On Tuesday 13 November 2018, University of Roma Tre hosted the national seminar entitled “Actuality of the capability approach in Europe and sustainability scenarios”, promoted by Giuditta Alessandrini, full Professor of Social and Work Pedagogy, with the collaboration of Siped (Italian Society of Pedagogy), Siref (Italian Society of Educational and Training Research) and Asvis (Italian Alliance for Sustainable Development).

Professor Alessandrini presented the Network “Pedagogical and Educational Dimensions of the Capability Approach”, which brings together five Italian Universities and an Ecuadorean one (Roma Tre University, University of Salento, Ca’ Foscari University of Venice, Catholic University of “Sacro Cuore”, University of Molise, Universidad Politécnica Salesiana of Ecuador), engaged in the study and dissemination of this important approach in educational and social fields.

From the Seminar emerged convergence elements between the Capability Approach and the goals of the 2030 Agenda for Sustainable Development. These elements are: the awareness that human development is identified not only with economic development; the opposition to diffusion of a market-oriented and functionalist approach to development; the attention to the “common good”; the rejection of an individualistic and “privatistic” vision of knowledge; the defense of the freedom’s spheres, whose removal would make life unworthy of human dignity.

Culture of sustainability and Education are therefore the same thing. Educational processes should be oriented towards the formation of a civil awareness and towards the need to counter the causes of poverty, hunger and illiteracy. The contributions of the numerous speakers will be published in the volume “Pedagogical and Educational Dimensions of the Capability Approach” published by the Editor Franco Angeli, due out in March 2019.