There were several evolutions in the projects of democratic schools in the transition between the 20^th and the 21^st century. An evolution of references: from the ideal of equality of chances to inclusion. An evolution of geographic scales: the rise in power of infranational and supranational spaces. An evolution of temporal scales with life-long training propositions and above all the development of the perspectives of sustainable development.

International organizations are formulating new ideals: integrating all children in respect of all their differences (gender, language and culture, religion, health, etc.), by developing reflexivity capacities enabling them to orientate themselves in a universe in which several discourses of truth coexist, by designing a new cosmopolitism which supports a new definition of citizenship. These perspectives are situated transversally in regard to the traditional debate between equality and performance but do not nullify it.

Fundamental tensions exist between these references. Political tensions exist between the scales. If convergences exist, there are multiple occasions of conflict: the Nation States are being confronted by claims from regional cultures; public opinion fears that the importance of migrations is calling into question the identity of nations or their social model, the perspectives of sustainable development are colliding with development programs and consumer habits, etc. A new political arena is opening in societies in which the concepts and the methods of 1970s critique have passed into ordinary meaning: reciprocal denunciations, negotiations of compromise, resistances.

In this context, several sociological approaches are envisaging a repositioning of critique: a position of exteriority with regard to these debates and the construction of a framework which enables us to think together about these new definitions of common good and the relations that they maintain. Such an approach appears as a prerequisite for a theoretical resumption of a certain number of traditional problems. For example, how to question redistribution without questioning at the same time migrations and the relations between the North and the South? Or without situating ourselves in the perceptive of sustainable development?

The symposium is proposing a meeting place in which the goal is not to enter into too much detail with regard to each question, but to contribute to the construction of a space of common reflection.

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