Conference Program

Education and democracy are under threat worldwide.

The conservative turn, the decline of the power of the UN, the crisis of the EU, the genocide in Gaza, the war in Ukraine and Iran, and climate change are giving rise to a global polycrisis in which democracy is seen more as a constraint than a means to provide solutions to the complexities of our time. In that scenario, education is oriented toward the priorities of digital capitalism and the conservative agenda, thereby undermining the link with democracy. How to renew the relationship between education and democracy? How to reinforce a link that has been so important for the field of education studies, and for the onto-epistemology of modern education? In that paper, we address these important questions by engaging with the concept of more-than-human education governance (Landri & Peruzzo, 2026). The idea of more-than-human draws attention to the complex cognitive-affective assemblage of humans and nonhumans that emerges in the governance of education. The growing entanglements among humans, technologies and materials constitute a significant shift in the materiality of governance in education systems. Datafication, platformization, the rapid diffusion of generative AI and the experimentation with robots have made education policy and practice technologically dense and affectively charged. Numbers, rankings, apps, platforms, digital identities and software are now the constant companions of teachers, principals, students, parents, and policymakers.

The multiplication of agencies in education governance intersects with the theory of radical democracy (Latour, 2004; McDonnell, s.d.; Ranciere, 2004). Radical democracy invites an extension of equality and liberty, considering democracy not a state, but an open-ended process in which the ‘demos’ of democracy is expanded to many, and even to non-humans. Radical democracy assumes conflict and dissensus as key and ineradicable aspects of politics, challenging existing asymmetries, hierarchies, and elites. Similarly, more-than-human education governance sees the entanglements between humans and nonhumans far from frictionless and distinguishes between parasitic and mutual relationships, favouring the unfolding of convivial and joyful intertwinements between agencies. It therefore contrasts with the current depoliticisation and juridification of education by renewing the link between education and democracy through grassroots and participatory environments.