Tenerelli, N. (2026). "In Search of an Economic Pedagogy to Educate the New Generations Through an Approach Based on Real Value". Open Journal of Humanities, 22: 71-86

In the 19th century, socialist culture sought to communicate the shift in the concept of property, moving from things to production processes, from palaces and castles to factories, from hoarding to surplus value. In the last century, Keynesian theory made explicit the strong connection between production and the market: in those years, young citizens were educated to purchase; the individual’s presence in society was fueled by consumerism, which Fromm defined as “the existentialism of having”. In this new millennium, citizens continue to be valued for what they own, but forms of ownership have become meta-empirical, virtual. Property (and therefore the value of the individual) is no longer in Nature, but in the Metaverse. What does the digitalization of property mean for young people of “Generation C” — as Solis defines them? What new anthropological-relational model might emerge from such a changed economic context? How can we guide young people toward the virtualization of wealth (and work)? Since the introduction of the euro, many children’s publications have emerged — the most famous being the one promoted by the Bank of Italy — that have sought to engage with schools to educate young people in the rudiments of everyday economics and to introduce them to the management of property or savings using new digital tools and platforms. There is a need for a pedagogy of economic policies to teach that the complexity of production and market transformations is the cause of an unnecessary anthropological transformation; it is necessary to foster awareness that all economic changes, whether forced or strategic, bring about the emergence of a new citizen, to be managed in a changed relationship. A fusion of pedagogical and economic disciplines appears inevitable to achieve interpretative and, perhaps, predictive knowledge of social processes, as well as to restore democratic fullness to citizens.