98548 - TEORIA DELLA SOCIETA' DIGITALE

Learning outcomes

The course aims to describe and critically analyze the multiple dimensions of daily life in which the digital intervenes, with specific reference to the ways in which technology is incorporated into social worlds, in the constitution of the self, of the body and of the relationships between subjects. In particular, at the end of the course, the student will be able to apply the main sociological theories to analyze the consequences at the micro and macro social level of the phenomena produced by the digital society. Furthermore, students will be able to devise social research designs in the digital environment. On this basis, the student will be able to recognize the opportunities and risks that technological infrastructures and digital practices offer to social life.

Course contents

The course offers an in-depth pathway divided into the following stages:
a) first of all, the main theories that deal with "digital life" will be presented, including the global information economy and new forms of power, technologies and digital data as sociomaterial objects and the prosumism that characterizes the subject who shares on the network. Combined with this, the main approaches and researches that theorize digital relationships and new forms of technologically mediated surveillance will be addressed.
b) The possibilities to rethink social research in the digital age through the introduction to digital methods, the main theories, the tools to support data collection, the use of objects composed of originally digital data, the limits the analysis of digital data and the forms of digital and creative dissemination of the information collected.
c) Throughout the course, the main theoretical perspectives will be offered, often polarized between techno-enthusiasts, the staunch supporters of technological innovations, and techno-skeptics, those who, on the contrary, highlight the criticalities of digital.
d) Finally, particular attention will be paid to social inequalities in the use of digital technologies, including gender aspects, socio-economic differences and digital discrimination.
During the lessons, attending students will be able to agree with the teacher on a specific in-depth course aimed at drafting a written paper.

Readings/Bibliography

• Balbi, G., & Magaudda, P. (2021). Media digitali. La storia, i contesti sociali, le narrazioni. Roma-Bari: Laterza.
• Williams Veazey, L. (2022). Migrant mothers and the ambivalence of co-ethnicity in online communities. Journal of Ethnic and Migration Studies, 48(7), 1747-1763.
• Caliandro, A., Garavaglia, E. & Anselmi, G. (2021), Studying ageism on social media: an exploration of ageing discourses related to Covid-19 in the Italian Twittersphere. Rassegna Italiana di Sociologia, 2/2021, April-June, pp. 343-375.
• Semenzin, S., & Bainotti, L. (2020). The Use of Telegram for Non-Consensual Dissemination of Intimate Images: Gendered Affordances and the Construction of Masculinities. Social Media + Society, 6(4). https://doi.org/10.1177/2056305120984453
• Moretti Veronica, Questione di sguardi. La complessa relazione ra sorveglianza e salute nell’era digitale, [https://cris.unibo.it/handle/11585/710020], in: Interferenze digitali. Prospettive sociologiche su tecnologie, biomedicina e identità di genere, Milano, FrancoAngeli, 2019, pp. 15 - 32

 
Deepening of the following sites
https://thesociologicalreview.org
https://sciencetechnologystudies.journal.fi
https://wiki.digitalmethods.net/Dmi/ToolDatabase
https://www.che-fare.com/author/adam-arvidsson/
Selection of some articles by Evgeny Morozov
https://www.theguardian.com/profile/evgeny-morozov
https://www.technologyreview.com/author/evgeny-morozov/

Teaching methods

The lessons will alternate moments of frontal teaching with moments of comparison and discussion with the students on texts or parts of them gradually proposed by the professor. During the lessons, multimedia teaching materials and online materials will also be used, with the aim of introducing students to the diversified possibilities offered by digital, understood as an object and subject of study.

Assessment methods

For attending students there is a partial written test which will take place approximately towards the middle of the course (April). The final grade of the Course is defined through an oral test on topics related to the main objectives of the Course. For attending students who have taken the partial written test, the final grade is calculated as the arithmetic mean of the partial written test and the oral test.

Attending students who have not taken the intermediate tests (or who have passed them with an insufficient average result, or who give up the result of the intermediate tests), as well as those who do not attend will have the ordinary exam sessions available for checking the entire program. examination.

In all cases, the criteria adopted to evaluate the achievement of the didactic objectives are the following:

knowledge of the educational program
clarity of presentation and the ability to critically rework the notions learned during the course.
spontaneous study of national / international literature
Knowing how to use the interpretative concepts introduced in teaching with properties.

Teaching tools

Power points, web resources, free software, articles and documents not included in the texts but significant for the topics covered in class.

Office hours

See the website of Veronica Moretti