“Dialogues of UNESCO Chairs”: A Necessary Utopia

UNESCO, with each generation, has been able to reinvent itself and this regenerative action also includes the transformation of the UNITWIN/UNESCO Chairs programme which, in the continuation of the mandate given to it 30 years ago, has been included, as of 2019, in a process of strategic transformation, in the face of the changes in the world. Among the debates, at various levels, it became evident the need to bet on the future of Education to respond to the transformations of the world and transform it, in turn, to prepare the ground for a new era in which ‘springs flowing freely and plentiful corn’. And, it is from these reflections that I thought of the idea of a ‘Dialogue between Italian UNESCO Chairs to respond to the challenges of our contemporary times and contribute from below to one of those moments in the history of mankind. Starting from these considerations, the idea of a Dialogue of Italian UNESCO Chairs and UNITWIN could only focus on the contribution that the Chairs could make, through their various knowledge, to implementing the SDGs as an experimental laboratory of ideas for the world to come. These lines, which mark some significant moments of the ‘Dialogues’ project, clearly show the successful operational choices implemented with the contribution of all the Italian UNESCO Chairs, with the support of the Italian National Commission for UNESCO and the UNESCO Education Sector. The Network of Italian UNESCO Chairs with the acronym (ReCUI) was established in November 2022 following the signing of a Network Agreement between all the Italian UNESCO Chairs, as a continuation of the project “Dialogues of the UNESCO Chairs: A Laboratory of Ideas for the World to come”, project conceived by Annateresa Rondinella and developed within the UNESCO Chair of the University of Basilicata directed by Angela Colonna.