The lines of inquiry address how the concepts of competitiveness and progress - as they have long been conceptualized by the current economic system - are influencing people's lives and human society more broadly.
The theme of competition - based on the right preconditions to avoid dominant positions, keep costs of goods and services under control, promote free initiative, stimulate development and employment, as well as having a strong impact on the quality of existence of people and on their own conception of life - is interested by increasing monopolistic dynamics which deny some of the initial assumptions underlying the competition benefits.
The theme of progress recorded in recent centuries as the engine of human action, which draws stimulus from competitiveness, is in danger of transforming itself from a means to an end. The complexity of the meaning of progress cannot be reduced to the analysis of economic and technological variables (overshadowing the social ones) if its true purpose is to improve the quality of life and people coexistence.