VIRTUAL: Learning. Life. Work.
Abstract
The transformation of the labor economy after the end of Fordism, characterized by the abandonment of standardized production in favor of a customized one, has given rise in the last 30 years to two specific economic models: the knowledge economy and neoliberalism. In Italy, these two models have given rise to a neoliberal academy, which is mainly oriented towards the production of human capital, forcing young people to learn how to compete in a meritocratic selection system. Politicians and economists seize every opportunity to urge young people to choose not the course they prefer, but the one that will give them the chance to find a job as soon as possible. But this model has two flaws: first, according to Sullivan, young people who focus only on the target to find a job, whatever it is, expose themselves to the dynamics of the great deal, which leads them into a spiral of dissatisfaction. Second, in this race for success, many people fail and are often blamed for their failure. As educators, we cannot accept a social project in which someone wins and many others lose or simply lose themselves. Recalling the words of Nussbaum, Giroux and Gramsci, we believe that we should allow our students to acquire a critical attitude towards any taken-for-granted knowledge, combined with a concern for the suffering of others, through some critical literacy workshops in which literature, art, and poetry can become the keys to rebuilding a society of humanity.
Natascia Bobbo – Associate Professor of Social and Health Education at the University of Padova. She teaches educational planning, pedagogy of work and educational diagnosis and intervention in the field of chronic illness. Her research interests follow two main paths: in the field of critical pedagogy, critical literacy and pedagogy of work, and in the field of medical education, therapeutic education, emotional labor and vicarious trauma prevention. She has published numerous monographs and scholarly articles. She founded and directs the Journal of Health Care Education in Practice.