Conference Program

In the present study, we seek to explore the contribution of Arendtian thought through both the action of citizens in the public sphere and their modes of resistance to authoritarian systems, viewed through the lens of Arendt’s educational approach. More specifically, the social and political polarization—as manifested in algorithmic echo chambers, disinformation, and democratic backsliding (Druckman et al., 2023)—underscores the critical importance of targeted educational interventions. If polarization projects the Arendtian condition of world alienation (Arendt, 1958), then it becomes imperative to re-examine the field of adult education as a democratic space of deliberation and active participation (Leiviskä, 2025).

The specific question posed is whether the Arendtian framework can overcome democratic regression by means of a democratic education situated within the domain of adult education. The central aim, therefore, is to investigate the dialogical relationship, emancipatory action, and social transformation within adult education, enabling learners to participate in the shared public world. In other words, how does Arendt’s conception of the common world (Arendt, 1958, p. 52) intersect, for example, with Freirean conscientization (Freire, 1998) in order to raise issues that illuminate democracy from below.

For the Arendtian approach, the challenge does not lie in the epistemological justification of truth, but rather in the common world that we share and co-construct through political action and the diversity of perspectives (Arendt, 2005). Truth thus reflects a shared factual basis that strengthens critical thinking and dialogue, enabling democratic education to become a domain of political values and thereby highlight the pluralistic and normative dimensions of democracy.

Under these premises, Arendtian spaces of appearance and plurality shape a form of political action that attends to the ways in which adult learners experience their participation in collective action, thereby renewing democracy from below. This “law of the earth” of plurality (Arendt, 1978, p. 19) contributes to the lived experience of freedom through the disclosure of the self, as well as through speech and deeds.

The issue that consequently arises does not concern a linear trajectory of educational policy, but rather how we learn from our political existence (Biesta, 2010). More precisely, it concerns the ways in which Arendtian spaces of appearance within adult education constitute a field of shared action and reflective judgment in the face of societal polarization.

The learner, therefore, engages in a dynamic process of reflection in order to renew and reconfigure their experiences by entering into dialogue with the transformative projections of the world within them. This process relates to Arendtian natality and collective action, since the self encounters the world, creating spaces of appearance wherein political existence is now understood in terms of beginning and generativity. These elements of the educational perspective operate within the framework of social practices in the public realm, affirming the diverse viewpoints of individuals. Adult learners thus learn through their participation in understandings of the world grounded in their experience. Learning, therefore, constitutes a lifelong condition that connects the political and the social worlds.

Aging population – at least in the Italian and Western context – and digital transition are structurally reshaping the labor market and society as a whole. Intergenerational Learning (IGL) – as a mode of knowledge transfer and exchange between generations[1] – plays a strategic role in the broader framework of age management and lifelong learning by supporting organizational adaptation and promoting more inclusive participation across different generations of workers.
This contribution highlights key findings from the AGEMIL (Age Management Intergenerational Learning; INAPP, 2025) project on the role of IGL practices in organizational contexts within both private enterprises and public administration (PA). The study comprised a desk phase involving a review of national and international scientific literature, the reconstruction of Italian and European public policies, and the analysis of the quantitative surveys “INDACO Enterprises” and “INDACO PA”. The subsequent field phase included interviews with key informants, focus groups (involving senior, junior, and mixed employees, managers, and representatives from Interprofessional Funds and training institutions), as well as case studies of best practices within private companies and PA.
The results show a growing attention to IGL practices: on the organizational side, there is an increase in IGL activities, particularly in private enterprises; at the institutional one, there has been a progressive strengthening of the references to IGL in strategic documents and funding calls, particularly at the European level. However, this attention remains mostly declarative and programmatic, struggling to translate into structured and systematic operational interventions. This mismatch is also reflected in the allocation of resources and funding. The increase in IGL initiatives is not always accompanied by a corresponding rise in the per capita spending by businesses on these activities. Both PA and private enterprises tend to rely primarily on internal resources rather than external funding, although companies are showing more hybrid funding strategies.
Among the main factors hindering the use of external resources are the lack of awareness of available tools (e.g., Interprofessional Funds) and limited technical and administrative capabilities to access and manage such funding. This issue is particularly relevant for small and medium-sized enterprises (MSEs), which are more exposed to the administrative burdens in terms of time and skills. PA, on the other hand, face institutional contexts that sometimes view these activities as non-prioritary, with a limited capacity to attract external stakeholders.
These results highlight the need to strengthen institutional commitment towards IGL practices, moving beyond a primarily programmatic dimension to ensure more solid and transversal operational implementation. There is a need for clearer communication about available resources, while simultaneously simplifying the procedures for accessing funding, particularly reducing administrative burdens for MSEs. For public administrations, it is also crucial to promote a cultural shift supported by the institutions themselves, aimed at recognizing IGL as a strategic lever for the transfer of skills, organizational cohesion, well-being, and long-term sustainability.

Perspectives Оn Adult Education Through Flexible Validation Options

Silvia Toneva, PhD, Sofia University “St. Kliment Ohrdiski”, FEBA, e-mail: newskillsbg@gmail.com

One of the employment opportunities available to adults, and one that is well regulated in most European countries, is the validation of the knowledge, skills, and competences acquired outside the formal education system. This process shortens the time required for learning and provides officially recognised qualification documents, which facilitate access both to the labour market and to further education. The Council Recommendation on the validation of non-formal and informal learning provides the framework for structuring national validation mechanisms aimed at enhancing mobility, employability, and lifelong learning. Following the adoption of this Recommendation, most Member States developed their own regulatory frameworks for the assessment and recognition of professional competences. Some countries have accumulated substantial positive experience in this field, whereas others still lag behind in the process. In 2023, another important policy document was adopted - the Commission Recommendation on the recognition of qualifications of third-country nationals. Its guidelines are intended to accelerate and simplify the recognition of qualifications held by third-country nationals and to improve their integration into the labour market. This policy document is focused on making the European labour market more attractive to third-country nationals. It emphasises to Member States that qualification recognition procedures should be simplified. Such an approach would enable third-country nationals to engage in employment corresponding to their skills and, at the same time, help reduce negative practices such as trafficking in human beings for the purpose of labour exploitation. A systematic review of the regulatory framework in the field of validation demonstrates that in most countries, including Bulgaria, these mechanisms have been developed in a way that is largely tailored to the local population and is therefore difficult to apply to persons from other countries. It is precisely in this context that there is considerable potential for updating the existing regulatory framework so as to encourage the validation of professional knowledge and skills among both nationals and migrants or immigrants. Strengthening measures that guarantee that the competences of citizens from other countries are not devalued in the host country would contribute to their more effective integration and to addressing labour shortages and workforce needs within the business sector (Souto-Otero & Villalba-Garcia, 2015).

From a very early age, children do not wait for adults to teach them how to play; they are biologically predisposed to do so by exercising their bodies and senses, exploring their environment and objects. This is referred to as the nature of play (Farné, 2024): play grows with the child and helps them grow. The amount of learning and mastery children acquire through spontaneous and natural play is extraordinary, provided they are not inhibited by overprotective adults (Rousseau, 2024). Through play, children relive the reality in which they are immersed and thus come to know it, making sense of the present and the future (Vygotsky, 2014). “For the commitment they put into it, play is real work” (Montessori, 2000), through which the child expresses their inner world (Erikson, 2008).

Speaking of a culture of play (Farné, 2024) means considering the forms through which play manifests in different social contexts. Play is a universal category of human action (Fink, 2023) and carries significant meaning: “every game means something.”, trascending immediate needs and giving sense to action; even at the animal level, it goes beyond purely biological activity (Huizinga, 2016). Within play, a complex relationship is established between freedom and rule, between the inner and outer worlds (Fink, 2023). Creativity, often associated with play, is not “infantile” in a reductive sense, but expresses a drive toward inquiry and change (Bertolini, 2015); it entails the capacity to question what appears given. However, contemporary capitalism, strengthened by neoliberalism, redefines creativity to fuel economic growth: to be creative means producing innovation functional to the status quo. Creativity thus becomes a competence oriented towards competitiveness and the reproduction of the existing order (Mould, 2018).

Broadening the perspective to the penal system, the concept of the prison-industrial complex (Davis, 2022) invites us to interpret punitive processes in light of economic and political structures: prison fits into a productive logic, where punishment can become profit. If creativity implies openness and transformation, prison represents the disciplinary management of bodies; yet, precisely here, play can assume educational value. As Caillois (2016) notes, play is freedom, separation, uncertainty, rule, non-productivity, simulation; between paidia and ludus, an alternative experiential space opens up.

Lifelong education (Loiodice, 2016) calls for pathways capable of fostering personal planning between conservation and transformation (Strollo, 2006). Within this framework lies the experience of “Giocare Dentro” (Decembrotto, Mari, 2025), carried out in Ravenna’s penitentiary from 2015 to 2023: 171 sessions, 103 board games, 65 participants. Through ludic mediation, the activity promotes learning and well-being. Play becomes a symbolic space in which inmates can requalify their self-image and reactivate relational and cognitive competences. Education concerns healing, empowerment, and liberation (hooks, 2022). In this sense, play proves to be a rehabilitative practice capable of reopening possibilities and supporting processes of identity reconstruction, keeping in mind the possibility of replicating the model in other contexts of confinement.

Educational research and policy discussions concerning migrants and refugees frequently portray young migrants as passive recipients of integration policies or educational interventions. Such framings risk reproducing epistemic hierarchies in which migrants appear primarily as objects of governance rather than as knowledgeable social and political actors. Responding to recent calls for participatory and emancipatory approaches in migration research, this paper examines how migrant youth activism can be understood as a site of democratic participation, learning, and knowledge production.

The paper analyses the sit-strike organised by Afghan refugee youth in Gothenburg, Sweden, in August 2017. The protest emerged in the aftermath of the tightening of Swedish asylum policy following the so-called “refugee crisis” of 2015. During ten days of continuous demonstration at Olof Palme Square, followed by weekly marches to the Swedish Migration Agency, young asylum seekers publicly articulated demands to stop deportations to Afghanistan and to recognise their right to remain. By occupying a central urban space and addressing both authorities and the broader public, the participants attempted to transform their position from objects of migration policy into subjects of political speech.

Empirically, the study draws on multiple sources: documentation produced by participants during the protest (including diaries, meeting notes, and texts), retrospective interviews with organisers conducted several years after the events, and contemporary media coverage of the demonstrations. These materials allow us to analyse how the protest was organised, how claims were articulated, and how the actions of the youth activists were interpreted within the wider public sphere.

The analysis engages with Jacques Rancière’s conception of democracy as moments in which those “without a part” interrupt an established social order by asserting their equality. From this perspective, the sit-strike can be interpreted as a democratic intervention in which young asylum seekers challenged dominant classifications that positioned them as voiceless or temporary subjects within Swedish society. Through collective action in public space, the participants enacted what Rancière describes as dissensus, transforming experiences that are often treated as marginal or inaudible into visible and legitimate political claims.

The paper argues that such activist practices can be understood as forms of democratic learning and epistemic intervention. By translating lived experiences of migration into public claims about justice, belonging and rights, the participants generated new forms of political subjectivity and knowledge about migration. Recognising these practices as meaningful contributions to democratic life invites educational research to reconsider how migrant and refugee agency can be acknowledged within research methodologies, educational practices, and democratic institutions.

In contemporary societies we observe a growing social disconnection, accompanied by a decline in trust in institutions and an increasing difficulty in creating spaces for democratic dialogue. In this context, adults spend a significant part of their lives within organizations. This contribution proposes to consider organizations as possible spaces for civic learning, where people develop relational and ethical competences that are also essential for democratic life.

The contribution does not claim that organizations are democratic institutions in a formal sense: decision-making processes often remain hierarchical and constrained by economic imperatives. However, everyday organizational life requires people to interact with cultural, generational and professional differences, to negotiate meanings, deal with tensions and build trust in conditions of increasing complexity. Practices such as listening, dialogue, shared responsibility and the development of psychological safety can therefore be interpreted as forms of democratic learning that take shape within work.

Drawing on professional experience in leadership development and organizational coaching, the contribution reflects on how leadership practices may reinforce purely instrumental cultures or, on the contrary, cultivate relational environments where it becomes possible to live with differences and develop mutual trust.

This perspective connects with traditions of thought that have considered the firm not only as an economic actor but also as a social institution, as in the experience of Adriano Olivetti and, more recently, in initiatives such as Economy of Francesco and in practices of the social and solidarity economy.

In a historical phase marked by profound technological transformations, the expansion of artificial intelligence and growing dynamics of social fragmentation, organizations may represent one of the places where adults can still experience cooperation, shared responsibility and the construction of trust. Rethinking leadership also as a civic practice may contribute to reconnecting organizational cultures with democratic values and with the capacity to imagine shared futures.