ABSTRACT
What will Europe’s coming generations be like? There is no firm answer. We can conjecture, but we cannot foresee future events. In a globalized, ever more uncertain world, the changes are so rapid and intense, and the interdependence of the processes so strong, that the possibility of predicting future directions remains ineluctably out of our reach. This does not mean, however, that we should abandon our attempts to understand. One thing is certain: the coming generations will—at least, partly—be the result of the past and the present: that is, they will be the children of the circumstances in which their grandparents and parents used to live and live today.
