ABSTRACT
Discussing welfare today means talking about the readjustment taking place in the boundaries between public and private non-profit and for-profit. The combinations vary from country to country, sometimes from sector to sector. Whatever they are, what counts is the spread of logics that are different to those typical of the public authorities, both in terms of decisions and in the provision of services. The theme of the relationship between public and private is laden with
normative implications, imbued with political reasons and options that are not always explicit. This chapter concentrates from a very selective point of view on two empirical fields: the contractualization of social policies, and EU orientations and regulations on social entrepreneurship. The aim is to shed light on the ambivalent transformations of the public and the questions they raise about both the social and the institutional spheres.
