85118 - Italian Pop Cultures (1) (LM)

Learning outcomes

At the end of the course, students will have a general knowledge of the processes of production and consumption of popular culture in Italy. They will have studied major theoretical issues and empirical cases from different sectors (e.g. music, movies, newspapers, books). They will be able to analyze the cultural meanings and social effects of popular culture in Italy, focusing also on the role of cultural institutions, the media system, and the political field. They will be able to interpret the relevance of popular culture for the social construction of national identities in Italy. In particular, they will be able to recognize and analyze a variety of Italian cultural objects from an interdisciplinary perspective.

Course contents

The program of the course is articulated in two major sections.

The first section focuses on the theoretical state of the art. It reconstructs and defines core concepts from the fields of cultural sociology as well as media and cultural studies. The aim is building a conceptual tool-kit to analyze the socially constructed and historically rooted – yet contested and changeable – meanings of the notions of “Italian”, “Popular”, and, especially, “Culture(s)”.

The second section will focus on a highly contemporary aspect of Italian popular culture: the so-called Maranza youth. Experts will be invited to present their research on topics such as the relationship between urban subcultures and digital platforms, the intersection of the dominant moral framework and the journalistic portrayal of marginality, and the geographies of race, gender, and ethnicity within the context of the globalized trap music. These discussions will aim to shed light on how emerging trends are reshaping Italy's pop cultures today.

Readings/Bibliography

Grazian, David (2023), Mix It Up. Popular Culture, Mass Media, and Society. Third edition. New York, W.W.Norton & Co.

Poell, Thomas, David B. Nieborg, and Brooke Erin Duffy (2021), Platforms and Cultural Production. Cambridge, Polity Press.

Teaching methods

The teaching method will follow a flipped classroom approach: readings and exercises will be carried out independently, while in class, we will discuss the emerging issues and collaboratively work on specific case studies.

Assessment methods

Students are required to write a final essay. The paper must be submitted to the professor via email no later than one day before the exam date. Both the content and the structure of the paper must be discussed in advance and approved by the professor via email. In order for the paper’s grade to be officially registered, students must sign up for the exam through AlmaEsami.

The paper's length will be 25.000-35.000 characters, spaces and bibliography included. The achievement of an organic vision of the themes based on the readings, the use of specific language, the ability to show knowledge of contemporary Italian pop cultures, as well as the ability to link single cultural products to the wider social and cultural context will be evaluated with excellent grades. An ability to synthetize or analyse that is not very well articulated, and a correct but not always appropriate language lead to average evaluations. Gaps in knowledge or inappropriate language, such as a lack of knowledge of readings and contexts, allow the student to obtain grades on the threshold of sufficiency. Knowledge gaps, inappropriate language, lack of familiarity with the bibliography and inability to analyze are evaluated negatively.

In accordance with the University of Bologna’s official policy on the use of Artificial Intelligence in teaching and learning, students are reminded that the final paper must be the result of original and autonomous work. For further details, please consult the University’s guidelines on AI usage.

Teaching tools

Slides will incorporate images, videos, and audio materials. Additional online resources and open-access tools relevant to case studies discussed in class will also be employed.

Office hours

See the website of Federico Pilati