Education as a common good and youth activism to regenerate rural communities

• Youth activism as a catalyst for change in rural territories. • Education as common good to promote participation and civic engagement. • Three Epistemological Fractures related to youth activism. • A case study to show how rural schools can link educational commons and youth activism. The issue of youth activism has taken on different meanings in literature. Many authors have analyzed how youth activism can strengthen agency and self-awareness encouraging a civic mentality and processes of change. Recently, attention has shifted towards the educational field showing how models that promote critical consciousness are positively associated with academic success and the acquisition of skills. The paper proposes a new theoretical frame based on the interconnection between the theory of educational commons and youth activism. The aim is to understand how the practices of educational commons can promote and stimulate processes of youth activism and community regeneration in rural areas, affected by processes of depopulation, social desertification and community fragmentation. To this end, the case study of a school, located in a rural community in southern Italy, is considered, which has implemented models of education as a common good for community regeneration by promoting youth activism. The research was based on a qualitative approach, using unstructured interviews with the teacher who proposed the project and families and focus groups with students. The results show how education as common good has stimulated civic engagement and acted as a catalyst for informed activism, helping to overcome forms of marginalization. The active participation of young people in educational co-design and governance represented the added value of the project and fostered the development of a responsible community.