Education and Universalism in Europe. When Education Supports Democracy

The increasing of unemployment, social insecurity and poverty are making many Europeans contest the democratic foundations of Europe. It is a world systemic crisis that, on the one hand, nurtures the migration flows, on the other hand, it intensifies the individualist tenets of neoliberalism and contemporarily the hostility against migrants to which the social insecurity is often attributed because in a sense they are the evident proof of the end of welfare assured by Nation-State in the past. In this context, it is relevant to understand the role of education in promoting the "democratic universalism", the founding value of democracy according to which institutions should remove social inequalities. Today this value is in crisis also because it asks to be re-elaborated recognising cultural pluralism, especially if we consider European societies are becoming multicultural increasingly.