For centuries, the social contract was considered to be at the origin of liberal democracies, whereby the state of nature was replaced, and political power legitimized within modern nation-states. By the second half of the 20th century, the focus had shifted from a vision of the social contract as necessary for ensuring security to a more progressive approach that gave greater consideration to the active role of citizens in shaping their society. In recent years, the need for a new social contract relates to a call for greater cooperation among societal actors. On Nelson Mandela International Day in July 2020, in the aftermath of the first wave of the coronavirus pandemic, UN Secretary-General António Guterres highlighted the need to counter a vision of society and of the economy that has produced ever-increasing inequality worldwide by building “a new social contract for a new era” (UN, 2021). The report of the International Commission on the Futures of Education, established by UNESCO in 2019 and chaired by Sahle-Work Zewde, President of the Federal Democratic Republic of Ethiopia, Reimagining our futures together: A new social contract for education (UNESCO, 2021), also puts forward the idea of a new social contract as a framework to address the issues affecting education worldwide. According to the vision set out in this report, a new social contract for education is considered essential for reimagining our futures, repairing past injustices, and building a more equitable and sustainable planet. The report refers to the public character of education by affirming that public education is education that occurs in a public space, promotes public interests, and is accountable to all. It also views education as a common good as one of the governing principles for the new social contract for education (UNESCO, 2021).

However, neither the concept of the new social contract nor the principle of education as a common good are clearly defined. As a result, we lack political discussion regarding the relationship among the institutions that should govern the new social contract for education. Indeed, as Elfert and Morris (2022) argue, UNESCO’s recent Futures of Education report seems less explicit about its political vision and does not assign the same urgency to democracy as either the report Learning: The treasure within (Delors et al., 1996), or Learning to be, the world of education today and tomorrow (Faure et al., 1972). Moreover, it does not fully engage with the issue of the privatization of education, which is “one of the chief challenges we face in these neoliberal decades” (Klees, 2022). It would therefore be helpful to critically analyze the structures of power that may influence the re-visioning of the new social contract so as not to reinforce marginalization and the reproduction of inequalities.

This article discusses the extent to which the notion of education as a common good provides the political framing for such a new social contract. It recalls the theoretical background of this concept and identifies some key areas that may be relevant to the discussion on the governance arrangements required to forge the new social contract for education, with a view to revisiting existing hierarchies of power and strengthening democratic processes. Indeed, the category of common goods has a strong political connotation and may provide useful elements for promoting more inclusive governance arrangements, in contrast to dominant approaches which have led to increasing disparity and exclusion while favoring the primacy of economics and a more instrumental vision of education.

Relevance of the concept of “education as a common good”

The three major UNESCO reports dealing with the revisioning of education for the future all highlight the need to strengthen the collective and cooperative dimensions of education. However, while the 1972 Faure and 1996 Delors reports considered cooperation to be one of the means for promoting education reform, the Futures of Education report takes this even further: acting together is seen as the means of achieving new educational futures. The new social contract for education called for in the latest UNESCO report suggests a paradigm shift from a transactional to a relational model that relies on the collective and interconnected dimension of society (Toukan, 2023). In this light, it distinguishes itself by addressing not only governments but a wide range of stakeholders involved in education, thereby reflecting the growing complexity of the education governance landscape.

However, considering the critiques addressed to this report on the lack of critical political discussion regarding a new social contract for education, a better understanding of the principle of education as a common good may help clarify the political implications that result from adopting this framework. Indeed, the principle of education as a common good emphasizes institutional arrangements that may favor the participation of all actors in a democratic context and the recomposition of networks of solidarity and cooperation within communities.

Common goods as a reaction to the influence of market logics on public goods

Common goods can be considered a stand-alone category that goes beyond the economic classification of goods as developed by economists such as Samuelson (1954) and Musgrave (1959). Building on the concept of “the commons” as conceptualized by Elinor Ostrom (1990), this perspective assumes that it is not the objective characteristics of a specific good that make it common for a particular social group, but rather the particular relationship between the group and the good that leads to the good being considered common for the group itself (Fidone, 2017). Goods of this kind are grounded in a strong sense of community relationships and cannot be reduced to economic resources or to factors of production precisely because of their social and relational value. As such, this notion is increasingly adopted in philosophical and political spheres since its theoretical foundations are grounded in the alternative practices that oppose the spread of market policies both in the private and public domains (Locatelli, 2019).

As opposed to public goods, which can be enjoyed as individual goods (Taylor, 1995), common goods are considered relational goods and presuppose forms of shared governance for both their production and enjoyment. In this perspective, education can be considered a public good in its traditional form of instruction, which is guaranteed publicly but can be enjoyed individually. The transition from the concept of public goods to that of common goods, as UNESCO set out in the publication of Rethinking Education: Towards a global common good? (2015), corresponds to the evolving role of the state and implies a changing relationship among the actors involved in the social contract. Education as a common good provides the elements on which to build alternative and more inclusive approaches in contrast to merely economic and utilitarian understandings. It is about responding to the failures of governments to deliver quality education, not by relying on market-based approaches to education or returning to the ways of functioning of highly centralized bureaucratic states, but by envisaging new and innovative public institutions that can improve quality and efficiency thanks to the empowerment of, and the greater cooperation among, the forces present in society.

Strengthening democratic participation

The understanding of education at the basis of the new social contract called for in the most recent UNESCO report (UNESCO, 2021) counters a vision of education seen mainly as an individual, albeit emancipatory, matter—a vision which still prevailed in the two previous 1996 Delors and 1972 Faure reports. It is built on the assumption that while change depends on strong political will, it is also shaped by the capacity of citizens and political and social groups to draw attention to particular issues. The previous UNESCO report argued that “placing common goods beyond the public or private dichotomy implies conceiving and aspiring towards new forms and institutions of participatory democracy” (UNESCO, 2015, p. 78). The concept of common goods encourages the review of “the old top-down, orderly, and hierarchical categories of social structure and social authority” (Cahill, 2005, p. 45). This reevaluation is necessary in order to move from formal democracy, which is mainly an “aggregative technique” limiting itself to representation, to participatory democracy, the most effective way for society to put forward its visions of well-being. The involvement of teachers, young people, students, community and civil society organizations, and other non-state actors in the definition and implementation of public policies represents one of the fundamental features of institutional democratization and quality of decisional processes.

The principle of education as a common good implies a new social contract for education as a collective responsibility that manifests itself as a clear political perspective grounded in a strong sense of solidarity among the different components of society. This translates into organizational structures which highlight inclusion, horizontal collaboration, cooperation, and solidarity at different levels, ranging from policymaking, decision-making, leadership, and governance to implementation and practice, giving voice to and acknowledging diverse epistemologies.

An integrated and inter-sectorial approach to education

In order for processes in education to be truly participatory, it is essential that all actors become aware of their role as citizens and acquire the capabilities needed to participate freely and responsibly in the educational process. The concept of education as a common good implies the empowerment of all actors who should have “a right to fully informed and critical participation in creating school policies and programs for themselves and young people” (Apple & Beane, 2007, p. 5). It therefore necessarily implies an integrated approach to education based on the paradigm of lifelong learning, which gives the same value to all forms and levels of education—an essential element for an inclusive educational project aiming to strengthen democracy.

Having said this, we cannot count on the education sector alone to optimally identify responses and provide solutions to wide-ranging challenges. An inter-sectorial and multi-stakeholder collaborative approach should involve governments, civil society, and non-state actors, as well as other sectors such as health, social, financial, and economic services in order to favor policy alignment and leverage public funding.

Reaffirming the public character of education

Affirming education as a common good as a principle governing the new social contract for education underlines the public character of education that the Futures of Education report mentions but does not explicitly discuss. In order to reestablish the public in the field of education, it is necessary to revisit the rules that have favored the expansion of market ideologies at the expense of equality and democracy in both the private and public sectors. It has been argued that the public domain—or the public sphere (Habermas, 1989 [1962])—denotes a particular quality of human interaction that is different from that of the private and the market domains. Reviving democratic involvement and public accountability may serve as a counterbalance to market influence as well as to the limits of highly bureaucratic states “whose shortcomings have helped to legitimate the tendency to treat education as a private good rather than a public responsibility” (Whitty & Power, 2000, p. 105).

The existence of a democratic system guaranteed by the state is a prerequisite for any action taken to develop more inclusive and participatory institutions. However, changes in how institutions themselves function need to be significant and “cannot be reduced to mere adjustments in a machine which has lost sight of its own purpose” (Tedesco, 1995, p. 107). A more inclusive functioning of public institutions requires a “shift in culture”, combining top-down and bottom-up approaches (UNESCO, 2016).

Conclusion

This paper aimed to clarify the political implications resulting from adopting the concept of education as a common good as a principle governing the new social contract for education. The concept suggests a paradigm shift from a transactional to a relational model of the social contract, since it assumes a different ontological perspective based on the intrinsic relational dimensions of society (Toukan, 2023). It is based on the belief that educational change can only be achieved together and that human beings can take responsibility for this change. A better understanding of the principle of education as a common good provides useful elements for realizing a new social contract for education seen as a collective responsibility and not as a means to perpetuate current patterns of inequality. As illustrated above, the concept has strong political connotations since it highlights the intrinsic democratic dimension of each educational process. As such, from the point of view of education governance, it reflects and embodies the concerns and analyses relative to the relationship between education and power elaborated within the field of critical pedagogy.

Renewing education will be necessary for transforming our futures while addressing past injustices. As the principle of education as a common good suggests, this implies strengthening social dialogue and favoring more horizontal collaboration. The analysis of the National Statements of Commitment submitted by governments at the Transforming Education Summit (TES) held in New York in September 2022, however, showed that only a few countries have committed to explicitly including teachers, educators, young people, and students in decision-making and legislative processes, and that even fewer explicitly referred to the promotion of more inclusive governance (UNESCO, 2022).

The road is long, but there are good reasons for hope. All over the world, we are witnessing the spread of community or territorial education pacts, service-learning initiatives, and open schools movements aimed at renewing the more traditional organization of education. These changes are all thanks to the active involvement of communities, students, parents, citizens, and third-sector entities. It is, however, evident that the conditions for the realization of a new social contract based on the principle of education as a common good vary considerably from context to context. For a new social contract for education to be truly transformative, a critical political discussion on how shared governance can be fulfilled and how responsibilities should be distributed within different contexts is a prerequisite.