12674 - Sociology of Science (1)

Learning outcomes

The student will learn the social and intellectual origins of Sociology, including its major theoretical traditions. He will be familiar with the main conceptual and methodological tools to cultivate discipline to apply the analysis of relevant aspects of science and the contemporary technological development.

Course contents

This course aims to investigate the topic of interactions between science and society while focusing on the concept of gender, which will constitute the setting off point of the first lesson.

It will proceed on the basis of questions, starting with the following:

- What is science and how does it operate?

- Whether the topic is evolutionism, vaccines or the internet, how do male experts and, more rarely, female experts convince their communities and the general public that the scientific facts they produce are valid?

After introducing students to some of the different points of view put forward in the twentieth century to answer these questions, we will address them independently as a class, using the case of women's alleged "inferiority".

We will therefore look at long-term developments on the subject of "women's inferiority", from Aristotle to Darwin to gendered medicine. However, this exploration will begin from the present moment because our aim will be to develop an answer, supported by the data, to the doubts and uncertainties that affect us most directly, asking for instance:

- Despite the fact that it has been proven for decades now that there are no natural or scientific reasons to explain women's enduring social marginality, why do the "common sense" beliefs held by even the most highly educated components of humanity continue to accuse science and scientists of "biologizing determinism"?

- Why does this continue to occur even though, for some time now, the concept of gender has been integrated into many cutting-edge scientific laboratories even while it struggles to take root in the social sciences and humanities, particularly in southern Europe? 

By conducting an investigation in these contexts, we will be able to develop answers - possibly temporary, but certainly supported by data-to questions such as:

- Why is it more common in Italy than elsewhere to deny that science is actually cultural? What are the educational, economic and social implications of this tendency?

- Why, according to PISA data, do girls in many countries have more trouble than boys in mathematics, while in some countries their performance is equal to or better than that of boys?

- Why are women currently under-represented in Silicon Valley, even though historical research shows that until the early 1980s they played a pioneering role as both researchers and entrepreneurs in computer science, the skill set that drives the world's economies?

Lessons will start on 25 September 2019.

Readings/Bibliography

The  program is the same for attending and non attending students, including students of the Erasmus program.

1. Texts and PowerPoints posted (during the course) on the e-learning platform.

2. 1. Bruno Latour, Science in Action, Harvard UP, 1988, Introduction and Chap. 1. 

3. David F. Noble, A World Without Women: The Christian Clerical Culture of Western Science, Knopf, 1992 ( Part I and III).

4. P. Govoni, Che cos’è la storia della scienza, new and expanded edition, Carocci, 2019.

Teaching methods

An active participation is highly recommended.

Lectures will be alternated by one field trip.

At the end of the course, students who attended the lessons will be able to take a written pre-exam on class discussions and on the field experiences (up to a maximum of 3 points).

Assessment methods

Oral exam: this consists of two or three questions, stemming from a freely chosen topic.

Students will be tested on their knowledge of the course’s bibliography, as well as on their ability to reason in a logical, concise and personal way. The accuracy and precision of the student’s way of expression will also be taken in consideration.

For further information, please consult my teaching website and the educational guidelines here (Regolamento didattico).

Teaching tools

PowerPoint; e-learning tools; science museums.

Links to further information

https://iol.unibo.it/course/view.php?id=39990

Office hours

See the website of Paola Govoni