How to measure the intangibles? Towards a system of indicators (S.A.V.E.) for the measurement of the performance of social enterprises

At the Department of Sociology of the Bologna University, a research team has been analysing the transformations of western societies and in particular focuses on the evolution of the civil society sphere for more than thirty years. The main topics of research have been the role of non-profit voluntary organisations in the social and health services local delivery systems, the trends in civic participation, the structure of social capital creation (and destruction) (COLOZZI, 2006), the production of relational goods, the transformations of third sector organisations in the social policy field. Following this long running path of research in the years 2008-2009, a sub-unit of research carried on a research programme called “The social added value of the Third Sector: how to measure the production of relational goods” (BASSI 2011). This article illustrates the main results of this empirical, experimental inquiry aimed at analysing the capacity of non-profit organisations working in the field of welfare services to produce relational goods and to create social capital in the community they are embedded in.