Intergenerationality and social change through popular education in a neoliberal world : a case study of popular schools in Rome

Abstract

This article focuses on popular education as a means of intergenerational education for social transformation against the neocolonial neoliberalism imposed by the “West”. The intergenerational nature of popular education has received little attention, yet it is truly relevant, especially today. Indeed, the current political and economic context is witnessing the spread of new political movements in the Global ‘North’, and even more so in regions like ‘Southern’ Europe, in which young and older educators develop intercultural relationships with children and adolescents from ethnic minorities, often from working-class backgrounds. The relationship between educators and students can challenge common sense steeped the Neoliberal Ideology, as evidenced by the illustrative example of the popular schools in Rome.