22563 - MUTAMENTO SOCIALE

Learning outcomes

At the end of the course, the student: - possesses a competent knowledge of the study of human societies, with a focus on the processes of social change over time and the theoretical approaches with which to analyse them; - possesses tools for analysing and understanding important contemporary social phenomena, knowing how to interpret them from a social change perspective with reference to relevant theoretical and analytical concepts from classical and contemporary sociology.

Course contents

The course aims to provide students with theoretical and conceptual tools to read and interpret the changes that have characterised human societies over time, and to apply the knowledge acquired to specific historical and contemporary phenomena. In particular, the course focuses on analysing the concept and process of social change by focusing on the dialectic between forms of social organisation and the underlying economic and structural phenomena that shape them. Throughout the course, we will explore how the transformations of the productive-economic system, and specifically the evolution of capitalism from modernity to contemporaneity, impact on the forms of social organisation over time, marking the transition from modernity to post-modernity, from societies based on reciprocity to market societies, from societies based on the nation state to globalised societies, etc. We will also look at how ‘bottom-up’ social processes such as social movements and conflicts, as well as major contemporary transformations such as the double digital and ecological transition, can act as levers of social change.

The topics covered in the course will include, approximately, the following:

• The concept of social change

• Capitalism and social change in market societies: the thought of Karl Polanyi and the Great Transformation

• Beyond Polanyi: feminist, ecological, and postcolonial critiques

• Crises, capitalism, and transformations: the shift from Fordism to post-Fordism, the crisis of the welfare state, and the re-commodification of labor

• The climate crisis as a new Great Transformation?

• Technology and social change

• Social movements and bottom-up dynamics of social change

Readings/Bibliography

The main course text assigned are:

Karl Polanyi's "The Great Transformation" (1944), in its Italian edition.

Boltanski, L. and Chiappello, E. (2005) (2014), "The new spirit of capitalism", in its Italian edition.

Additional bibliography (journal articles and book chapters), that also form part of the material that will be assessed in the exam, will be assigned for each seminar and published before the start of the course in Virtuale.

Teaching methods

The course adopts the so-called ‘Y-shaped’ teaching method: the course content is presented and discussed through a mix of lectures in which the entire class participates (with the use of slides, discussions and exercises in groups, for a total of 32 hours), and interactive seminars in which the class is divided into two groups to encourage interaction, direct participation and in-depth discussion of the texts (8 seminars for each group, for a total of 16 hours per group). During the seminars, students will be assigned group activities, discussion exercises and critical analysis of the assigned texts and of case studies.

Assessment methods

Attending students

Written exam: An in-class midterm written exam will be administered for attending students, accounting for 50% of the final grade. The exam will consist of open-ended questions on the content covered in the first part of the course.

Group project: presentation and report
In the second half of the course, attending students will be divided into groups and will carry out a short research project on a topic related to contemporary dynamics of social change. The project will culminate in a final presentation and a written report (5–6 pages) summarizing the research findings and in-depth analysis. Both the presentation and the report, as collective work, will make up 50% of the final grade.

To be considered an attending student, one must attend at least 16 out of 22 lectures.

Non-Attending Students

During the exam session, non-attending students must submit two essays of 2,000–2,500 words each, in response to two prompts of their choice. The essay prompts will be published on Virtuale ten days before each exam date, and the essays must be submitted to the instructor via the Virtuale submission system by the exam deadline.

Only the most recent attempt at the exam will be considered valid. Students who pass the exam may reject the grade only once.

 

Teaching tools

Additional teaching and reading material will be uploaded on Virtuale.

Office hours

See the website of Arianna Tassinari