Discorsi emergenti nelle politiche di Lifelong Learning per i giovani adulti: riflessioni su due casi studio in Italia

The article presents a selection of the main results of the project “YOUNG ADULLLT. Policies Supporting Young People in their Life Course. A Comparative Perspective of Lifelong Learning and Inclusion in Education and Work in Europe” funded by the Horizon 2020 Programme. The project has involved research teams from 9 countries and its main focus was on the policy-making patterns, the aims and the implementation of the Lifelong Learning (LLL) policies targeting young adults at regional/local level. By the integration of quantitative and qualitative methods, the project has investigated the compatibility among the aims of the LLL policies, also in relation to their capacity to grasp the actual needs of their target. Further, the potential gap between intended and unintended effects of the policies has been explored in relation to the broader structural and cultural changes which prompt the biographical de-standardisation and affect the labour and skills market. Drawing from the main results of the analysis of two Italian case studies by a Cultural Political Economy perspective (Sum, Jessop, 2013), the article explores the discourses underlying the processes of policy-making and implementation of the analyzed LLL measures, with particular regard to the discourses on activation, needs and vulnerability of the target groups.