L.03. Ecologies of Education and Democracy in Posthuman Times: More and Less-than-human Troubles

We live in posthuman times in which social, educational and political issues are connected with human and non-human entanglements; an era in which the categories inherited from the humanist and anthropocentric tradition require a thorough review.

These assumptions raise new questions about what it means today to live in democratic societies in terms of issues such as social justice, inclusion, collective participation in decision-making processes, our relationship with techno-science, and the protection of the ecosystems of which we are a part.

Starting from these premises, education plays an important and strategic role in promoting a renewed vision of democracy in the posthuman condition through dialogue with different theoretical perspectives that allow us to reconsider contexts and practices in an ecological sense. From this point of view, we are witnessing a significant paradigm shift.

In this scenario, it is necessary to problematize educational discourses and practices both with regard to the possibility of extending the focus to a more-than-human world in a postanthropocentric vision, and, on the other side, in relation to the need to face the continuous degradation of living beings that reduces them to marginalized, excluded and therefore less-than-human otherness.

We welcome proposals about (but not limited to) these topics:

- Critical reflections on epistemological, ethical, and political assumptions embedded in more and less-than-human troubles in education;

- The contribution of ecological paradigms in supporting the democratization of educational events in posthuman times;

- Education between social and environmental justice;

- Education and ecological transition: socio-political and cultural issues.