Cultural, relational and social participation in Italian regions: evidence from the Italian context
Guido Bonatti, Enrico Ivaldi, Riccardo Soliani
Department of Economics University of Genova, Italy
Correspondence: Guido Bonatti, Department of Economics University of Genova, via Vivaldi 5,
16126, Genova, Italy. E-mail: bonatti@economia.unige.it
Abstract
In a modern globalized world, leisure time, social and cultural participation are increasingly
fundamental needs for people to satisfy. Indagini Multiscopo sulle famiglie, a survey drawn up by the
Italian Institute of Statistics (ISTAT) provides a wide range of specific data in order to evaluate
particular aspects of Italian people’s life. Such a survey is highly meaningful since Italian people are
very different in culture and habits. Our paper uses this set of data to highlight the Italian situation
through the construction of a composite indicator. The selected methodology is the Borda method.
We obtain a ranking that shows in what context higher levels of social and cultural participation can
increase. The aim is to analyze how this index could be related with some characteristics of the
population such as income, general well-being, demographic figures, institutional features and
satisfaction measures.
1. Introduction
The sample survey Aspetti della vita quotidiana, drawn up by the Italian Institute of Statistics
(ISTAT), is part of an integrated system of social surveys - the Indagini Multiscopo sulle famiglie and it detects basic information concerning the daily life of individuals and families. Such information
allows to know people's habits and the problems citizens face every day. In particular, the
investigation concerns school, work, family life and relationships, leisure, social and political
participation, health, lifestyle, access to services.
The domains of study, i.e. the areas to which the estimated parameters are related are: the entire
national territory; the five geographical areas (north-western Italy, north-eastern Italy, central Italy,
southern Italy, Italian islands); institutional regions; municipalities, identified by dividing cities into
six classes formed on the basis of socioeconomic and demographic characteristics: 1) municipalities
belonging to the metropolitan area (Turin, Milan, Venice, Genoa, Bologna, Florence, Rome, Naples,
Bari, Palermo, Catania, Cagliari); 2) municipalities located around these metropolitan areas; 3)
municipalities up to 2,000 inhabitants; 4) municipalities with 2001-10000 inhabitants; 5)
municipalities with 10001-50000 inhabitants; 6) municipalities with over 50,000 inhabitants.
In this article we will focus on the thematic area “Culture, Sociability and Leisure time” at the
regional level, in order to understand and analyze how people in different regions spend time and
resources in cultural, social and relational activities. To do this, we will construct an index using the
variables provided by the Indagine Multiscopo sulle famiglie mentioned above, assuming that a
greater participation in these activities results in a better quality of life. We will also analyze whether
a better use of leisure time and participation in activities could be related with strictly economic
aspects (per capita adjusted disposable income), demographic aspects (average age of the population)
and non-economic aspects of the quality of life considering a particular reprocessing of the QUARS
Quality of Life index (Silanciamoci 2012). We will also analyze possible relations between the index
and particular features also included in the QUARS Report (Sbilanciamoci 2012), referring to the
characteristics of rights and citizenship, and to the state of equal opportunities. Such a research will
allow us to highlight some important features about the daily life of Italian citizens. Finally, we will
consider the correlation between the degree of social and cultural participation and the satisfaction
that people draw from it.
In the first part of the article we briefly review the state of the art concerning leisure time, social
and cultural activities. In the second part we discuss methods and variables utilized to achieve our
aim. Finally, the third part contains the results and the concluding remarks.
2. Participation, leisure time and well-being
In this section we intend to briefly define the concepts of cultural participation, social participation,
leisure time and the issues discussed in the relevant literature.
Factors of cultural participation involve personal, household and institutional characteristics that
constitute the personal resources for satisfying a general need called “cultural appreciation”, as well
as some measure of personal tastes (Ateca-Amestoy 2010). Researchers found that rates of
participation in art events are associated with urban residence, high income (Walker et al. 2002, Wood
and Smith 2004, Frazer and Marlier 2007, Kamphuis et al. 2008, Vermeersch and Vandenbroucke
2014), age (Peterson and Sherkat 1992) and educational attainment: people who report being exposed
to the arts at home or school during childhood attend at higher rates than those who do not (Blau
1988, Robinson 1993). Other studies highlighted the relation between cultural participation and
membership in a particular social group (Bourdieu 1984, Van Eijck 2001, Chan and Goldthorpe 2007)
or that ethnic minorities have lower levels of participation in many art forms (DiMaggio and Useem
1978, DiMaggio and Ostrower 1990). There is also a gender feature: women participate more in
almost every type of art activity (Tepper 2000, Bihagen and Katz-Gerro 2000, Dumais 2002, Lizardo
2006) and women's participation is predicted as strongly by their spouse's educational attainment and
arts socialization as by their own (Upright 2004). Galloway (2006), in a cross-disciplinary research
in the English language literature concerning the matter has identified three types of studies that
correlate quality of life and cultural participation: first, a multi-dimensional approach that investigates
the figures contributing to individual quality of life as defined by a particular population, that allows
to contextualise the contribution of cultural participation (Coffman and Adamek 1999, Bowling and
Gabriel 2004). Second, an approach to quality of life as a global construct. This approach tries to
measure the effect of cultural participation, or participation in leisure activities more generally
(including cultural activities) on quality of life as a whole, i.e. as a global concept perceived by the
respondent (Michalos and Zumbo 2000, Kelly et al. 2001, Silverstein and Parker 2002, Burack et al.
2003, Bowling and Gabriel 2004, Michalos 2005). Third, a qualitative approach that employs
participant observation to understand the impact of live music on well-being or quality of life via the
emotions (Wood and Smith 2004).
The discussion about social participation in economic and well-being-related analyses is closely
linked to the concept of social exclusion. According to Bhalla and Lapeyre (1997) the concept of
social exclusion was originally developed in France by sociologists and it refers to a process of “social
disqualification” (Paugam 1991) or “social disaffiliation” (Castel 1995) leading to a breakdown of
the relationship between society and the individual. On the contrary, the Anglo-Saxon tradition
considers in terms of relationships between individuals rather than a relationship between the
individual and society (Silver 1994). Here we will refer to the second definition of social exclusion,
because this is the matter we will discuss about. According to Aydin et al. (2010) the desire for
acceptance and the formation of stable, lasting connections with the social world is an essential need
for every person (Baumeister and Leary, 1995), and failing to satisfy it can lead to harmful behaviours
of social rejection (Twenge et al. 2001, Leary et al. 2003, Twenge et al. 2007). Williams (2007) states
that practically everybody has experienced social exclusion or separation during life, either for a brief
or extended period of time. In this sense social exclusion proves enormously stressful and painful, in
both physical and psychological modalities (Eisenberger et al. 2003, Zadro et al. 2004). However,
exclusion can result in more positive behaviours under specific circumstances, with individuals
demonstrating increased levels of prosocial behaviour as well as an increased motivation to create
social relationship and reconnect with other people (Maner et al. 2007). According to Twenge (2005),
the link between social exclusion and antisocial behaviour is moderated by numerous aspects like
personality characteristics such as narcissism or sensitivity to rejection and situational factors such as
the expectation to interact with the rejecting target in the future. Threat of social exclusion activates
cognitions and actions that reflect a heightened desire for social acceptance (Aydin et al. 2010):
according to Maner et al. (2007) social exclusion led people to increase both their desire to be with
others and their ability to see potential sources of friendship in a positive light. DeWall et al. (2009),
state that socially excluded individuals demonstrated increased selective attention to signs of social
acceptance at the level of early-stage perceptual processing. Therefore, it seems that if this basic need
for acceptance is threatened by social exclusion, people will attune to promising opportunities for
socially reconnecting with others (Maner et al. 2007).
According to Csikszentmihalyi and LeFevre (1989), leisure time could be seen as discretionary
time left free from obligation, as the pursuit of freely chosen recreational activities, or as time spent
in activities that provide intrinsically rewarding experiences; in our case each of these meanings is
appropriate. Mojza et al. (2010) state that one important quality of leisure time is its potential to
provide recovery opportunities from stressful work (Zijlstra and Cropley 2006). Recovery refers to
the process by which individual functional systems that have been called upon during a stressful
experience return to their pre-stressor level (Meijman and Mulder 1998). Several experiences during
leisure time contribute to successful recovery: psychological detachment from work, mastery
experiences, and community experiences.
The importance of these features - leisure time, social and cultural participation - is stressed also
in relation with well-being and quality of life by Benessere Equo e Sostenibile (Cnel-Istat 2012,
2013), the dashboard of indicators provided by the Italian Institute of Statistics (ISTAT) and the
National Council of Economy and Labour (CNEL) in 2013, which evaluates the differences in well-
being among the Italian regions. It offers a set of relevant indicators belonging to the twelve
dimensions of well-being to assess the quality of life in Italian regions; among these dimensions there
are also “Landscape and cultural heritage” defined in Cnel-Istat (2012) as the degree of conservation
of landscape and artistic and monumental heritage of a territory that can provide a source of wealth
for the community, and “Social relations”, i.e. the relational networks that represent important
opportunities to pursue people’s own ends and widen their horizons: general interpersonal trust, high
participation in associative networks and widespread presence of civic culture benefit both the
individual and social cohesion, enabling better performance, greater efficiency of public policies and
lower transactional cost.
3. Material and methods
In this section we will discuss about the variables taken into consideration for the social, cultural and
relational index. As specified above, we consider the data provided by the ISTAT survey concerning
particular areas. These variables are provided for the year 2011 and are listed below (Table 1).
Table 1: Variables considered
Thematic Areas
Mass Media and reading
Use of personal computers and
Internet
Leisure time: shows and
entertainment
Variables
People aged 3 years and over who watch television every day
People aged 3 years and over who listen to the radio a few days
a week
People aged 6 years and over who read newspapers at least
once a week
People aged 6 years and over who read at least 12 books a year
People aged 6 years and over who use the internet at least once
a week
People aged 6 years and over who use a PC at least once a week
People aged 6 years and over that have benefited from
theatrical performances in the last 12 months
People aged 6 years and over that have benefited from cinemas
in the last 12 months
People aged 6 years and over that have benefited from
museums and exhibitions in the last 12 months
People aged 6 years and over that have received concerts of
classical music and opera in the last 12 months
People aged 6 years and over that have received other types of
music concerts in the last 12 months
People aged 6 years and over that have received other types of
sports events in the last 12 months
Physical activity and sport
People aged 6 years and over that have received other types of
discotheques and dance halls in the last 12 months
People aged 6 years and over have received other types of
archaeological sites and monuments in the last 12 months
People aged 3 years and over who are regularly involved in
sports
Holidays
People who went on holiday in the last 12 months
Friendly relationships
People aged 6 years and over that meet friends at least once a
week
People aged 14 years and over that have participated in
meetings in ecological, civil rights and pacifist associations
People aged 14 years and over that have participated in
meetings in cultural, recreational or other types of associations
in the last 12 months
Participation in social and
religious practice
Political participation
People aged 14 years and over that have participated in
activities free of charge for charities in the last 12 months
People aged 14 years and over that have participated in
activities free of charge for non-voluntary associations in the
last 12 months
People aged 14 years and over that have participated in
activities free of charge for a union in the last 12 months
People aged 14 years and over that have paid money to
associations in the last 12 months
People aged 14 years and over that went into a place of cult at
least once a week in the last 12 months
People aged 14 years and over who read news about Italian
politics at least once a week
People aged 14 and over who talk about politics at least once
a week
People aged 14 years and over that have participated in a
political meeting in the last 12 months
People aged 14 years and over that have participated in a
political demonstration in the last 12 months
People aged 14 years and over that have listened to a political
debate in the last 12 months
People aged 14 years and over that volunteered for a political
party in the last 12 months
People aged 14 years and over that have given money to a
political party in the last 12 months
In this case we opted for equal weighting; indeed, even though it would be desirable to assign
different weights to the various factors considered, there is no reliable basis for doing this (Mayer and
Jencks 1989). However, this does not exclude weighting completely, because equal weighting does
imply a judgment on the weights being equal (Nardo et al. 2005).
3.2. Borda Index
For the construction of the Index of social and cultural participation the Borda method is used. The
Borda method was created as the simplest weighted votation to allow the measurement of individual
preferences on different alternatives (Philip and Straffin 1980). This rule occupies a special place
among all the positional scoring rules since it is less inclined than all other rules to many unsettling
possibilities and anomalies (Brams and Fishburn 2002, Nurmi 1999, Saari 1995, Saari 2001).
Young (1974) characterized the Borda method as a choice method when preferences are expressed
by means of linear orders. An axiomatization as a ranking method aggregating asymmetric and
connected relations was created by Nitzan and Rubinstein (1981). Young's result were then
generalized by Debord (1987), who also characterized the Borda method as a ranking method for
profiles of weak orders. Marchant (1996) generalised the previous results by characterizing the Borda
method as a ranking (or choice method) when the set of allowed preferences is any set of fuzzy
relations, provided that this set contains all crisp weak orders and satisfies some weak technical
conditions. In each characterization, axioms are almost the same: neutrality, cancellation, consistency
and faithfulness (named monotonicity for Nitzan and Rubinstein). These are summarized by
Marchant (1996) as follows:
• Neutrality expresses the fact that the result of the method does not depend on the names or labels
given to the alternatives or items to be compared.
• Cancellation: if for any pair of alternatives there are as much voters in favour of the first
alternative as in favour of the second one, then all alternatives tie.
• If the method is applied to two groups of voters and if the result is the same for both, consistency
implies that the method applied to a group of voters made of the two previous groups must yield
the same result.
• When there is only one voter, if the relation that he uses to express his preferences is so simple
that one result seems the only reasonable one, the result of the method must be that one. This is
the axiom of faithfulness.
• If one voter improves the position of one alternative in the relation expressing his preferences,
then monotonicity implies that the position of the alternative in the result of the method cannot
worsen. Faithfulness and monotonicity are closely related: Debord (1987) showed that, under some
conditions, strict monotonicity and faithfulness are equivalent.
More recently (Grasso 2002, Grasso and Pareglio 2007, Ivaldi and Testi 2011) the Borda method
has been employed as an ordinal aggregation methodology to avoid subjectivity in giving cardinal
measures to weigh single indicators. It is useful when partial indicators have different units of
measure. The Borda method in the presence of n alternatives to classify gives a score of n to the first
position in the ranking for each alternative, then n-1 to the second position and so on until the n-th
position. The final index of each i-th city is simply the sum of the scores obtained for each j-th
considered variable:
𝐵𝑂𝑅𝐷𝐴𝑖 = ∑ 𝐵𝑖,𝑗
The final ranking of the cities is the same as the natural ranking of their scores. This rule allows to
achieve a sort of alternative that can be interpreted as a social welfare function, because the criteria
can be interpreted as votes that explicitly take into account the relative intensity of preference to the
various alternatives being studied (Goodman et al. 1952).
The Borda method offers the following advantages (Lansdowne and Woodward 1996): it reduces
the need for subjective assessments, that are generally needed to construct utility functions in multiple
attribute utility theory and to make pair-wise comparisons in the analytic hierarchy process; it does
not require the criteria to satisfy independence conditions; moreover, it needs only enough precision
in data to determine a rank order for each criterion. In contrast, cardinal methods require additional
precision to determine the degree of preference of one alternative over another. Finally, the Borda
method allows to avoid weighing and to give little importance to anomalous values and very high
values.
4. Results
In this section, through the set of indicators defined above, we will assess and compare the results
about social, relational and cultural participation. In the construction of the index we considered that
high values in all participation variables is better than low values, so we assigned score 1 to the best
region for each variable and score 20 to the worst. Then we worked out index values using the method
explained above.
We assigned the scores and set up the rankings: the number of classes, regions and scores appear
in the first three columns. Then the classes were to be defined. The literature suggests to divide the
indicator’s distribution on the basis of its parameters (Carstairs and Morris 1991), or of deciles of
population. In our case, the first method seemed more appropriate, since it allows to maintain the
discriminatory features of the distribution (Carstairs 2000). Values ± (2/3) σ have been used as a cutoff of classes, together with 307,15, the mean value of the distribution of the Borda scores.
Table 2: Classes and scores
Class
1
2
3
4
5
6
Region
Trentino-Alto Adige
Friuli-Venezia Giulia
Lombardia
Veneto
Valle d'Aosta
Piemonte
Sardegna
Emilia-Romagna
Lazio
Marche
Toscana
Abruzzo
Umbria
Liguria
Basilicata
Calabria
Molise
Puglia
Campania
Sicilia
Index
121
201
209
219
243
245
257
264
275
281
307
311
330
334
358
415
417
435
438
483
From the observation of the results we can identify as many as six classes of regions. The first class
includes only Trentino-Alto Adige, that shows the highest level of participation. The second class
includes Friuli-Venezia Gulia, Lombardia, Veneto, Piemonte and Valle d'Aosta. The third class,
which is the last one with scores above average, includes Sardegna, Emilia-Romagna, Lazio, Marche
and Toscana.
The three classes with scores below average include: Abruzzo, Umbria, Liguria and Basilicata in
the fourth class; Calabria and Molise in the fifth; Puglia, Campania and Sicily in the sixth.
In this case it can be seen that in the first three classes, including regions with scores above the
average, there are all the regions of Northern and Central Italy, except Abruzzo and Liguria, which
are instead in classes with scores below average. All the southern regions have achieved scores below
average. Moreover, a graphical elaboration of the results was made. Figure 1. shows the different
classes of regions.
Figure 1: Map and classes.
As stated above, we will analyze the relationship that cultural, social and relational participation
have with economic well-being, with demographic characteristics (in particular, the average age of
each region) and with not merely economic well-being.
To do this, firstly we will observe the relationship between participation and economic well-being.
As a proxy we chose per capita adjusted disposable income, defined as the ratio of adjusted household
disposable income (inclusive of the value of in-kind services provided by public and nonprofit
institutions) to the total number of residents. The data is provided for the year 2011 by ISTAT (see
Appendix 1.). Thus, we calculated the Pearson correlation coefficient (Table 3.).
Table 3: Pearson correlation coefficient: index, per capita adjusted disposable income
Index
Per capita adjusted
disposable income
Correlation coefficient
Pearson coefficient
1.000
.798
20
20
Index
N
Secondly, we chose the average age of the population (see Appendix 1.) to determine whether the
level of participation is significantly related to the age of the population, i.e. whether older people
have more difficulties in spending leisure time and time in relationship with the society. Pearson
correlation coefficient is reported in Table 4..
Table 4: Pearson correlation coefficient: index and age average.
Index
Correlation coefficient
Pearson coefficient
Age average
1.000
-.197
20
20
Index
N
To assess the relationship between cultural, social and relational participation and quality of life,
we decided to evaluate the index of participation and the QUARS index modified. The QUARS index
is a quality of life index calculated for the Italian regions by the association “Sbilanciamoci”1. It takes
into account seven dimensions of well-being: Environment, Economy and working conditions, Rights
and Citizenship, Health, Culture and Education, Equal opportunities and Participation. We decided
to reprocess the QUARS Index 2011 (Sbilanciamoci 2012) without taking into account the dimension
“Participation” in order to compare the participation index here defined with an index of well-being
that does not contain similar variables (see Appendix 2.). Pearson correlation coefficient is reported
in Table 5..
Table 5: Pearson correlation coefficient: index and QUARS modified.
Index
Correlation coefficient
Pearson coefficient
1.000
.723
20
20
Index
N
1
QUARS*
The QUARS index (Indice di Qualità dello Sviluppo Regionale or Quality Index of Regional Development), proposed
by the association “Sbilanciamoci” is defined as a composite indicator that tries to identify and link the components of
development based on sustainability, quality, equity and solidarity. Its aim is not simply to build a new paradigm for the
statistical measurement of well-being, but to build a tool available to institutions and local governments to guide public
policies. The feature that distinguishes the QUARS index consists in assigning particular attention to those elements of
well-being that can be directly obtained from the implementation of policies at the various levels of government
(Sbilanciamoci 2012). Therefore, it considers only those factors that affect the quality of life of citizens and the
development of a territory, and with respect to which governments can intervene effectively. For aggregation, each of the
41 indicators belonging to the 7 dimensions are standardized; then the simple average is calculated first among the
variables that compose each macro indicator, and later among the macro indicators.
For the QUARS index, we took into account the scores of the regions in two of the seven dimensions,
more precisely “Rights and Citizenship” and “Equal opportunities” (see Appendix 2.). The reason for
this is that we want to find out whether social and cultural participation can somehow be put in relation
with the institutional situation. Results of Pearson correlation coefficient are shown below (Table 6.).
Table 6: Pearson correlation coefficient: index, rights and citizenship and equal opportunities.
Index
Correlation coefficient
Rights and
Equal
citizenship
opportunities
1.000
.673
.555
20
20
20
Pearson coefficient Index
N
Finally, we compared the degree of “Satisfaction about family relationships”, “Satisfaction about
relationships with friends” and “Satisfaction about the use of leisure time”, with the cultural, social
and relational participation index calculated previously. Data related to the three variables concerning
satisfaction are also provided by the same survey. Results worked out by the Pearson correlation
coefficient are shown below (Table 7.).
Table 7: Pearson correlation coefficient: index and satisfaction
Very satisfied and
Very satisfied and
Very satisfied and quite
fairly satisfied with
fairly satisfied with the
satisfied with the use of
family relationships
relations with friends
leisure time
Correlation coefficient
-.091
.408
.607
Index
Index
1.000
.
N
20
20
20
20
5. Discussion and Conclusions
Firstly, some figures strictly related to the Italian situation have to be discussed. All the regions of
Northern Italy, with the exception of Liguria, appear in the first two classes: this can lead to infer that
in northern regions social and cultural participation is much higher and heartfelt compared to the
southern regions. In particular, the region of Trentino-Alto Adige has by far the best score, with low
values only with reference to people who go to the cinema, to participation in religious functions and
participation in demonstrations of political nature.
On the contrary, most of the southern regions appear in the last two classes with scores far lower
not only than those of regions with scores above average, but also of regions placed in the fourth
class, the first with scores below average. The strong relevance of organized crime thwarts people’s
sense of civil participation and makes public discussion difficult and dangerous. Illegal business is
widespread also in the north but the civil and cultural atmosphere is different.
While the fourth class is in some way uniquely heterogeneous, since it includes a region of
Northern Italy (Liguria), two regions of Central Italy (Umbria and Abruzzo) and one of the Southern
Italy (Basilicata), a sort of geographical stratification concerning social and cultural participation is
instead present in the third class, which includes almost every region of Central Italy and Sardinia.
The position of Liguria may be explained by the crisis of the Italian big firm, which heavily
affected Genova, where also the port as lost part of his past relevance. On the other hand the lively
systems of small firm localized, which marked several parts of northern Italy, are historically absent
in Liguria.
The geographical stratification is very similar to the one shown by per capita adjusted disposable
income, as confirmed by the calculation of Pearson coefficient between the two values (0.798): this
implies a very strict relation between cultural, social and relational participation and disposable
income, so that in the richest regions people have more resources to be allocated to this purpose, while
in the poorest regions this possibility is realized with more difficulties. Although this conclusion is a
confirmation of a concept already identified in literature on cultural participation (Walker et al. 2002,
Wood and Smith 2004, Frazer and Marlier 2007, Kamphuis et al. 2008, Vermeersch and
Vandenbroucke 2014), we can now state that such a relation could also be applied to a more general
idea of participation, also including social participation and the use of leisure time.
With reference instead to the demographic situation, we calculated the Pearson coefficient between
the index of participation and the average age of the Italian regions. In this case, only a slight
correlation between ranks appeared (0.197), suggesting that, in general, there is no significant relation
between average age of the population and participation. Higher values were obtained instead by
working out the index of participation and well-being conditions of citizens; in particular the Pearson
coefficient between the index and the well-being QUARS index modified is 0.723, the Pearson
coefficient between the index and the QUARS dimension “Rights and citizenship” is 0.673, and the
Pearson coefficient between the index and the QUARS dimension “Equal opportunities” is 0.555. In
this case, findings provide sufficiently substantial evidence: higher standards of general well-being
definitely promote social participation and a better use of leisure time, as the high rank correlation
shows. In addition, values of the Pearson correlation coefficient between the index and the two
dimensions of the QUARS index considered provide positive indications in this sense: albeit in a
slightly lesser way, “Rights and citizenship” and “Equal opportunities” allow more opportunities for
social gatherings and participation, unlike less favorable contexts from this point of view.
Finally, we decided to study the relation between the index and the satisfaction concerning the use
of leisure time, family relationships, and relationships with friends. In this case, however, only one
of these relationships has proved meaningful: higher values in the index are positively correlated with
higher values in satisfaction in the use of leisure time (0.607), while they have little correlation with
satisfaction with relationships with friends (0.408) and almost no correlation to satisfaction with
family relationships (-0.91). In fact, this result is reasonably consistent: the index contains many
variables which refer to activities to be carried out in non-working hours, so it is comprehensible that
this link shows up; with respect to the other two variables, we can presume that practicing more
cultural or social activities (especially volunteer work or political activities) means that people spend
less time with friends and even less time at home with family (the value of the correlation with
satisfaction with family relationships is almost zero). Actually, this relation of cause and effect can
be turned around and still provide a plausible explanation: individuals look for more social activities
just because they are dissatisfied with and disappointed by family relationships and friendships, thus
looking outside for reasons to feel more accepted in society.
We have thus identified a number of possible causes and some possible effects of social and
cultural participation in Italy. These results may therefore be useful as part of a more thorough
analysis of the issues related to the well-being and individuals’ quality of life. Lastly, the ISTAT in
2015 will provide new data for 2014; it will then be possible to analyze how social dynamics have
changed the values of the index.
Appendix 1.
Table 8: Per capita adjusted disposable income. Source: ISTAT
Regions
Abruzzo
Basilicata
Calabria
Campania
Emilia-Romagna
Friuli-Venezia Giulia
Lazio
Liguria
Lombardia
Marche
Molise
Piemonte
Puglia
Sardegna
Sicilia
Toscana
Trentino-Alto Adige
Umbria
Valle d'Aosta
Veneto
per capita adjusted disposable
income (2011)
15391
14276
13232
12522
21590
20677
19580
20304
21082
19055
15198
20431
13687
14938
12970
19471
21244*
17885
22495
20113
*Average value of the province of Bolzano and Trento
Table 9: Average age. Source: Urbistat.
Regions
Abruzzo
Basilicata
Calabria
Campania
Emilia-Romagna
Friuli-Venezia Giulia
Lazio
Liguria
Lombardia
Marche
Molise
Piemonte
Puglia
Sardegna
Sicilia
Toscana
Trentino-Alto Adige
Umbria
Average age*
44.24
43.52
42.35
40.4
44.78
45.67
43.42
47.58
43.52
44.63
44.7
45.26
42.2
44.08
41.94
45.45
41.94
45.05
Valle d'Aosta
Veneto
44.06
43.5
*2012 data.
Appendix 2.
Table 10: QUARS Index modified construction.
Regions
Abruzzo
Basilicata
Calabria
Campania
EmiliaRomagna
FriuliVenezia
Giulia
Lazio
Liguria
Lombardia
Marche
Molise
Piemonte
Puglia
Sardegna
Sicilia
Toscana
TrentinoAlto Adige
Umbria
Valle
d'Aosta
Veneto
Economy
Education
and
Rights and
Equal
Environment
and
Health
QUARS*
working citizenship
opportunities
culture
conditions
0.32
0.29
0.39
-0.19
-0.4
-0.14
0.27
0.03
-1.33
0.02
-0.46
-0.12
-0.52
-2.38
-0.1
-1.67
-0.38
-0.51
-0.64
-0.97
-4.27
-0.43
-1.05
-1.49
-0.51
0.73
-1.3
-4.05
0
0.54
0.23
0.58
0.76
0.82
2.93
0
0.65
0.62
0.46
0.7
-0.25
2.18
-0.34
-0.33
-0.3
0.03
-0.27
0.19
-0.69
-0.16
-0.27
0.26
-0.14
0.51
0.47
0.67
-0.54
0.37
-0.77
-0.62
-1.52
0.74
-0.23
0.37
0.02
0.43
0.38
0.15
-0.68
0.03
-1.12
-0.24
0.68
0.16
0.2
0.36
0.39
0.05
-0.63
-0.2
-0.69
0.46
-0.19
0.07
0.58
0.1
-0.29
0.26
-0.7
-0.42
-0.39
0.26
0.16
0.2
0.1
0.47
-0.59
0.6
-1.17
-0.1
-1.22
1.01
-0.06
0.98
1.07
2.06
-0.92
1.62
-4.64
-1.47
-5.21
2.49
0.96
1.06
0.81
0.18
0.26
0.12
3.39
0.01
0.68
0.2
0.64
0.69
1.14
3.36
1.15
0.67
0.3
-0.64
-0.24
1.12
2.36
-0.08
0.99
0.21
-0.33
0.45
0.51
1.75
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