08540 - Sociology of Development

Learning outcomes

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

1st part

Students attending the lectures:

• Voice "Modernità" (di D. Frisby) dalla Enciclopedia delle Scienze Sociali Treccani (disponibile presso la Bibl. del Dipartimento di Sociologia);
• from G. Rist, Lo sviluppo: storia di una credenza occidentale, Bollati Boringhieri, Torini, 1997, the Chapter "L'invenzione dello sviluppo";
• Martinelli A., La modernizzazione, Laterza, Roma-Bari, 2010 [Attention: older editions are lacking some parts].

Students not attending the lectures :

• Voice "Modernità" (di D. Frisby) dalla Enciclopedia delle Scienze Sociali Treccani (disponibile presso la Bibl. del Dipartimento di Sociologia);
• from G. Rist, Lo sviluppo: storia di una credenza occidentale, Bollati Boringhieri, Torini, 1997, the Chapter "L'invenzione dello sviluppo";
• from W. Sachs, Dizionario dello sviluppo, Ega, Torino, 2004, voices:   Partecipazione M. Rahnema; Risorse, V. Shiva; Sviluppo G. Esteva
• Martinelli A., La modernizzazione, Laterza, Roma-Bari, 2010 [Attention: older editions are lacking some parts].

 

2nd part: projecting the development

Students attending and not attending the lectures, one text among the following ones: 

• issues of international cooperation: Zupi M. (2013), Disuguaglianze in via di sviluppo, Carocci, Roma; or: Actionaid (2013), L'Italia e la lotta alla povertà nel mondo, Carocci, Roma
  
• issue of local development: Pasqui G. (2005), Territori: progettare lo sviluppo. Teorie, strumenti, esperienze, Carocci, Roma
• issues of social legitimation to human intervention: Boltanski L. (2000), Lo spettacolo del dolore. Morale umanitaria, media e politica, Raffaello Cortina, Milano

and moreover, students not attending the lectures:

• F. Governa (2008), La scala locale dello sviluppo. Caratteristiche, a ttori e processi, in F. Boggio, G. Dematteis, a cura di, Geografia dello sviluppo, Utet, Torino (Cap. 4, pp. 72-87) 

3rd part (only for students asking for 9 CFU or more)

Students participating the lectures:

• Students present and discuss materials, agreed with the professor.

Students not participating the lectures, one text among the following ones:

• Perna T. (2004), Fair Trade. La sfida etica al mercato mondiale , Bollati Boringhieri, Torino.
• Wagner P. (2012), Modernità, Einaudi, Torino
• Donolo C. (2007), Sostenere lo sviluppo, Bruno Mondadori, Milano
• Sassen S (2008), Una sociologia della globalizzazione, Einaudi, Torino
• van der Ploeg J.D. (2009), I nuovi contadini: le campagne e le risposte alla globalizzazione, Donzelli, Roma

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, at the end of the course

2. Students not attending the lectures:

Written examination about the texts, according to the program.

______________________________________________

Office hours

See the website of Vando Borghi