00905 - Sociology (M-Z)

Learning outcomes

The course aims to foster learning of concepts and basic theory approach of sociology, starting with classical authors and arriving at most recent theories. It also aims at favouring the comprehension of most important characterics, dynamics and functions of main social institutions and of contemporary socio-economical processes. The student will achieve the right abilities to think and discuss from the perspective of social analysis, and to face social problems in his studying field. Moreover, the student will be able to communicate on sociological themes, problems and horizons, with both specialists and non-specialists, achieving some authonomy also in the perspective of his future studies.

Course contents

After an introductory part aimed at the themes and characteristics of the sociological approach, the course proposes an in depht itinerary articulated through the following steps:

1) the first part thematizes the beginnings of the sociological discourse, intended as an answer to the need of systematically studying an eterogeneous and always changing economical, cultural and political reality (i.e. modernity). The uprise of modernity and the establishment of an industrial capitalistic system call into question both the institutions and the consolidated arrangements of traditional society. Hence the beginnings of sociological thought, called upon to offer a new analytical/interpretative perspective for studying and critically analysing the specific dynamics of modern society and of its institutions. Attention will be paid to some authors (Marx, Durkheim and Weber), today estimated as classical ones, who mainly studied the transformations connected to the uprising of modernity, interpreting them and also personally experiencing some consequent tensions and lacerations at the political-cultural level.

2) At a second time, the course will focus on presenting, analysing and discussing some basic concepts of sociology (culture, socialization, identity, role, social action, social interaction, structure and social system) and of the fundamental social institutions of contemporary society, through some main themes. For such themes, the knowledge stemming from theoretical and empirical research will be presented and discussed. In particular, the following will be treated:

- the complex relationship which, through important social processes, links individuals to the socio-cultural context;

- the persistence and transformations of many inequalities in economically advanced societies;

- the main forms of social differentiation (age, gender, ethnical, status);

- the characterics and functions of main social institutions, and their transformations (family, education, work relations, communications, religion, political system);

- social change in the perspective of socio-demographic dynamics, of the behavior of collective actors and social movements, of cultural transformation;

- the dynamic and complex relationship between conservation and socio-cultural change, between conformity and deviance.

3) The third part of the course – devoted to researching the meaning of transformations due to globalization processes in the domains of social and individual experience – proposes an in-depht examination along some specific directions: the impact of globalization processes on contemporary social organization, with special reference to the reproduction of social capital; the “problem” of identity in Western societies; the new migration movements, especially considered from the point of view of gender; the fragmentation of main social institutions in times of flexible capitalism.

Readings/Bibliography

The course is based on the study of the following texts, the knowledge of which will be tested during the exam:

Institutional part:

1. A. Giddens, Fondamenti di sociologia, il Mulino, Bologna, 2006

2. P. Zurla, Società moderna e discorso sociologico , Angeli, Milano, 2003 (capitoli 1, 3, 5 e 6)

Monographic part.Students will choose 1 book among these:

Z. Bauman, Paura liquida, Laterza, Roma-Bari, 2006.

T. Pitch, La società della prevenzione, Roma, Carocci, 2007.

U. Beck,La crisi dell'Europa, Il Mulino, Bologna, 2012

Other reading materials will be indicated

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.

Teaching tools

Projector, PC, power point slides

Office hours

See the website of Paolo Zurla