L.01. Building Peaceful, Just, and Democratic Societies through Transformative Education

Open Science (OS) and Transformative Education have a substantial role on the path toward the realization of positive peace intended, according to Galtung and going beyond mere conflict absence, as the enhancement of more just, equal and harmonious societies. While the UNESCO 2021 Recommendation promotes OS for epistemic justice (Fricker, 2007), OS in practice risks reinforcing existing discriminations and power asymmetries (Leonelli, 2023). This occurs particularly when infrastructural cultural and methodological choices are non-neutral and perpetuate the dominance of Western, consolidated, preferably anglophone science (Valente, 2002, Fraser 2007).

Transformative Education (TE), rooted in the necessity to activate transformative processes at societal and individual level (Bertoni Jovine, Biesta), provides an essential critical framework. By acting as a laboratory of democracy (Dewey) and an act of liberation through dialogue (Freire, Hooks just to refer to authors with different approachs), TE equips citizens with the critical awareness and ethical responsibility needed to navigate complexity.

It contributes to mitigate OS risks by cultivating competences global citizenship capable of scrutinizing the evidence base and challenging biases. This convergence facilitates the necessary shift beyond traditional paradigms, promoting epistemic pluralism and valuing “situated knowledge” (Haraway). The goal is to move toward systems oriented to social impact (Beck et al., 2020) and shared responsibility, turning open knowledge into a catalyst for nonviolent conflict resolution.

By integrating insights from science education, digital infrastructures, epistemology, and peace studies, this panel proposes reflections on the role that Open Science and Transformative Education may have in constructing a Culture of Positive Peace.