Conference Program

This contribution re-reads Aldo Capitini’s Antifascismo tra i giovani through the interpretive frame offered by the recent editorial re-publication, which presents antifascism as an open-ended process rather than as a closed chapter of national memory. In this perspective, antifascism is not reduced to commemorative rhetoric: it is treated as a formative and political practice that can still address young people because it connects ideas, biographies, places, and collective relations, and because it links resistance to the principles and methods of nonviolence.

The paper develops three pedagogical cores that emerge from this reading. First, the intergenerational character of antifascism: the text is configured as a network of encounters, voices, and itineraries that can be re-activated as an educational device, especially where school curricula risk isolating the history of fascism within linear and self-contained narratives. Secondly, the Capitinian lexicon of “openness” (apertura) and “Thou” (Tu): Capitini’s insistence on practice/attention, dialogue, care for relationships, and refusal of “heads” (charismatic cults and hierarchical leadership) provides criteria for democratic education beyond moral exhortation and offers an antidote to what Eco has described as the re-emergent potential of “eternal fascism.” Third, the horizon of “all” (tutti) and “copresence” (compresenza) as a regulative idea for civic learning: democratic formation is interpreted as an exercise in expanding the community of reference and building relational infrastructures that make meaningful participation possible.

On this basis, the contribution specifies a didactic and organizational proposal explicitly aligned with the panel’s focus on nonviolent education and the demilitarization of schools, understood as the dismantling of punitive, competitive, and hierarchical logics that are often normalized in everyday routines, and as a reorientation of school environments (physical, symbolic, and relational) towards active, positive peace. The proposal translates Capitini’s intergenerational antifascism into a set of practices and tools that work simultaneously on (i) teachers’ “self-work” and professional habitus, (ii) classroom and school governance as a democratic laboratory, and (iii) the wider local educational ecosystem.

The aim is to propose Capitini’s intergenerational, nonviolent antifascism as a resource for renewing civic education: not as an additional content block, but as a method for cultivating democratic agency, critical vigilance toward authoritarian drifts, and a disciplined capacity for conflict transformation.

Demilitarising schools entails more than adding “peace content”: it calls for educational frameworks that interrupt collaboration (i.e., non‑cooperation) with war as a social system. This paper focuses on Aldo Capitini’s principle of non‑collaboration: refusal to participate in war‑making, withdrawal of consent from militarised institutions, and construction of participatory alternatives (1,2,3). In this sense, it proposes a pedagogical praxis for cultural disarmament within everyday schooling. In a time of securitised borders and renewed war economies, non‑collaboration functions as a method for unlearning enemy‑making and for cultivating a universalist humanism grounded in the “tu‑tutti” (10).

Aldo Capitini (1899–1968) was an Italian philosopher and educator who made nonviolence a central category of political action and educational renewal. He promoted a democracy “from below” and experimented with participatory forms of public deliberation, linking ethical transformation to collective organisation with his Movimento Nonviolento.

The study combines a historical‑educational reconstruction of the 1963 International Seminar on Nonviolent Techniques (Perugia) with a conceptual analysis of Capitini’s later systematisation in Le tecniche della nonviolenza (1967) (4,5,6). The seminar is interpreted as a critical junction between educational theory and grassroots associative politics, translating “power from below” into learnable practices: civil disobedience, conscientious objection, economic non‑cooperation (including boycotts) and strategies of progressive disarmament. The paper also frames peace as an active sequence of social acts rather than the mere absence of violence.

From this perspective, demilitarisation acquires a clear pedagogical meaning for schools, as it entails a comprehensive transformation of governance, curriculum, and symbolic culture within educational institutions. The paper outlines pathways for mapping how militarisation enters educational spaces and for developing curricular inquiry in civic and historical education, through participatory inquiry into supply chains and public budgets. It also proposes collective practices of non‑cooperation as educational exercises, including scrutinising procurement and sponsorship, declining military‑led activities, and re‑designing rituals and spaces in ways that cultivate inclusive forms of remembrance.

Transnationally, Capitini and the Movimento Nonviolento were embedded in international pacifist circuits, such as the War Resisters’ International, showing how training, educational resources, and anti‑militarism campaigns circulate across borders and can be pedagogically adapted to schools today (6-7).

From Capitini’s 1963 Seminar to Le tecniche della nonviolenza (1967), contemporary anti‑militarisation can reactivate non‑collaboration as a pedagogical praxis of cultural disarmament, translating refusal and non‑cooperation into learnable techniques. By tracing Capitini’s influence across current Italian and European initiatives (11), the paper frames the school as a laboratory of active nonviolence and grassroots democracy, where universalist humanism is enacted through democratised language, agency, and institutional power rather than abstract moralism (8,9).

Educators and policymakers are invited to treat non‑collaboration as curriculum, method, and institutional policy for demilitarising educational life.

This contribution presents a research and educational project exploring how archival materials can support peace and nonviolence education in primary schools. The initiative is grounded in the idea that archives —understood as repositories of collective memory and lived experiences— can function as powerful pedagogical tools within school-based learning ecosystems. By integrating archival sources into active, laboratory-based teaching, the project positions schools as community hubs capable of nurturing democratic values, critical thinking, and a culture of nonviolence.
The project begins with a shared planning phase involving partner schools in Milan and Mirto, teachers, and researchers. This collaborative design process defines objectives, timelines, and thematic pathways, drawing on materials preserved in the Archive of the Centro per lo Sviluppo Creativo “Danilo Dolci,” including photographs, posters, educational projects, and audio recordings. The initiative also builds on the methodological heritage of the EDUMANA network, which has long experimented with dialogic, participatory, and community-centered educational practices.
The pedagogical framework is structured around a progressive introduction to archival literacy. Students first explore the concept of the archive as a place where real stories are preserved, engaging in guided conversations and reflective activities that connect personal memory to collective history. They then encounter the idea of historical sources through simplified document analysis, learning to observe, question, and interpret materials from the past. This approach emphasizes that documents do not simply “tell” stories but invite multiple readings depending on the observer’s perspective.
A central component of the project is the direct exploration of archival materials. When possible, classes visit the archive; alternatively, curated selections are brought into the classroom. Working in small groups, students analyze different documents and reconstruct “mini-stories,” developing early research skills and experiencing firsthand the investigative dimension of historical inquiry. These activities culminate in creative reinterpretations: students write short narratives inspired by archival sources, dramatize scenes from the past, or create digital boards and multimedia artefacts that connect historical content to contemporary issues.
The project explicitly links archival exploration to peace and nonviolence education. Through materials related to Danilo Dolci’s work —civil disobedience, dialogic education, community development— students reflect on themes such as conflict resolution, empathy, justice, and civic responsibility. Classroom activities include listening circles, interviews, collective writing, and dramatizations, all grounded in Dolci’s maieutic method. These practices encourage students to connect past experiences of nonviolent action with present-day challenges, fostering a sense of agency and shared responsibility.
A final phase focuses on public dissemination, conceived as a miniature public history exercise. Schools organize exhibitions showcasing documents, student interpretations, and multimedia productions, opening the learning process to families and the wider community. This moment reinforces the school’s role as a civic center and cultural hub, promoting participation and intergenerational dialogue. The project concludes with an evaluation phase involving questionnaires, interviews, and focus groups to assess educational impact and inform future iterations.
Overall, the project demonstrates how archives can become catalysts for democratic learning ecosystems, enabling schools to cultivate peace, nonviolence, and active citizenship through experiential, community-oriented pedagogy.

Within contemporary debates on peace education, increasing attention has been devoted to the ways in which educational systems may contribute, often implicitly, to the reproduction of militarized social imaginaries. Beyond the most visible forms of militarization within educational spaces, these dynamics frequently operate through deeper pedagogical and cultural mechanisms: rigid hierarchies of knowledge, transmissive teaching models, competitive assessment regimes, and limited opportunities for students to participate in processes of knowledge production. Such institutional and symbolic configurations contribute to shaping an educational imaginary grounded in obedience, performativity, and the separation between academic knowledge and civic responsibility.
Within international scholarship on peace education, it has been widely emphasized that education for peace cannot be reduced to the mere absence of violence, but must instead be understood as an active process aimed at cultivating democratic relationships, social justice, and the nonviolent transformation of conflicts. From this perspective, the demilitarization of education requires a profound transformation of pedagogical relations, epistemic practices, and institutional cultures that structure learning environments.
This paper explores the potential of transformative pedagogy and university public engagement as strategies capable of “disarming” education from within. The theoretical framework draws on the tradition of critical and nonviolent pedagogies, including the work of Danilo Dolci, Paulo Freire, bell hooks, and Johan Galtung. In particular, Dolci’s method of reciprocal maieutics offers a meaningful perspective for rethinking education as a dialogical and collective process of knowledge production, in which learning emerges through shared inquiry, active participation, and community responsibility rather than through hierarchical transmission.
Building on this framework, the paper presents the educational experience of the university course Strategies and Tools for Empowerment and Active Citizenship, designed around participatory and transformative learning methodologies. The course integrates collaborative learning practices, project-based activities, and public engagement initiatives that connect academic work with social actors and local communities. Through these practices, students are involved in processes of critical reflection and civic action that transform them from passive recipients of knowledge into active participants in the production of knowledge and social practices.
The analysis of this experience suggests that the integration of transformative pedagogy and public engagement can contribute to redefining the role of the university as a democratic public learning space. These practices foster critical awareness, collective agency, and active citizenship competencies while simultaneously challenging traditional epistemic hierarchies through processes of knowledge co-production among students, educators, and community actors.
From this perspective, the demilitarization of educational imaginaries cannot be understood simply as the absence of militarized elements within educational settings. Rather, it entails a deeper transformation of pedagogical relationships and knowledge practices that sustain authoritarian and exclusionary dynamics. Through dialogical learning, collaborative inquiry, and civic engagement, transformative pedagogy can help reposition the university as a site where democratic participation and social responsibility are actively cultivated. Revisiting the tradition of nonviolent education in light of contemporary practices of university public engagement thus opens pathways for imagining pedagogical processes capable of disarming education from within and reinforcing its emancipatory and democratic potential.

The link between schools and their local territory, strengthened by school autonomy (DPR 275/99), transforms the school institution into a central node within the community, integrating educational activities with local resources, associations, and institutions. This strategic alliance promotes territorial educational agreements, pathways for transversal skills and career guidance (PCTO), and interventions in at-risk areas, with the school acting as a cultural and legal safeguard. Within this framework, the school institution is no longer an isolated entity but rather a center for the dissemination of civic values, capable of co-designing effective educational responses to social fragmentation, promoting active citizenship rooted in local realities while opening up to global perspectives.

This contribution aims to present an educational project based on the interaction between the school system and the world of civic associations, as an example of good practice. The intervention was carried out over the course of two academic years at the Istituto Comprensivo Puddu in Prato and developed within the framework of the Scuole in Marcia project (www.scuoleinmarcia.it), a platform of educational activities linked to the Third World March for Peace and Nonviolence (https://theworldmarch.org/it/), aimed at promoting knowledge, dissemination, and the practical application of such values.

The activities put forward by Scuole in Marcia are characterized by a flexible model that, in this specific case, proved particularly suitable for fostering:

1. students’ protagonism. In this perspective, learners are not minds to be filled with notions, but become agents of change;
2. the co-design of activities by teachers, ensuring their continuity over time;
3. opportunities for students to engage in meaningful experiences “which they will live through fruitfully and creatively in subsequent experiences” (Dewey, 2014, p. 14).

Students’ sense of agency in addressing the complexity of situations that may arise in a constantly changing world was stimulated through an educational approach centered on nurturing futuring—the capacity to imagine the future in a critical and reflective way (Hoffman et al., 2021).

While the presence of an external voice —in this case non-profit volunteers—can be stimulating because of its novelty, as well as the content and methodologies employed, it is essential, for greater effectiveness, that such interventions activate teachers in continuing the activities and provide students with spaces not only for understanding but also for concrete action. The relationship established through this pedagogical partnership becomes an alliance among teachers, experts, and students.

Since nonviolence, from the perspective of Universalist Humanism as advanced by Mario Rodríguez Cobos, can only be understood through a dual framework—both social and personal (Silo, 1991)—another central aspect of the Scuole in Marcia project consisted in dedicating substantial space within workshop-based learning to recognizing the origins and dynamics of subtle forms of violence in interpersonal relationships, within the classroom group, and in the broader school environment, with the aim of overcoming them.

This need is widely perceived and strongly felt by teachers in contemporary schools. In this regard as well, positive outcomes could be observed in the creation of spaces that fostered reflection, expression, listening, and mutual respect.

The present moment is characterized by increasingly rapid and unpredictable change. The world is dominated by the extreme, the unknown, and the highly improbable (according to current human knowledge); this unpredictability will continue to grow despite the expansion of knowledge, as both scientists and non-scientists are led to observe details rather than the "big picture" and the dynamism of processes (Morin, 1999; Taleb, 2008).

In this context, the individual lives a "Liquid Life" (Bauman, 2008)—a precarious existence lived under conditions of continuous uncertainty, marked by a sense of powerlessness in the face of dizzying changes. Insecurity thus becomes a permanent condition in which "anything may happen, but nothing can be done—or almost nothing [...]" (Bauman, 2017, p. 127). This instability is fueled by permanent conflict and the growth of global violence. Clashes are often reduced to identity simplifications that flatten human complexity into a single affiliation, fueling a violence that denies the plurality of individual stories (Sen, 2006).

Today, neoliberalism has transformed governance into a legitimization of war, surveillance, and terror; a spirit of revenge and a "culture of cruelty" permeate daily life. To design a more just and equitable horizon for government and the economy, one must consider a simultaneous transformation of culture, consciousness, social identities, and values (Giroux, 2014).

This research presents a reflection on the workshop "The Autobiographical Diary for Peace and Nonviolence" organized by the CRED (Educational and Didactic Resource Center) for teachers and educators operating within the "0-6 integrated system" and in schools of all levels in the Valdera area. The workshop, consisting of two meetings attended by over 50 people, was proposed as a response to transform the social situation described above. Its core was the autobiographical device, a practice with transformative and educational potential that allows for the creation of reflective spaces for self-care (Demetrio, 1996).

Autobiography, indeed, offers participants the opportunity to increase self-awareness of their own needs and engage in deep listening—to themselves and others—to recognize and interpret different points of view (Benelli & Tozza, 2024). In line with this description, the workshop utilized autobiography—focused on themes of peace and nonviolence—to allow individuals to reclaim their own history and reflect on the complexity of their existence.

Through the analysis of feedback questionnaires, it emerged how working on one's own memory and biographical events allowed for the identification of different forms of violence (The Community for Human Development, 2010) and the dismantling of the "logic of the enemy" inherent in this society. The ultimate goal is to contribute to the development of theoretical frameworks and pedagogical tools that support a systemic transformation consistent with a universalist (Silo, 2000) and planetary humanism (Morin, 2001). Replacing the logic of confrontation with the practice of listening and self-narration means laying the foundation for a consciousness and a culture where the resolution of differences occurs not through the destruction of the other, but through reconciliation and the recognition of common vulnerability and human dignity.