00905 - Sociology (A-E)

Learning outcomes

At the end of the course, students will be able to:

• have a knowledge of the sociological perspective, its origins, its main paradigms and theories, its methods of analysis, its objects of study
• use tools to analyze contemporary social phenomena, functional to reading and understanding several social contexts.

Course contents

The course provides students with the main tools and resources to reflect on the functioning of contemporary societies and the most valid and updated knowledge available to the discipline. The course applies an empirical and comparative approach. In particular, it aims to present the contribution to the understanding and interpretation of social reality that an empirically founded knowledge, based on a continuous comparison of the forms assumed by social phenomena in time and space, is able to offer.

The course is organized in lectures and seminars. Lectures (28 hours in remote on MS TEAMS) aim to introduce students to the core concepts and theories of the discipline. In the first lessons, students are introduced to sociological thought and to the historical and social conditions in which it was born. Afterwards, the analysis of the institutions, practices and social processes that shape modern and contemporaries societies will be addressed, comparing theoretical approaches and the results of social research.

Seminars aim to provide occasions for in-depth discussions of educational materials assigned during the first part of the course. In particular, several key-issues for sociological analysis of modern society are examined in more detail, and their use for the analysis and interpretation of contemporary social phenomena is also discussed. The issues analysed concern the process of individualization and stratification of social life. These topics have multiple connections, addressed with the intention of showing their origin in sociological thought and their use in subsequent and more recent theoretical perspectives.

For the seminar section (16 hours), students will be divided into 4 groups according to their preferences and to the rules concerning the current pandemic emergency: two groups will do the seminar in classroom and two groups will do the seminar remotely on MS TEAMS. Therefore, a total of 44 classroom hours are scheduled for each student. Students are required to carefully read the assigned material before the session and - in the case of seminars - active participation 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.

Readings/Bibliography

The examination texts are differentiated according to the sections in which the teaching activity is organized.

For the lectures section:

• Bagnasco, A., Barbagli, M. e Cavalli, A., Elementi di sociologia, Bologna, Il Mulino, 2013 (attenzione all'edizione: la prima, del 2004, non va bene).
  
• Poggi, G. e Sciortino, G., Incontri con il pensiero sociologico, Bologna, Il Mulino, 2008.

The full list of readings for students who attend seminar section will be conveyed on the first day of class and posted on the class website on “Insegnamenti Online”at iol.unibo.it.

Students who do not attend the seminar section are required to read

• De Swaan, A., Società. Una introduzione, Bologna, Il Mulino, 2019.

To this book students must add at least one book of the following reading list:

Acocella, I., Pepicelli, R. (2018), Transnazionalismo, cittadinanza, pensiero islamico. Forme di attivismo dei giovani musulmani in Italia, Bologna, Il Mulino.

Capello, C. (2020), Ai margini del lavoro. Un’antropologia della disoccupazione a Torino, Verona, Ombre Corte.

Gasperoni, G., Albertini, M., Mantovani, D. (2018), Fra genitori e figli. Immigrazione, rapporti intergenerazionali e famiglie nell’Europa contemporanea, Bologna, Il Mulino.

Giangrande, F. (2019), Terre di scambio. Vite translocali tra il Delta del Nilo e Roma, Bologna, Il Mulino.

Istituto Toniolo (2020), La condizione giovanile in Italia. Rapporto Giovani 2020, Bologna, Il Mulino.

Fidolini, V. (2018), Fai l'uomo! Come l'eterosessualità produce la maschilità, Milano, Meltemi.

Reckinger, G. (2020), Arance amare. Un nuovo volto della schiavitù in Italia, Milano, Mimesis.

Saint-Blancat, C. (2017), Ricercare altrove. Fuga dei cervelli, circolazione di talenti, opportunità, Bologna, Il Mulino.

Santangelo, F. (2017), La violenza nelle relazioni intime. La trasmissione intergenerazionale degli abusi contro le donne, Milano, Franco Angeli.

Sciarrone R., Storti L. (2019), Le mafie nell'economia legale, Scambi, collusioni, azioni di contrasto, il Mulino, Bologna.

Teaching methods

Conventional lectures (with the use of Power Point if necessary) during which the course contents are presented and discussed.

In the seminar section the interaction between students and the teacher is explicitly stimulated. Students are encouraged to conduct in the classroom a structured activity of discussion and assessment of the knowledge acquired by reading the texts provided during the first part of the course. They are therefore required to attend class having already read the assigned material, in order to reflect on and elaborate what they have learned.

The teaching methodology used in the seminar part allows the teacher and the students to evaluate the real understanding of the contents. During the lesson students are asked to answer some (multiple-choice) questions concerning specific topics covered in the assigned texts and to verify the correctness of the answers through a group discussion. The answers given and the arguments used during the discussion will be taken into consideration for the evaluation of the participation in the seminar activities.

Assessment methods

A written test will allow to evaluate the first part of the course: the questions will cover the subjects and the chapters of the examination texts listed in the content section.

Students who regularly attend seminars will be assessed through a final in-class written exam in which is assessed not only the knowledge of the assigned topic and the use of the appropriate specific vocabulary, but also the ability to introduce and re-elaborate the concepts and theories dealt with in relation to contemporary social phenomena. Participation in the activities carried out in the classroom will be evaluated too.

Students who DO NOT attend class will be assessed through a final written exam, partly multiple-choice, partly open-ended. Students who DO NOT regularly attend seminars are also required to present a short paper on a subject of their choice, based on the reading of at least one of the texts suggested in the reading list. The paper (3.000/4.000 words) must be sent to the teacher by email at least seven days before the exam. The score is calculated according to the following criteria: consistency with the topics of the course, ability to study in depth, argumentation and critical discussion of the chosen topic, ability to explain and use the appropriate specialist vocabulary.

Teaching tools

The course uses slides in powepoint, which will be made available to the students at the beginning of each lesson.

Office hours

See the website of Nicola De Luigi

See the website of Alessandro Bozzetti