Schools and territory: between network and community

Educational agencies are going through a difficult transition period that is having important consequences in terms of de-legitimation of the social mandate historically assigned to school. The reason of this widespread uneasiness is due to the fact that today we are living in a complex system where traditional school cannot live in an isolation anymore. The following contribution arises within this problematic framework with the aim of outlining the most important changing patterns that have been affecting education agencies in the last fifteen years, paying attention to the new institutional and legislative Italian framework that redefined the whole educational structure in coherence to supranational agreements such as the Bologna Process (EHEA,1999). The objective of this essay is to contribute to the development of a new vision of the education system. Starting from the challenges of a global and complex society, we are going to reflect on the value of networking as an instrument to cultivate the responsible participation of the educating community and the necessity to adequate internal competences and coordinating mechanisms