00905 - Sociology

Learning outcomes

Students are expected to know fundamental concepts, theories and perspectives of sociology and to be able, at the end of the course, to argue about social contemporary themes through a sociological code.

Course contents

NB: The course is organized with a first part of lectures taught in presence (30 hours) and another taught online on MS TEAMS (30 hours). The number of students allowed in class is determined on the basis of class capacity and by the health and safety provisions that deal with the pandemic emergency. In case more students want to attend classes in presence than permitted by the rules, a system of shifts will be organized so to allow students to participate in presence/online. Regardless of the health-related conditions and the specific organization of the course, students will be able to follow the lessons of the entire course (also those taught in presence) remotely on MS TEAMS

 

The course is composed of two parts.

The first part is dedicated to the definition of sociological perspectiv, to the conceptual framework of sociology and to the seminal works and theories of classical authors, founders of sociology.

The second part focuses on the presentation of the fundamental processes and phenomenon – at micro and macro level – studied by sociologists in the XX century and at the beginning of the XXI century.

Readings/Bibliography

1. A. Giddens, P.W. Sutton, Fondamenti di sociologia, il Mulino, Bologna, 2014 (quinta edizione)

2. A. Santambrogio, Introduzione alla sociologia, Laterza, Bari, 2019 (nuova edizione aggiornata)

3. M. Weber, La scienza come professione (Conference held in 1917) (NB. Several edtions available from different Publishers, both alone and with the other Conference “La politica come professione”, held in 1919)

4. List of books. Each student will choose one book to be discussed in the oral part of the exam:

Patrizio Bianchi, 4.0. La nuova rivoluzione industriale, Il Mulino, 2018 (pp. 128, anche in e-book)

Nicoletta Cavazza, Margherita Guidetti, Scelte alimentari. Foodies, vegani, neofobici e altre storie, Il Mulino, 2020 (pp 176, anche in e-book)

Colin Crouch, Identità perdute, Globalizzazione e nazionalismo, Laterza, 2019 (pp. 144, anche in e-book)

Lorenzo Migliorati, Un sociologo nella zona rossa. Rischio, paura, morte e creatività ai tempi di Covid 19, Franco Angeli, 2020 (pp. 100, open access)

Hartmut Rosa, Accelerazione e alienazione. Per una teoria critica del tempo nella tarda modernità, Einaudi, 2015 (pp. 126, anche in e-book)

Chiara Saraceno, Il welfare, Il Mulino, 2013 (pp. 136, anche in e-book)

Stella Volturo, Itinerari della socialità. Teorie e pratiche della mediazione, Carocci, 2020 (pp. 152)

Teaching methods

Lectures will refer both to handbooks and to articles, statistics, empirical studies, with the aim of introducing the sociological perspective both in theoretical and in methodological and in empirical terms. Particular attention will be given to sociological definitions and to the sociological code.

Assessment methods

The exam for full-time students will consist in 1 mid-term elective written exam (consisting in 2 open questions) and in a final oral exam about the part of the course not covered by the written examinations.

Access to oral exams requires at least a mark of 18/30.

Both full-time students who don’t participate to-, or don’t pass mid-term exam, and non attending students are supposed to do exams after the end of the Course, as follows: a written exam consisting in four open questions on text 1 and 2; then, in case of sufficient evaluation, an oral examination will follow on text 3 and on one of the texts from the suggested list.

Teaching tools

Pc, slides, internet

Office hours

See the website of Alessandro Martelli