Conference Program

In an age of rapid and unpredictable transformations, the crisis of the present increasingly appears as a crisis of imagination. Ecological, technological, and socio‑political dynamics escape linear interpretations and render static categories inadequate for understanding reality.

In this scenario, adult learning is no longer merely professional updating, but a space for developing the ability to navigate complexity and contribute to the construction of shared futures. This is where the figure of the “anticipatory citizen” evoked by Poli emerges: someone capable not so much of predicting the future as of cultivating a reflective and responsible stance toward what may come into being.

Democracy, too, must transform. A procedural democracy based on representation and formal participation is no longer sufficient; what is needed is a “deep” democracy, as suggested by Dewey and, more recently, by Escobar, one capable of recognizing situated knowledge, embodied relations, and the plurality of forms of life. A deep democracy does not merely manage the present; it nurtures plural and desirable futures, and adult education becomes one of the central mechanisms of this transformation.

Traditional models of training needs analysis, however, appear increasingly inadequate. Born in stable contexts, they identify gaps to be filled with already known competencies. In societies marked by uncertainty and interdependence, needs emerge before they become visible and evolve over time. A retrospective analysis risks chasing change rather than orienting it, producing reactive rather than anticipatory citizens.

According to futures studies, anticipation is not prediction but a social practice: exploring possible futures, questioning desirable ones, and acting in the present to influence what may happen. Applied to training needs, this implies a paradigm shift: not only asking “what do we need today,” but “what capacities allow us to inhabit and transform complex futures.” Needs are no longer deficits but potentials to be brought forth.

This perspective requires dialogic and inclusive processes that involve multiple actors and value marginalized forms of knowledge. The pluriversal societies described by Escobar cannot be understood through technocratic tools: they require listening, collective imagination, and recognition of interdependencies. Anticipatory needs analysis thus becomes an embodied process, attentive to emotions, lived experiences, and ecological and social relationships that shape adult experience.

The implications for educational design are profound: adaptive and iterative devices replace rigid and linear pathways, integrating experimentation, reflexivity, and situated learning.

Evaluation also changes, focusing not only on acquired competencies but on postures, the ability to read complexity, imagine alternatives, and act collectively. Educating becomes an act of future-making: giving people back the possibility to orient becoming, rather than merely endure it.

Adopting an anticipatory perspective in needs analysis is not a theoretical indulgence but an epistemological and political necessity. In complex and pluriversal societies, adult learning contributes to deep democracy only when it embraces the dimension of the possible. Anticipation thus becomes the lens through which to rethink training needs and the role of education in collective life.