ITALIAN JOURNAL OF SOCIOLOGY OF EDUCATION

This essay focuses on the ongoing reformist process involving the Italian Universities and most importantly, the accreditation and evaluation of the didactic courses. To the fore is the progressive weakening of the didactic requirements, so as to introduce so-called “responsible autonomy” into our universities. The theoretical reflection on the current reformist process is developed in compliance with the European guidelines regarding the rationalization of the higher education systems (remarked in the communiqué of the Yerevan conference) and the sociological reflection on the post-modern universities. According to Vico, Habermas, Derrida and Bauman, universities should pose as cognitive, modern and inclusive spaces. In particular, Bauman’s metaphor at the beginning of the Bologna Process on universities’ meta-change provides interesting interpretative keys. The metaphor of meta-change, referred to post-modern education institutions, allows a better understanding of the difficulties that universities face such as the functional and cultural shifts peculiar to the liquid society. As a matter of fact, the revision of didactic parameters implies the need to satisfy the educational instances of the post-modern actors, submerged in the fluctuating complexity of our times.