73162 - Ideology and Society in the Global World

Learning outcomes

At the end of the course the student knowsthe classic concepts of ideology, the transformations that Western culture in general and ideologies in particular suffer in the global world, as well as the impact on state institutions by these transformations.

Course contents

The course is organized in lectures and seminars, as detailed in the following program. Lectures (16 hours in remote on MS TEAMS) aim to introduce students to the core tenets of the discipline. Seminars (12 hours) aim to provide occasions for in-depth discussions of class materials and exercises. For the seminar section of the course, students will be divided in two groups according to their preferences and according to rules concerning the current pandemic emergency: one group will do the seminar in classroom (12 hours) and another group will do the seminar remotely on MS TEAMS (12 hours), for a total of 28 hours for each student. Students are required to carefully read the assigned material before the session and - in the case of seminars - active participation through presentations of existing scholarship and case studies will also be expected. Regardless of the health-related conditions and the specific organization of the course, students will be able to follow the lessons of the entire course remotely on MS TEAMS.

Lectures (16 hours in remote on MS TEAMS) will focus on the most important political, institutional and cultural changes brought about by globalization. Particular attention will be given to the problem of Identity in a global world. 

The seminar section (12 hours) will focus on relations between ideology, religion, democracy and truth. In this section students are required to partecipate actively in the discussion.

Readings/Bibliography

For the general section (16 hours):

S. Benhabib, Cittadini globali. Cosmopolitismo e democrazia, Il Mulino, Bologna 2008;

 F. Fukuyama, Identità. La ricerca della dignità e i nuovi populismi, Edizioni Utet, Torino 2019. 

For the seminar section:

S. Belardinelli, L'ordine di Babele. Le culture tra pluralismo e identità, Ed. Rubbettino, Soveria Mannelli 2018.

Teaching methods

Lectures and seminars

Assessment methods

The course will be assessed by two written exams: the first written exam (four open questions) will focus on the topics covered during the first 16 hours of the course; the second written exam (three open questions) will focus on the seminars of the course. Participation in class will be part of the final assessment. Non-attending students and students who will not participate in seminars' discussions will be required to answer four (rather than three) open questions in the second written exam.

Attending students who cannot attend an intermediate exam will be allowed to take it in the first of the three sessions held in January and February. In case the student will not attend the first session either, he/she will need to take the entire written exam, likewise non attending students, consisting of 8 open-ended questions.

 

Office hours

See the website of Sergio Belardinelli