ITALIAN JOURNAL OF SOCIOLOGY OF EDUCATION

One of the effects of new post-modern culture is identified in the ‘de-routinization’ process of social life. The lack of concrete points of reference, seems, paradoxically, to force the subject to make is own ‘life plans’. The current situation of chaos leads one to carefully reflect on a trend which is often neglected: nothing can be considered human if it is (or remains) purely mechanical. Even in education, the ‘active learning’ involves the fostering of ‘interactive’ school relations between teacher and student and of dialogue techniques so as to make younger generations more and more skilled at pinpointing their problems, questioning themselves and thus enabling them to ‘open up’ to the riches of their relationships in life, as a whole. Our study is founded on the conviction that a social institution (such as a school) is human only when its members find their bearings with one another in an ‘over- functional’ way. The ‘activity’ can be based on a correct and organic formulation of educational relations so as to regenerate social capital which can be regarded as the vital resource for the survival of a civilization.