78774 - Sociology of Migrations (LM)

Learning outcomes

The student acquires a general introduction to the study of contemporary international migrations. It will focus on the main issues in the sociology of migration, ad on the most important interpretative models of the migratory processes. Students will be introduced not only to the classical sociological conceptualizations derived from economics and demography, but also to the most recent theoretical and explanatory patterns.

Course contents

ASIAN IM/MOBILITIES

Im/mobilities, Migration, and Society in Asia

The course deals with mobility, immobility, and migration involving Asian countries -with the main focus on East and Southeast Asia – shedding light on how these are in a dynamic tension with socio-cultural changes.

First, the course will delve into racializing ideologies emphasising how they are systematically entangled with politics of language and translation.

Second, the course will discuss how mobilities and migration affect differently the different social strata, with different modes of mobility available for the capital rich, the workers, the highly skilled and students. It will also shed light on the ‘war for talents’ opposing the US and China.

In the framework of a growing entanglement of care and control in Asian mobilities, the course will analyse: 1) the increased use of social robotics to address the widespread sentiments towards the arrival of aliens in the national territory; 2) birth tourism as a way to escape limits imposed by citizenship; 3) the heightened surveillance of marriage migration and sex migration as they are sources of public anxiety, perceived as they are as inseparable from sexual morality, national identity, and border security.

Besides, the course also offers an introduction to visual sociology as a tool that enables the students to elaborate sociological interpretations of the images and videos proposed by the instructor.

Guest lecturers may be invited.

Link to further informationhttps://unibo.academia.edu/antonellaceccagno

Readings/Bibliography

Articles can be accessed via username and password on IOL- Educational material (https://iol.unibo.it).

Videos will be available on dropbox.

Teaching methods

Lectures and discussions in class, including watching and discussing films and videoclips. Students are strongly encouraged to present in class.

Assessment methods

Students attending classwork will

1. Make one or more presentations to the class and stimulate the classroom discussion on one or more papers included in the reading list;
2. write a final paper (3000 words) - agreed with the instructor - on one of the topics addressed in class. A topic not included in the readings list – and the relevant bibliography- can be agreed with the instructor. Student initiative in articulating themes, connecting different texts and visual materials, proposing videoclips or other visual products linked to the topic of the course will be positively evaluated.

Students not attending classwork will take an oral exam on the readings and the videos of the course. Questions will aim at testing the student ability to critically address the proposed topics and build an argument with an appropriate language.

For both students attending and not attending classes, the assessment will take into consideration:

1. Proper knowledge of the subjects
2. Ability to critically analyze and connect concepts, images, and themes
3. Competences in the use of appropriate terminology

Teaching tools

Readings are complemented with videos and images. Guest lecturers may be invited.

Office hours

See the website of Antonella Ceccagno