08540 - Sociology of Development

Learning outcomes

After completing the course the student: - will have basic knowledge about the sociological approaches to development issues, development intervention and social planning - he will be able to formulate action plans at a local level and assess issues relating to policies development and governance.

Course contents

The course aims at building the basic knowledges about two specific issues:

• sociological approaches to the problems of the development
• issues of social projecting and intervention

1st part : Which modernity?

Modernization and development: the problem of the transformation of the society in some of the most relevant sociological approaches and in the debate related to them. What does it mean modernity? And the dichotomy development/underdevelopment? Which is the genealogy of these concepts? What concepts and categories are more adequate for understanding of the social transformation? Who, and how, should participate to the transformative processes? What dimensions should be addressed for really improving the quality of life? How social justice's issues influence the processes of globalization?

2nd part: Projecting the development

Projecting, in the poor and in the rich countries: why do project and produce interventions? how arise the development projects? What kind of problems they raise? Which relationships exist between policy design and daily implementation of that projects? And among the different dimensions involved (territorial, social, economical, organizational, cultural, political, etc.)? Which actors are playing? What are the conditions of sustainability of that projecting?

3rd part: Specific topics

Seminars based on the presentations - by the students - of materials on specific issues of the contemporary debate on the development: different models of capitalism, migration processes, structural adjustments, poverty, urban development, role of cultural dimension, privatizations, movements for the 'globalization from below', the capability approach, etc.

Readings/Bibliography

 Students attending the lectures:

• Martinelli A., La modernizzazione, Laterza, Roma-Bari, 2010 [older editions are lacking some parts].

       one text among the following ones:

• issues of international cooperation: L. Carrino (2016), Perle, pirati e sognatori. Dall'aiuto allo sviluppo a una nuova cooperazione internazionale, Franco Angeli, Milano;
• issue of local development: G. Carrosio (2019), I margini al centro, Donzelli, Roma
• issues of social legitimation to human intervention: L. Boltanski (2000), Lo spettacolo del dolore. Morale umanitaria, media e politica, Raffaello Cortina, Milano

Attending students will participate in a classroom presentation and discussion. Materials and modalities will be agreed during the course. Presentation and discussion will not be evaluated but constitute one of the prerequisites for taking the test as an attending student.

(It is warmly suggested the reading of: Voce "Modernità" (di D. Frisby) dalla Enciclopedia delle Scienze Sociali Treccani (disponibile presso la Bibl. del Dipartimento di Sociologia);

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Students not attending the lectures :

• Voice "Modernità" (di D. Frisby) dalla Enciclopedia delle Scienze Sociali Treccani (available online and/or in the Library of the Dept of Sociology and business law);
• P. Perulli, Sistemi locali e sfide globali (available in "Materiali per non frequentanti" published in the site Virtuale of the course)
  
• Martinelli A., La modernizzazione, Laterza, Roma-Bari, 2010 [Attention: older editions are lacking some parts].

        one text among the following ones:

• issues of international cooperation: L. Carrino (2016), Perle, pirati e sognatori. Dall'aiuto allo sviluppo a una nuova cooperazione internazionale, Franco Angeli, Milano;
• issue of local development: G. Carrosio (2019), I margini al centro, Donzelli, Roma
• issues of social legitimation to human intervention: L. Boltanski (2000), Lo spettacolo del dolore. Morale umanitaria, media e politica, Raffaello Cortina, Milano

        and one text among the following ones:

• C. Bonneuil, J.-B. Fressoz (2019), La terra, la storia e noi, Treccani, Torino.
• A.L Tsing (2021), Il fungo alla fine del mondo, Keller Editore, Rovereto.
  

Teaching methods

Conventional lectures and presentations of agreed issues by the students

Assessment methods

1. Students attending the lectures:

1. presentation and discussion of agreed articles and delivering of a long, structured abstract
2. written examination

2. Students not attending the lectures:

- written examination.

3. For everyone

The written exam, for attending and non-attending students, consists of five open questions and must be held within 90 minutes. In order for the test to be assessed, it is necessary to provide an answer to all five questions.

The score is assigned based on the following criteria:
- 65% for the consistency and accuracy of the answers to the three questions on the topics of the first part of the course
- 20% for the other two questions
- 15% relative to the grammatical and syntactic quality of all the answers.

The evaluation of written exams, especially when very numerous, may take a long time: those with deadlines (Final thesis, Erasmus or other) are asked to take this into account and consequently evaluate the best sessionfor for taking the exam.

Teaching tools

• Power Point slides projected in class and made available to the attending students via the Virtual Platform - LearningEnvironment
• In-depth materials on some topics of the course, made available to attending students via the Virtual Platform - LearningEnvironment.

A tutor, Dr Giada Coleandro (https://www.unibo.it/sitoweb/giada.coleandro2), has been assigned to this course. She assists the lecturer with teaching support and assistance. In particular, students on the course can contact the tutor, by e-mail or by going to the reception, for more detailed information on the programme and specific contents of the course activities.

Office hours

See the website of Vando Borghi