Ricerc@Sapienza

This research addresses a very interesting and little investigated topic in the sociological field as the revival of popular education initiatives in Italy, a country boasting a long and complex tradition in this field (Guimaraes et al. 2018). In this regard, the last fifteen years have witnessed the spread of multiple initiatives to support the school-age population due to the expansion of educational poverty of minors, a problem particularly present in Italy where approximately 1.5 million children are in this condition (Morabito 2022).
Given the spontaneous nature of the phenomenon, it is not possible to reconstruct a list of the 'new popular schools' in Italy. Rather, an exploratory research is proposed on four case studies on educators working in as many cities and who have adhered to "Dacapo", an emerging movement which involves about twenty associations present in different cities (Rome, Naples, Alba, Turin, Udine, Bologna, and so on).
Several educators of Dacapo target their educational activities primarily at minors, both Italian and foreign, from the most disadvantaged classes, in order to support them in their schooling. The main question of the research concerns the degree of closeness of these educators to the tradition of radical popular education, addressed to the mobilization of subaltern classes for the purpose of their political organisation (Morrow, Torres 2002; Regmi 2016; Roghi 2023).
This type of analysis therefore makes it possible to take into consideration the actual position in the educational field (Bourdieu 1979) of these educators to understand if they are somehow able to oppose at least the neoliberal scholastic reform (Apple 2011; Ball 2021), or if instead they are congenial to an institutional set-up that exploits voluntary work and associations to make up for cuts in national and local welfare.