Youth and Employment: the effectiveness of the Youth Guarantee Plan in Emilia Romagna and Sicily

The article presents a comparative analysis of the “Youth Guarantee Plan” implemented by two Italian regions: Emilia Romagna and Sicily. Within the tradition of the sociology of public action, the study proposes a deepening of the institutional and cognitive analysis of public policies. From the comparison, two distinct models of public action emerge: that implemented by the Emilia Romagna Region, which appears more procedural and more founded on the involvement of institutions present in the territory (Employment centres, Universities, Chambers of Commerce, professional bodies), whilst the second model, implemented by the Sicily Region, seems founded mainly on the emphasis placed on the economistic definition of the policy. From the study, most of all, the processes through which the distinct regional public actions succeed in interpreting the innovative potential of the Youth Guarantee Plan and the relations existing between the effectiveness of the policies and the collective meanings that institutions and individuals assign to them, emerge.