Labor Disorders in Neoliberal Italy

Psychological harassment at work, or "mobbing," has become a significant public policy issue in Italy and elsewhere in Europe. Mobbing has given rise to specialized counselling clinics, a new field of professional expertise, and new labour laws. For Noelle J. Mole, mobbing is a manifestation of Italy's rapid transition from a highly protectionist to a market-oriented labour regime and a neoliberal state. She analyzes the classification of mobbing as a work-related illness, the deployment of preventive public health programs, the relation of mobbing to gendered work practices, and workers' use of the concept of mobbing to make legal and medical claims, with implications for state policy, labour contracts, and political movements. For many Italian workers, mobbing embodies the social and psychological effects of an economy and a state in transition.