Conference Program

Democracy presupposes the recognition of others and participation in the decision-making and management processes of social life. For this to be achieved, intention in these directions and the concrete possibility of its occurrence are necessary.

Recognition of others is closely linked to cultural awareness, ethical solidarity, ongoing study, and an organic educational focus on these presuppositions.

Democratic participation refers to the involvement of the individual in their physical and spiritual reality. The democratic process therefore unfolds on two levels: the spiritual and the material-physical; these two levels intersect in continuous meaningful interactions.

Can it therefore be thought that learning democracy is, or should be, limited to a specific context? Rather, since it is a learning process that extends well beyond the time of "compulsory education", it requires methods, times, and places that can encompass the complexity of reality.

Transcending the narrow confines of formal education is an automatic consequence of this concept. Informal and non-formal learning thus come into play (Vezzola, 2020).

This new paradigm deconstructs the categories of learning times and life, and the places where they occur (Leali 2025).

The places themselves, both material and immaterial, are open to an educational-planning interpretation and use that positions them as providers of (democratic) meaning (Rossi, 2018).

The paper aims to investigate the adequacy of contemporary "material and immaterial spaces" within the context of the democratic evolution of societies (Augé, 2009).
At the same time, it will be illustrated how unschooling seams to be more suitable than others to develop the democratic presuppositions and the opportunities that informal and non-formal learning and “spaces of commons” can offer learners.