H.02. Adult Learning as Democratic Renewal: Empowering Citizenship and Envisioning Alternative Futures

In a moment of profound social, political, and technological transformation, adult education and learning play a central role in sustaining and renewing democratic life. We invite contributions exploring how adult education in any setting can serve as a cornerstone for active citizenship, social inclusion, intergenerational solidarity, and cultural justice.

We welcome theoretical, empirical, and policy-oriented papers examining adult education as a space where civic competences, social responsibility, and critical awareness are cultivated across the life course, including from an intergenerational perspective (Angotti & Campisi, 2024). Proposals may address, among others, the tension between instrumental visions of adult education and more transformative approaches that consider adult learning as a driver of individual and collective empowerment (Milana, Rasmussen, & Bussi, 2024). A related tension concerns the distinction between reactive, future-ready skills, which enable adults to adapt to change, and proactive, future-oriented skills, which support the anticipation, collective imagination, and construction of fairer futures by questioning dominant narratives of progress (Facer, 2021).

Additional areas of interest include:

• Policy and institutional arrangements promoting access, flexibility, and inclusion in adult education.
• Adult and continuing education, community-based learning, and intergenerational projects fostering active, informed, and global citizenship.
• Studies examining how workplace training and human capital development policies foster the emergence of collective capabilities, inclusion, and participation within organisational environments.

By examining adult education as a continuous democratic project, this call aims to show that adult and intergenerational learning are not merely matters of individual retraining or employability, but collective investments in democratic resilience and sustainable futures.