Flexibility and security, for whom? Policy developments and consequences in the Italian labour market

The article is focused on the analysis of flexicurity arrangements in the Italian case with a twofold aim. The first aim is substantive, i.e. analyzing and evaluating recent labour market reforms in Italy with particular reference to the possible emergence of a new flexicurity model. The second goal is to contribute to the debate on labour market development and flexicurity by enriching and refining the available analytical tools. More specifically, we argue that the traditional conceptual "lenses' focusing on the "insiders"/"outsiders" divide are inadequate to grasp the ongoing changes in the Italian labour market. This leads us to identify a third category of workers, the "mid-siders", which are increasingly relevant in the Italian case and may prove to be relevant also in other labour markets. Moreover, we introduce the concept of "selective flexicurity", referring to the fact that in the Italian case flexibility and security measures have been applied differently across the various categories of workers.