This contribution examines the dynamics of change that affected the Italian Adult Learning System (ALS) over three decades (1990s-2020s). An ALS represents the whole range of organised learning opportunities accessible to the adult population as well as their underlying structures and the stakeholders involved in their governance, organisation, and delivery (Desjardins and Ioannidou, 2020). In Italy, similarly to other countries, organized learning opportunities for adults existed well before the 1990s, yet core institutions existing today were mostly born in the aftermath of the Maastricht Treaty (1992). Thus, we assume the 1990s as a point of departure for our analysis. Drawing on primary and secondary (written) sources, we adopt a historical institutionalism perspective (Fioretos et al., 2016) to delve into the historical trajectories of institutions to explain whether and how they went through reconfiguration when choice points (Thelen, 2009) or critical junctures (i.e., specific phases during which more dramatic change is possible) (Capoccia & Kelemen, 2007), opened windows of opportunity for agents and set up legacies that can shape new institutional trajectories. In so doing, this contribution positions itself in the cross-disciplinary tradition that adopts a political economy perspective to study) ALSs in Europe (Desjardins, 2017; Kalenda, 2024). The results show that adult learning institutions were created or reconfigured by frequent and sometimes hectic legislative activity, and mostly in response to social, economic, and political crises. This failed to produce a strong level of coordination among many institutional actors at the national or regional level.

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