87648 - Welfare and Social Innovation

Learning outcomes

The course aims to provide theoretical and methodological tools to critically address the issue of process and structural innovations in local welfare. The course addresses "innovations" and "sustainability" in a plural way, analysing their growing interdependencies, and focuses on the governance of social complexity and the skills needed to design, implement and evaluate the "new" in local welfare. At the end of the course, the student will be able to: a) learn how to analyse contemporary society in a non-trivial way, identifying its discontinuities from the recent past; b) understand how to recognise social processes and structures according to the innovative/non-innovative and sustainable/unsustainable code, using a theoretical approach based on systems theory; c) critically interpret what is usually presented as innovative and sustainable, so as to be able to try and redesign better local welfare processes and structures.

Course contents

The course will be divided into three parts.

The first is dedicated to the analysis of the problem of sustainability, analyzed through the theory of social systems. The student will learn how to critically analyze the effects of social actions on the natural environment (physical and psychic) and on the intra-societal environment.

The second part will explore the concept of social sustainability, through the reading of some scientific essays. The student will learn what are the relationships among social sustainability, cohesion and social equity, and how the European Community has translated them in terms of social policies.

In the third part we will try to show how to address problems of social sustainability through an experimental governance capable of triggering social innovations.

Readings/Bibliography

1. Luhmann, N., Comunicazione Ecologica, FrancoAngeli, Milano, 2021.

2. Ballet J., Bazin D. and Mahieu F-R., A policy framework for social sustainability: Social cohesion, equity and safety, in “Sustainable Development”, 2020, 28, pp. 1388–1394.

3. Polomarkakis. K.A., The European Pillar of Social Rights and the Quest for EU Social Sustainability, in “Social & Legal Studies”, 2020, 29 (2), pp. 183-200.

4. Eizenberg, E. e Jabareen, Y., Social Sustainability: A New Conceptual Framework, in “Sustainability”, 2017, 9, 68. doi:10.3390/su9010068

5. Valentinov, V. Corporate Social Responsibility and Sustainability: Insights from Boulding and Luhmann, in “The International Journal of Sustainable Development and World Ecology”, 2013, 20, (4), pp. 317-324.

6. Kevin Morgan and Charles F. Sabel. “The Experimentalist Polity [https://charlessabel.com/papers/Kevin%20Morgan%20and%20Charles%20Sabel_The%20Experimentalist%20Polity.pdf],” Radical Visions of Future Government (edited by Tom Symons), NESTA, 2019, pp. 75–81.

7. David Victor and Charles F. Sabel. “How to Fix the Climate [http://bostonreview.net/forum/charles-sabel-david-g-victor-how-fix-climate],” Climate Action, Boston Review of Books [https://store.bostonreview.net/climate-action], 2020, pp. 11-30.

Teaching methods

The lecturer will present the contents of the texts to be studied, stimulating the critical participation of the students. During the presentation of the texts, the students will have to participate in the discussion in an active and creative way, in seminar mode. This means that they will have to read the essays (numbers 2 to 7) before class.

Assessment methods

- Attending students will be able to take an intermediate written test at the end of the lessons dedicated to systems theory (text no. 1). They will finish the exam with a written on the other 6 texts, in the exam sessions of January-February-March. Anyone who does not conclude by March must retake the exam from the beginning.

The intermediate written test in presence will last 1 hour, while the final test, always written and in presence, will last 2 hours.

- Non-attending students cannot access the intermediate exam. They will be able to take the exam on the dedicated dates.

The exam will be a written one, in presence, relating to the 7 texts and with a duration of 2 hours.

Attention! Given the complexity of N. Luhmann's essay, attendance of the course is strongly recommended with the consequent possibility of taking the intermediate test.

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.

Teaching tools

in this course no slides, power points, or anything else are produced. It is based on class attendance and the study of texts.

Office hours

See the website of Riccardo Prandini