A mixed research model to study local welfare systems. The case of Social Territorial Areas in Campania Region

In recent years, there was an increasing use of mixed methods designs in applied research, especially in welfare policies research (Brook and Holland 2018, Mason et al. 2020, Mertens 2018, Niedzwiecki and Nunnally 2017, Punziano 2012). These findings have often supported the utility of a systematic integration of qualitative and quantitative methods. It is not our intention to enter the debate about different mixed method approaches (Amaturo and Punziano 2016, Bazeley 2008, Teddlie and Tashakkori 2011) but it is certainly our purpose showing the interesting implications coming from policy research combining different methods, techniques and tools. The contribute presents the principal method steps of a study about the municipalities association in Campania (i.e. Social Territorial Areas, thereafter STA) in the context of implementation and management welfare policy. As starting point STA with strong normative structure would positively affect the performance of local services. To decline the starting hypothesis, we have identified two semantic areas: the demographic and socio-economic structure of the STA and the socio assistance offer. We have adopted a perspective integrating two different methods: one more formalized that responds to context data building; the other less formal to investigate informal relational networks and the meanings of the actors involved in decision-making processes. An emerging mixed analytical model declines the performance of the areas such as the outcome both of a pragmatist process (for example, performance indicators), and of a constructivist background (i.e. satisfaction, perceived success, etc.). Under these premises, this work tries to develop an instrument that allows to understanding not only the STA context but also, more generally, to construct an interpretative model of development trajectories and integration processes relating to emerging welfare systems