09660 - Sociology of Culture (F-N)

Learning outcomes

Students can learn the basic notions of sociological theories and empirical research about culture and cultural consumption. It aims at developing the competences required to read the changes in cultural life and carry out field research in a proper sociological way. At the end of the course, the student should be able to understand the cultural processes, their role in the social life, and the characteristics of cultural consumption, including the traditional and digital media.

Course contents

The course is organized in lectures and seminars, as detailed in the following program. Lectures (28 hours in remote on MS TEAMS) aim to introduce students to the core tenets of the discipline. Seminars aim to provide occasions for in-depth discussions of class materials and exercises. The division into lessons and seminars is specified in the program that follows. For the seminar section, students will be divided into 2 (or 3) groups according to their preferences and according to rules concerning the current pandemic emergency: one group will do the seminar in classroom (16 hours) and one group will do the seminar remotely on MS TEAMS (16 hours). Therefore, a total of 44 classroom hours are scheduled for each student. Students are required to carefully read the assigned material before the session and - in the case of seminars - active participation through presentations of existing scholarship and case studies will also be expected. 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 remotely on MS TEAMS.

The division into lectures and seminars is repeated twice.

The course consist of two parts.

1. Lectures. The first part provides the student a basic knowledge of the main theories and empirical research in the sociology of culture and communication:

- Concept(s) of culture
- Relationships between culture and society
- Culture and cultural practices
- How cultural objects work
- Examples from empirical researches

Seminars will follow.

2. Lectures. The second part focuses on cultural consumption, included media and social media:

- meaning of "cultural consumption"
- the rise of the consumption and mass society; high culture /popular culture; audiences studies
- cultural consumption and lifestyles
- cultural consumption and globalization in the social media era

Seminars will follow.

Readings/Bibliography

1) W. Griswold, Sociologia della cultura, Bologna, Il Mulino, 2005

2) P.P. Giglioli, "Da Parsons a Ricœur passando per Bali: note sul concetto di cultura in Geertz

http://www.scienzepostmoderne.org/DiversiAutori/Geertz/NoteSulConcettoDiCulturaInGeertz.pdf, in Aut Aut, 335, pp. 37-55

3) S. Capecchi "Teorie sugli effetti a lungo termine: la costruzione sociale della realtà" (paragraph 2.5 "L'audience attiva", Roma, Carocci, new edition 2015).

II part:

1) S. Capecchi, L'audience attiva, Roma, Carocci, 2015 (except for paragraph. 2.5 and information sheets 1.1, 2.2., 2.3, 2.7, 3.3, 3.4, 4.1)

2) Collected readings: Il consumo culturale: dialettica tra processi di distinzione e di omologazione (on IOL platform, the repository of teaching materials)

 

Teaching methods

Lectures and discussion.

Students can also address to the tutor of the course.

Assessment methods

Written exam (three open-ended questions) about the suggested readings.

Erasmus+ and internationals students who attend the lectures (online and in classroom) can agree with the teacher a different written option.

Teaching tools

Slides and video, and eventually social media discussion platform.

Students can also address to the tutor of the course.

Office hours

See the website of Saveria Capecchi

See the website of Luca Zappi