03495 - Economic and Working Sociology

Learning outcomes

Students should acquire capacities to interpret the current transformations of economy, work and employment, and of welfare and labour market policies in a comparative perspective.

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 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.

Specifically, the following topics will be addressed in remote:

Modern market economies and varieties of capitalistic regimes: a comparative analysis of the influence of cultural, social and political dimensions

- two definitions of economy

- economic sociology: the economy as an instituted process, the role of institutions in the economy and the concept of embeddedness

- The regulation of the economy: reciprocity, redistribution and exchange

- Varieties of capitalism: Northern Europe, Continental Europe, Anglo-Saxon model and Mediterranean model of capitalism.

The following topics will be addressed in the seminars:

-Economic sociology and labour market policies

- Labour market policies: definition, characteristics and comparative aspects

- Labour market policies: programs

- Labour market policies in Europe and the United States: from the origins till the 2000s

 

Readings/Bibliography

Burroni L. (2016), Capitalismi a confronto. Istituzioni e regolazione dell'economia nei paesi europei, Bologna, Il Mulino

Rizza R., Scarano G. (2019), Nuovi modelli di politica del lavoro, Milano, Egea, Università Bocconi Editore

Teaching methods

The course is divided in different parts: lectures will be alternated with seminars. Presentations will be prepared by students

Assessment methods

Two written examinations for students who attend classes, an oral examination for other students

Teaching tools

Videos, essays and articles not included in the texts, but particularly significant for the topics covered in class.

Slides and other teaching materials will be available to the students in electronic format on the IOL platform. Username and password are reserved for students enrolled at the University of Bologna.

Office hours

See the website of Roberto Rizza

See the website of Gianluca Scarano