72696 - Sociology of Cultural and Communicative Processes

Learning outcomes

The Teaching Course of “Sociology of the Cultural and Communicative Processes” aims to help you to see and to analyse the main social trends in the “post”-modern society, and the relevance of sport and exercise in it. A lot of theoretical and empirical tools will be presented, so you will be able to better understand the dynamics of sport and exercise in leisure time; the social relevance of mega-sport events such as the Olympics, the Paralympics, and the International Football Championships; the relations between sports, media, and sponsors; the communication for health and movement; the social motivations for exercise and fitness or wellness; etc.

Course contents

In the Teaching Cours of “Sociology of the Cultural and Communicative Processes” you can distinguish three parts, the following ones:

a) in its General Part this Course will present you the main sociological theories, which seems to be useful to study the up-to-date changes which are leading to the “post”-modern society, for instance the emerging interest to fitness and wellness.

b) in its Monographic Part this Course will present you the exits of the differentiation process in the modern society, and analyse the reasons of the growing relevance of sport in the leisure time. The Course will debate the hypothesis that a new social structure has emerged recently, and that it’s linking stronger three social sistems: sports, media, and sponsors (the ‘SMS triangle’), and the ‘mediated’ audiences of the Mse-Mega sporting events. The Course will debate the social consequences of this new structure: for instance on children's sedentary and their consume of junk food, promoted by tv advertising, during the international football championships. So the Mse can be the hidden causes, and therefore very difficult to see and to contrast, of the "obesity epidemic" spoken by the Who-World Health Organization and by Un-the United Nations, or the 'obesity pandemic': an alarm, recently launched by the authoritative medical journal "The Lancet" in the years 2012 and 2019.

c) the aim of the Seminarial part of this Course is to promote your cognitive interests in the field of the sport communication, and to show you studies and empirical researches in this field. So this the Seminarial part will present the main findings of sociological studies and researches, led in the sporting communication of the Mse.s, such as the Olympics, the Paralympics, and the International Football Championships (2000-2019), and on the advertising of junk food in them.

Readings/Bibliography

Two books are required as the minimum program: the first one is the common book; the second one is chosen by the student, according his academic curriculum (i.e., if you have already got, or NOT, 6 Ects in General Sociology).

Moreover, if you like an enlarged program, you can choise a third book among the ones, listed in C) the Seminarial Part of this Course of Sociology of Cultural and Communicative Processes.

A) About the GENERAL Part of the Course (the 1st common book:):

Martelli S. (2017), Mega Sports Events, TV Advertising and Junk Food. Four researches about children and good and healtly life styles, FrancoAngeli, Milan.

B) About the MONOGRAPHIC part of the Course: 

B1) (if you have NOT 6 Ects in General Sociology: )

Martelli S., Porro N. (2018), Nuovo Manuale di Sociologia dello sport e dell'attività fisica (New Handbook of Sociology of Sport and Physical Activity), FrancoAngeli, Milano.

B2) (if you ALREADY have 6 Ects in General Sociology: ) at the minimum you can choise between the following 2 books:

Russo G. (ed.) (2018), Charting the wellness society in Europe, FrancoAngeli, Milan.

Martelli S., Matteucci I., Tallarita L., Russo G. e Bagnini E. (2019), “Keep fit!”. Ben-essere attivo e nuove tecnologie, FrancoAngeli, Milan.

C) (other books for the enlarged program: )

Bizzaglia G. (2014), La città che cammina (A walking town). Per una sociologia del corpo metropolitano, FrancoAngeli, Milan.

Bondonio P., Dansero E., Genova C. (a cura di) (2018), La città e lo sport. Torino 2015 e oltre (The city and the sport: Turin 2015 and forward), FrancoAngeli, Milano (ebook) [please, pay ATTENTION: the 3rd and 4th chapters, at the pages 53-117, are optional readings and therefore they will not be the subject of questions in the test for the exam].

Borgogni A., Farinella R. (2017), Le città attive (Active cities). Percorsi pubblici nel corpo urbano, FrancoAngeli, Milan.

Porro N., Martelli S., Russo G. (a cura di) (2016), Il Mondiale delle meraviglie (A FIFA World Cup, full of Wonders). Calcio, media e società da “ITALIA’90” ad oggi, FrancoAngeli, Milan.

Teaching methods

Face-to-face lessons, and case studies supported by the new technologies of communications.

Assessment methods

At the final exam of this Course an Erasmus+ student will receive a special questionnaire.

The test will consist of 5 open questions (the minimum program), or more (the enlarged program: +3 questions for each choised book = 5+3+… questions, & 2 ‘bonus’ if the answers will be right).

The Erasmus+ student will fill the spaces offered by the 10 lines, vacated after each question; as well as in Italian language, he/she can answer in one of the following languages: English, French, Spanish-Castiglian or Catalan.

He/She will have no more than 30' to answer at the questions (the minimum program), or more (+15’for each book of the enlarged program).

Be careful, please, in order to be registered to the roll-call: You have to insert your name in the electronic list for the exam within the 5th day before the fixed date (you can have access to the e-list in the AlmaEsami website). An Erasmus+ students may request an earlier review, according to the day of their departure from Bologna.

Teaching tools

Slides by Power Point.

Surfing the Internet.

Research outcomes, published by the SportComLab- the Study and Researches Center about the Sporting Communication of the Dept. of Educational Sciences, “Alma Mater Studiorum”- University of Bologna – see at: https://centri.unibo.it/sportcomlab/it.

"Posts" sent by SportComLab via FaceBook and Twitter, announcing the theme of the next lesson and other useful news for didactics and exams.

Students can ask for information or explanations during the reception hours - which will take place both before and after class time - or by writing to the teacher (email: s.martelli@unibo.it)

Links to further information

https://centri.unibo.it/sportcomlab/it

Office hours

See the website of Stefano Martelli

See the website of Giovanna Russo