Fuori dal limbo. Mafie e direzioni progettuali per una resistenza pedagogica

Pedagogy has been blamed of silence and superficiality on the relationship between mafias and education; however, nowadays we are facing a spreading of interest among civil society and institution around educational projects. This research aims to contribute to the pedagogical debate around possible directions to support the civil society response to the problems of mafias. First of all, it deepens different theoretical framework (sociological, criminological, historical, law) and compares the different evolution of mafias (Cosa nostra, camorra, 'ndrangheta in the italian and international context, but also yakuza, triads, and italo-american mafia). The aim is to keep a wide and deep perspective of the problem of mafias in the globalized era. From this analysis emerges the importance of comprehension not only of the pervasiveness of the phenomenon but also the permeability of the contexts and the convergence with inauthentic lifestyles which are connected with consumption, utilitarianism, anthropocentrism and disengagement. Considering this, the research address to understand the evolution of political-institutional and civil initiatives. The importance of education has increased since the '80s, when the law enforcement agents have started to be murdered. To comprehend possible educational goals, the research analyzes different projects, which are narrated through the documentation, interviews and surveys of actors involved and it confronts them with the pedagogical reflections on citizenship and legality. Listening to the relatives of victims, working on the land confiscated to mafiosi and turned into social land trust or social projects, restoring and taking care of public spaces and goods, trying new way of social living: these practices allow us to open the horizon to the utopy of the civilization of empathy if we engage in the development of the ability to comprehend reality and the reasons of the other and to nurture the art of resistence, in the sign of empathy.