All the main areas of society are characterized by activities whose core has been globalized (Castells 1997): although, on the one hand, globalization seems to have influenced «the whole planet, not the whole planet seems to be included in the global system and exploits its impacts in the same way» (Bello 2003, p. 13). While, on the one hand, within the complex process of globalization, we are witnessing phenomena such as the extension of freedoms and democracy, the importance of education or the recognition of human rights, on the other hand, there is a tendency towards homogenization, predominance of force and money, to the detriment of a society educated to dialogue and social justice (Casavecchia 2022). In particular, among the various crises, that of democracy and participation (Ortiz 2022) is having important consequences in every area of society and requires the adoption of new educational tools that recover the essentiality of the human being and make him the protagonist of his life.

Among the multidimensional approaches that have focused on the participation as a cultural and educational tool for social justice, there is the capability approach of Amartya Sen, which is based on formal and substantial freedom to live a life of value (Sen 1999; Alkire 2007). Such a process presupposes the existence of a social educational system that aims at the acquisition of critical, imaginative and cosmopolitan capabilities useful for creating new human beings and a generative society (ibid.; Nussbaum 2006; Mannheim, Campbell 2017), through the concerted action of different educational agencies.

Adopting the perspective of the capability approach, the present contribution aims to present the results of a research conducted in 2023 on the generation of young members of Italian Cooperative Credit Banks (BCC). In particular, two generational units were considered: the Young Members' Laboratory of the BCC of Rome and the Young Members' Committee of the BCC of Forlì, Imola, Ravenna, born with the aim of giving concreteness to the principle of democracy typical of the cooperative movement and valorizing young member as a cultural and organizational resource necessary for social change (Merico 2010).

The objectives of the research were to:

- study, by means of mixed methods, the characteristics of participation within the two groups considered;

- verify the possible impact of participation on their immaterial well-being, such as happiness, equality, solidarity, responsibility and trust;

- verify the importance of the generation of the young members of the Laboratory and the Committee as an instrument for socio-historical transformations (ibid.).

The research results show that:

- Despite the importance of participation, it is still a challenge for many institutions and takes on distinctive characteristics;

- Participation can have different intensities and shapes (Allemand et al. 2021) and, on this, often depends the achievement of intangible well-being and the role that the youth generation can assume in social transformation.

As much as the co-operative institutions are based on the principle of democracy and the active participation, this process needs a deeper implementation in order to promote social justice on the basis of equality, democracy and education.

This work shows the “Viceversa: Towards a Circular Education Model” Project recently funded by the “Con i Bambini” Foundation with the aim of identifying and enhancing an educational community in Certaldo. The Tuscan community is a local network of actors (families, schools, citizens, public and private entities) who has responsibilities in the education and care of children and adolescents. The Project has been proposed by a group of partners represented by Polis Center for studies, Research and Cultural Activities, Narrazioni Urbane, University of Siena, Spazio Ipotetico, Circo Libera Tutti, the Educational Comprehensive Institute and the Municipality of Certaldo.

Our approach puts care at the heart of educational research as proposed by Puig de la Bellacasa (2012, 2017). A caring citizen would not just learn about the care of self, intimate others and colleagues but also about the unknown, universal other to whom one is relationally connected (Tronto 1993, Pulcini, Bourgault 2018). We live in a state of dependency and interdependency and these inter/dependencies require intense emotional work at different times (Cantillon, Lynch 2017, Lynch 2022). The more community-oriented conception, which includes parents, school and neighborhood, partly explains the legitimacy of care in teaching as one of its components.

The interest in an open and equality-oriented education, capable of integrating the emotional sphere, is linked to the development of a perspective centered on valuable relational configurations where various actors can be involved and mutually influence each other. This implies a conception of care that is not only vertical but also horizontal, given that the presence of horizontal resources strengthens the process of social inclusion in education (Lynch, Payet 2011).

The Viceversa Project was inspired by the successful experience of participatory development of the inclusive “Libera Tutti” Park (since 2017 accessible to everyone, without any distinctions whatsoever) with the active involvement of the civil society and acknowledgment by Tuscany Region. The purpose of the Project is to strengthen the educational community that informally originated from that experience, building a strong network of collaborative relationships, fueled by a plurality of actors (families, teachers, students, association representatives, institutions and volunteer organizations etc.) living in the Empolese Valdelsa territory.

These actors recognize the educational contribution they provide in their respective areas of intervention to ensure the well-being of girls and boys, mitigating widespread phenomena such as social discomfort and school related distress (dropout, NEET, etc.) particularly after the challenging years of the pandemic (Colombo, Romito, Vaira, Visentin 2022).

The intention of this community is to create an educational and care structure - educational community hub - capable of supporting the system of relationships and collaboration among the actors, providing integrated and multidimensional responses to the educational needs of young people.

Research Context: In recent years, policies against school segregation have become a crucial strategy for public administrations and international organisations (Eurydice, 2020; OECD, 2019) aiming to create more equitable educational systems. Precisely, the "Shock Plan Against School Segregation" (SP), launched in 2019 in Barcelona, seeks to reduce educational segregation through a more equitable distribution of vulnerable students, using targeted funding, preassigned school seats, and quotas for these students (CEB, 2019). SP has varying effects, not only regarding the desired output of the desegregation policy, but also about issues of subjectivity and ethics. This presentation, will focus on intended and unintended effects on families from a social justice approach as they are, alongside students, the main target of SP.

Aim: This article examines the impact of SP on targeted families, considering economic, educational, and emotional factors involved.

Method: This is a qualitative study based on 60 semi-structured interviews conducted with families who are beneficiaries of the SP from 32 schools in Barcelona. The stratification of schools considered three factors: socioeconomic composition (high, medium, low); school type (public, private subsidised), and offered educational levels (preschool and primary, secondary, or both).

Results: Findings reveal impacts on families across economic, educational, and emotional dimensions. Economically, there is a consensus that targeted funding for expenses such as school fees, supplies, school field trips and camps helps vulnerable families. Therefore, there is a clear impact in line with one of the main goals of the SP theory of change: widespread child poverty in Barcelona in the aftermath of the COVID-19 pandemic (Navarro-Varas & Porcel, 2020). Even so, a confused definition and implementation of SP and resistances by some schools that provokes unequal access to funding.

Educationally, SP equalizes available educational resources, facilitates access to extracurricular activities and expands the choice set for many families in the transition from lower to upper secondary education. Furthermore, there are documented processes of social stigmatization and poor experiences in managing school-families relation, especially in schools with high socioeconomic composition where vulnerable students and their families are a novelty.

Emotionally, the impacts of the policy remain ambiguous. On the one hand, there is a widespread sense of gratitude and relief due to SP expressed in all interviews. On the other hand, feelings of guilt are very common and there is evidence of a negotiation and reproduction of the stigma of being out-of-work benefit claimants (Patrick, 2016), especially among migrant families. The discomfort also stems from the loss of freedom in school choices and from the situations of indirect discrimination experienced by families and students assigned to elitist schools.

Discussion: The policy's economic, educational, and emotional benefits are noteworthy. However, the unexpected consequences of misinformation, enactment, and stigmatisation regarding these dimensions must be considered. Analyzing how different profiles of targeted-families (migrant, native, from an ethnic minority and single-parent family) experience the program's effects in distinct educational contexts contributes to dissect the key elements of desegregation policies from the voices of the families.

Led by the Center for Studies on Family and Childhood Education (CesPeFI) of Università Cattolica del Sacro Cuore, between September 2022 and October 2023, the study-case “Compagni di strada” (Road Companions) aimed to investigate the specific interstitial phenomenon of homelessness in Brescia urban context (Northern Italy).
Since homeless people’s life is characterized by multiple and mixed forms of emargination (both material, concerning lack of job, home, economic resources, health, and not-material, concerning lack of familiar relationships, friendships or work-relationships, reaching the most severe grade of social exclusion, such as homeless), educational research approaches should assume an intersectional point of view in order to recognize mechanisms of exclusion and social injustice at the base of “poverty careers” that results in homelessness.
In particular, “Compagni di strada” study made use of a qualitative methodological framework – the ethnographic one – in order to increase ways and opportunites to intercept and make visible the many invisible subjects involved in such specific interstitial dynamics, intersectional contexts and processes which characterize the phenomenon.
In fact, the study aimed to investigate the “sub-culture” of homeless people within Brescia geographical area, exploring the following aspects:
• “sliding mechanisms” and exclusion dynamics;
• distinctive features of homelessness’ condition;
• way-out mechanisms / elements of personal resilience;
• hierarchy of homeless people’s priorities.
Also, the research project explored knowledges and practices gained by social workers employed in Brescia’s various services for homeless people – the value of their job is often as invisible as homeless people’s life. The results confirmed that the choice of specific educational approaches plays a decisive role in contending the reproduction of mechanisms of selection and exclusion, especially when it embraces an interconnected perspective, in relation with contexts, people and social and territorial variables, such homelessness requires: as a matter of fact, according to the plenty of the interviewed social workers, only a multidisciplinar and interconneted approach seems to grant a functional taking charge of homeless people.
Since this population lives in complex conditions of social unrest, very often correlated to over kinds of criticities (such as health and mental deseases, drug addiction, alcoholism, troubles with justice, etc.), the social workers - as well as the most recent scientific literature and welfare policies suggest - declare that only a multidisciplinar approach to people experiencing homelessness can take care of the many dimensions and challanges of their condition.
Any other kind of approach risks to fail and, moreover, to reproduce mechanisms of exclusion and inequality, since it won’t consider homeless men/women involved in the specific interstitial dynamics, intersectional contexts and processes that lead to homelessness.
To conclude, an intersectional research approach can contribute to contrasting the reproduction of exclusion and inequality thank to a sort of “advocacy” function, as it helps to make more visible what often is kept invisible.

The digital transformation in non-formal education and youth work is an unstoppable ongoing process, within which the arrival on the scene of Artificial Intelligence applied to the socio-educational practice is taking place. This process, which we could define as "transformation within the transformation", is the target of a wide critical reflection by educational agencies, youth workers and national and international bodies, which have the power end responsibility of producing policies, programs and guidelines regarding the implementation of youth work practice. As always happens, the challenges posed by these changes are faster than the positions that institutions manage to adopt in response to these transformations.

This research aims to investigate the point of view of key people, who hold decision-making roles in their field of reference, regarding the impact that digital transformation and artificial intelligence are currently having and will have in the future in the field of youth work . It wants to understand how these personal positions are reflected and can influence the policies adopted by their institutions and vice versa. In particular, the research aims to understand whether these transformations might make youth work practice more inclusive or if it risks raising the level of discrimination and social exclusion of the most fragile young people and those in disadvantaged backgrounds.

The research was conducted using the interview method with 7 key people, at a national and international level, in the period between July 2023 and February 2024.

The research results show an interesting placement of the interviewees on a spectrum ranging from pure skeptics to convinced enthusiasts, with interesting reflections on how digitalization and artificial intelligence are making their way into the interstices of the educational continuum.

Introduction: This research aims to analyze the participation of young people aged 18-24 in the public sphere and decision-making. In particular, the objective is to explore qualitatively how the concept of participation is understood in this age group, with attention to the specific characteristics of the places and modes of participation.

Background: Multiple studies have examined the involvement of young individuals in the public domain, emphasizing the decrease in their membership in associations and demonstrating how this trend also impacts younger generations (Putnam, 2000). Two primary theoretical threads can be distinguished when it comes to the involvement of young individuals in the public realm and decision-making. The deliberative approach emphasizes the significance of communication and public discussion as a vital component of democracy (Dryzek, 2000). Conversely, the rights-based approach prioritizes the entitlement of young individuals to have their voices acknowledged and to engage in decision-making processes that impact them. From this viewpoint, participation is regarded as a process of empowerment that enables young individuals to attain active citizenship (Hart, 1992).

Method: The research is based on a survey conducted on a sample of 244 young men and women aged 18-24 attending university. The survey was conducted using an online questionnaire, which explored the different forms of participation in the public sphere and decision-making. The qualitative data were subjected to thematic analysis, as outlined by Boyatzis (2018), and lexical specificity analysis, as proposed by Brie and Hopp (2011). The study was carried out in compliance with the ethical guidelines for psychological research (AIP, 2022). The research was conceived within the MUSA – Multilayered Urban Sustainability Action – ecosystem, funded by the European Union – NextGenerationEU, under the National Recovery and Resilience Plan (NRRP) Mission 4, Component 2, Investment Line 1.5: Strengthening of research structures and creation of R&D “innovation ecosystems”, set up of “territorial leaders in R&D”.

Results: The survey results show that the participation of young people in the public sphere does not fully express its potential. The forms of participation perceived by the participants are speaking out (through university lectures, teaching laboratories, and internships) and sharing relational moments based on prosocial behaviors (volunteering, religious and spiritual dimension). The primary incentives for participation are primarily associated with the inclination to articulate one's viewpoint, have a sense of belonging to a collective, and achieve a meaningful impact.

Discussion: The results support the idea that the concept of participation is understood by youth in terms of voicing and relating to others: participation as a means to articulate one's viewpoint and engage in dialogue with others. Nevertheless, the involvement of young individuals in the public sphere discourse remains restricted. Hence, it is imperative to foster novel modes of engagement that are both comprehensive and easily accessible to the youth, by focusing on proactive citizenship and removing obstacles to their access to information and chances for participation.