the rising rate of single-mother families. The literature reveals that single mothers experience poorer health outcomes than their married counterparts, mainly due to socio-economic difficulties. The aim of this article is to analyse trends in the health and socio-economic conditions of single parents (mothers and fathers) in Europe.

We use microdata from the three waves of the European Health Interview Survey (2006-2009, 2013-2015, and 2018-2020). Time trends were analysed by multivariate logistic regressions for estimating the impact of individual factors associated with single parents’ health. Odds ratio of health outcomes are estimated in logistic regression models. Lone parenthood is defined as a mother or father living in the household with at least one of his/her child/children at the time of the survey without a partner due to divorce, bereavement, separation, neglect, disappearance, or being unmarried and who was the reference person.

Our findings show that both single mothers and fathers present higher risk of poor self-rated health than their couple counterparts, and within single parents, females present worse health status (long-standing health problems, chronic illnesses, and mental health) than males. These gender differences between single and couple parents are associated with the unequal distribution of socio-demographic and socio-economic characteristics. In particular, the deterioration of single mothers’ health may be partly explained by the worsening of socio-economic determinants, of which the increase in part-time employment and the decline in both high incomes and employment contributed most.

This study highlights that single mothers are very likely to experience poor health status, which needs to be taken into consideration due to the increasing proportion of single-parent families headed by a mother. Understanding the socio-demographic and economic characteristics of single-parent families could enable the establishment of community-level interventions, strategies, and public policies to mitigate the adverse effects of lone parenthood and to support this vulnerable population group. Indeed, the negative effects are not only suffered by parents, but also by their children.

José Manuel Amoedo Meijide (p), María del Carmen Sánchez-Carreira, Bruno Blanco-Varela

Paloma Lanza-León

The Covid-19 pandemic has led to considerable changes in income distribution, with a general increase in inequality and poverty as result. The factors behind this trend vary depending on the context. In the case of age, some papers indicate that older people have been the most affected, while others point to younger people as the most affected. In addition, social benefits have played a key role in containing rising inequalities and poverty. However, this role has been heterogeneous in society and has unequally reached different social groups.
This paper aims to analyse the impact of the pandemic on income distribution among different age groups and to measure its contribution to the increase in income inequality for society as a whole in Galicia (Spain). This region is selected given its demographic profile characterized by its ageing population (more than 26% of the population is over 65 years old in 2022).
For this purpose, the microdata from the Structural Household Survey (SHS) from the IGE (Galician Institute of Statistics) corresponding to the year 2014, 2019, 2020 and 2021 are used (2014 allows looking at the situation after the great recession, 2019 at the situation before the pandemic, and 2020 and 2021 at the impacts of the pandemic). Specifically, different income variables are calculated, including different social benefits or not, to analyse the different role of social benefits by age. The population is divided into three different groups: people between 18 and 34 years old, people between 35 and 64 and people aged 65 or over. To approximate the variation in income across age groups, the average income of each group is calculated and the gap between the different groups. To calculate the approximation of overall income inequality, the interdecadal intervals and the Gini and Atkinson coefficients are calculated. In addition, the decomposable coefficients, and the proportion of individuals from each group in each decile are calculated to observe the contribution of inequality between groups to overall inequality and the distribution of groups by deciles.
The study finds that young people have experienced a greater loss of income than other age groups, increasing the gap with the other groups and the income inequality. Moreover, social benefits have covered the income losses of older and middle-aged individuals to a greater extent than those of young people, especially during 2020, leading to a further deepening of income inequality.