Planning under uncertainty. The individualization of welfare through financial education

The article focuses on financial education with the aim of exploring the meanings, representations and tools it entails in order to understand whether and how it seeks to promote greater financialization of welfare systems and everyday life, and how it confronts the limitations of such processes. The article draws on a qualitative analysis of the Milan Municipality Service case study, conducted through observation of the online course, participation in group meetings (interrupted by the COVID-19 pandemic), and semi-structured interviews with key stakeholders and practitioners. The article reflects on the ways in which financial education constructs social protection and economic well-being as dependent on individual daily behaviours and choices, while simultaneously pursuing the internalization of financial behaviours and individualized logics of welfare and well-being. At the same time, it attempts to highlight the limits that financial education encounters when it comes to desocializing financial practices and promoting individualized and financialized strategies of welfare and well-being.