87648 - Welfare and Social Innovation

Academic Year 2022/2023

Course contents

he course adopts a teaching method which is organized in two different sections.

The first COMMON section consists of lectures (8 lessons 16 total hours) and it aims at introducing the students to the acquisition of basic conceptual and theoretical tools. The second section consists of seminars (6 lessons for 12 total hours) and it aims at deepening the learned knowledge and applying it.

As regards the second section, the students will be divided into 2 groups each of which will take only one lesson per week, thus having time to prepare for the next lesson. Students are required to attend the class having already read and studied the assigned material. Based on the individual readings of each student, an active participation will be required for the realization of thematic insights or the analysis of case studies.

Readings/Bibliography

For the lectures common, the text to be studied will be:


Niels Andersen-Akerstom and Justine Pors, Il Welfare delle potenziaità, Mimesis, Milan-Udine, 2016. THE TEXT CAN BE PURCHASED ONLINE.



For the seminar part, study materials will be provided for each lecture. The list will be publicised in September.

Teaching methods

For the COMMON part, the first 8 lectures, the lecturer will present the contents of the texts to be studied, stimulating the students' critical participation.

For the SEMINAR part, specifically for each of the 6 seminars, new essays and study topics will be presented and students will have to participate in the discussion in an active and creative way.

Assessment methods

The course is assessed differently but congruently for the attending and non-attending students

1) NON-ATTENDING STUDENTS.

They will take a written test of 1 hour and 30 minutes, in presence, on the textbook plus a further 6 essays that will be made available.

2) ATTENDING STUDENTS. will do a written test dedicated to them and in presence in the examination sessions of January-February-March.

The written test will last 2 hours and will consist of three open questions concerning the course contents including those of the seminar part.

The purpose of the written test is investigating the students’ ability to apply the notions and knowledge which she has learned, and to make the necessary logical-deductive links. The decision of the final grade takes place on the basis of the following criteria:

  • Preparation on a very limited number of topics covered in the course and achievement of a very limited ability to analyse and interpret, but both expressed in a correct language conceptually and terminologically: grade 18-19;
  • Preparation on a limited number of topics covered in the course and achievement of the ability to analyse and interpret autonomously only pure notional issues, expressed in correct language: grade 20-24;
  • Preparation on a large number of topics covered in the course, together with the ability to carry out independent and critical analyses and interpretations, with a good command of specific lexicon and concepts: grade 25-29;
  • Substantially exhaustive preparation on the topics addressed in the course, with the ability to carry out independent, well-argued, critical and original analyses and interpretations, together with a full mastery of specific lexicon and concepts: grade 30-30L.

Office hours

See the website of Riccardo Prandini