02518 - Economic Sociology

Learning outcomes

Students should acquire capacities to interpret the current transformations of economy, work and employment, and of welfare and labour market policies in a comparative perspective.

Course contents

The course contents will be divided in two parts:
First part (40 hours):

The first part of the course focuses on the relatioship between economic sociology and labour market policies adopting a comparative and interdisciplinary approach. The analysis is organized as follows: a first descriptive provides information on labour market policies (definition, programs, analytical dimensions), a second depicts their evolution interpreting the emerging regimes in the vast international panorama. An explanatory third dimension identifies the causal mechanisms of change based on political, economic and social factors.

Specifically, the following topics will be addressed:

-Economic sociology and labour market policies

- Labour market policies: definition, characteristics and comparative aspects

- Labour market policies: programs

- Labour market policies in Europe and the United States: from the origins till the 1990s

- The emerging regimes of labour market policies in the 2000s

Second part (20 hours):

This part of the course has the specific goal of conceptually defining and presenting the effects that a public policy device such as the basic income has on contemporary economic and political society. In particular, after having briefly framed the main post-wage transformations of the contemporary socio-economic context, the basic income will be analyzed according to three main lines of argumentation: 1. The peculiar quality of this device in the context of policies to combat poverty and the relationship to the processes of job precarization; 2. The different modes within which it is possible to frame and interpret the effects of this device. In particular, it will be emphasized that basic income cannot and should not be interpreted only as a policy to cope with poverty but also as a “new tool” to organize the new social conflict in the so-called platform economy society. 3. The analysis (even comparative) of some significant cases of application of this instrument in the international context. The analysis will underline the existence of different principles that inform and constitute the functioning of the basic income and how the latter can be very different in its effects starting from the importance attributed, in its implementation, with respect to the importance attributed to some of its characteristics compared to other.

 

Readings/Bibliography

For the first module:

Rizza R., Scarano G. (2019), Nuovi modelli di politica del lavoro, Milano, Egea

For the second module:

Granaglia E., Bolzoni M., Il reddito di base, Ediesse, Roma, 2016

Chicchi F., Leonardi E., Manifesto per il reddito di base, Laterza, Roma-Bari, 2018

Teaching methods

The course is divided in different parts: lectures will be alternated with group discussions and case studies. Presentations will be prepared by students

Assessment methods

Two written examinations for students who attend classes, an oral examination for other students

Teaching tools

Videos, essays and articles not included in the texts, but particularly significant for the topics covered in class.

Slides and other teaching materials will be available to the students in electronic format on the IOL platform. Username and password are reserved for students enrolled at the University of Bologna.

Office hours

See the website of Roberto Rizza

See the website of Federico Chicchi