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PERSONAL INFO
I am Research Assistant at the Department of Social Policy and Intervention at the University of Oxford, where I recently completed my doctoral thesis. Prior to My PhD, I received a double BA in international politics from Sciences Po Bordeaux and Turin University. Following this I received an MPhil in International Politics from the University of Turin while I completed a double Masters in Management from ESCP Paris and London City University.
CURRENT RESEARCH ACTIVITY
I am a political sociologist with a strong interest in social participation and comparative social policy, consolidated during the doctoral thesis and two collaborative projects at the University of Oxford. My work relies on traditional sociological and political theory and is geared in comparative method, through quantitative and comparative historical approaches.
My doctoral thesis investigated the determinants of social capital in 85 European regions with a mixed methods approach. First, using a synchronic model, I analysed the effect of income inequality, labour market participation, national divergence and economic development on social capital. Secondly, based on this analysis, I discussed two deviant cases (the south of Italy and Wallonia) to explore the impact of historic-institutional developments on social capital. I concluded by suggesting that income inequality, national divergence and labour market participation were important predictors of social capital variation across European regions, and thus questioning Putnam’s historical determinism. Through a comparative historical analysis between the south of Italy and Wallonia with the north East of Italy and Flanders (regular cases according to the socio-economic model), I elaborated The Sleeping Social Capital Theory, to argue that historical legacy does not have a negative impact on social capital but that its potential positive influence is curtailed by the current socio-economic conditions.
The collaborative project (with Professor Robert Walker and Dr. Mark Tomlinson) ‘Poverty, Choice and Diversity: Re-Interpreting Peter Townsend’s Ideas’, funded by the Joseph Rowntree Foundation, focuses on social participation in the United Kingdom. Elaborating Townsend’s ideas, we empirically test whether there is a ‘breakpoint’ in the income distribution below which social participation declines disproportionally. We argue that the most appropriate way to measure the failure to participate due to limited income is to consider the degree of variation in participation rather than the adoption of particular ‘ordinary living patterns, customs and activities’ as proposed by Townsend in the 1970s. Townsend’s indicators were judged by some to be matters of taste rather than the consequence of lack of income. Such criticisms have even more salience in today’s multi-cultural society in which social participation patterns explicitly reflect lifestyle choices. To accommodate the diversity of modern life, while still remaining true to Townsend’s hypothesis, we are investigating the link between income, choice and participation by using a combination of four large datasets and two statistical techniques, i.e. Structural Equation Modelling (to construct the dimensions of social participation) and Heteroscedastic regressions (to test the degree of variation of social participation according to various predictors such as income).
In the field of comparative social policy, I am working on a collaborative project (with Professor Martin Seeleib-Kaiser, Professor Robert Walker and Dr. Mark Tomlinson), funded by the Economic and Social Research Council entitled ‘Integrating Macro and Micro Perspectives in Cross-National comparison: Dynamic Policy Structures and Individual Outcomes’. In the case of welfare state theory, our view is that to date, the research has excessively focused on the macro units of analysis, i.e. states, without adequately taking into account the real impact of welfare provisions on the life course of individuals over time. My colleagues and I are proposing to connect the analysis of macro and micro social units, specifying the explanatory and causal linkages between them, using Structural Equation Modelling and Multiple Correspondence Analysis techniques. We focus on ‘new social risks’, analysing 18 OECD countries at the macro level (using OECD social expenditure data, Comparative Welfare entitlements Dataset, Comparative Family Dataset) and four in depth cases (UK, Germany, US and Japan) using panel data (Cornell Equivalent File, Keio University Panel Survey).
PUBLICATIONS
Books
Ferragina, Emanuele (Forthcoming, 2012) Social Capital in Europe: A Comparative Regional Analysis. Cheltenham: Edward Elgar
Ferragina, Emanuele (2009) Capitale Sociale e Riforma del Welfare. La Terza Via dell’Europa. London-Turin: OMP
Book Chapters
Ferragina Emanuele, Tomlinson Mark and Walker Robert (2011) "Determinants of Participation in The United Kingdom: A Preliminary Analysis", in N.Buck "Overview of Understanding Society", ISER/ESRC.
Articles
Ferragina, Emanuele and Martin, Seeleib-Kaiser (2011) Welfare Regime Debate: Past Present, Futures. Policy & Politics, vol. 39 (4), pp. 583-611.
Ferragina, Emanuele (2011) "Confrontandosi con il fantasma di Banfield: una verifica empirica della teoria del familismo amorale". Stato e Marcato, vol. 92, pp. 283-312.
Ferragina, Emanuele (2010) “Social Capital and Equality: Tocqueville's legacy”. The Tocqueville Review, Vol. XXXI n1, pp. 74-98.
Ferragina, Emanuele (2010) “Le Teorie che Non Muoiono mai sono Quelle che Confermano le nostre Ipotesi di Base: Cinquant’Anni di Familismo Amorale”. Meridiana, vol. 65, pp. 265-287.
Ferragina, Emanuele (2009) “The Never-Ending debate about The Moral Basis of a Backward Society: Banfield and Amoral Familism”. Journal of the Anthropological Society of Oxford n2, pp. 141-160.
Book Reviews
Gilbert, N. (2008) A Mother’s Work. New Heaven and London: Yale University Press, 228 pp. in Journal of European Social Policy vol. 20, n1, 2010, pp. 88.
Gilbert, N. (2008) A Mother’s Work. New Heaven and London: Yale University Press, 228 pp. in Rassegna Italiana di Sociologia n3, 2009, pp. 554-555.
Schneider, J.A. (2006) Social Capital and Welfare Reform: Organizations, Congregations, and Communities. New York: Columbia University Press, 445 pp. in Sociologica n2, 2008.
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