Instructional goals
The course aims to provide students with basic training on the main concepts and methods of sociology. At the same time, the course aims to orient this instrumentation towards the problem of political power.
Prerequisites
No prerequisites required
Intended learning outcomes
Knowledge and Understanding: students' acquisition of conceptual and methodological knowledge of political sociology;
Applying knowledge and understanding: application skills (problem solving) and critical attitudes to the study of political sociology;
Making Judgment: the skills acquired by the student will enable him to critically examine the theories of political sociology;
Communication skills: at the end of the course the student will be able to describe the different research methods in political sociology;
Learning skills: through the use of texts and active involvement in class, the student will be able to autonomously approach the analysis of political sociology.
Course Contents
The program is divided in three parts: a first part will be aimed at introducing the methodology of comparison in social sciences; a second part will focus on the historical reconstruction of the main categories of analysis of sociology and the relative authors who introduced and / or reworked them.
Reference Books
Compulsory Readings:
-De Mucci, R., & Mucci, R. d. (2009). Micropolitica: Verso una teoria individualistica dell'azione politica (2.th ed.). Rubbettino. tinyurl.com/68wdj4b3 (chap. 1-2-3-4-6)
-De Mucci, R., & Mucci, R. d. (2015). I molti e i pochi: La società sotto-sopra dei diseguali. Rubbettino. tinyurl.com/2nzkxvpx (with the exception of pp. 45-60 e 143-167)
-R. De Mucci, S. Fallocco, Teorie e metodi in scienze sociali (print in progress)/ if not avilable: R. De Mucci, Schede di teoria sociologica, dispense del modulo di sociologia generale, edizione e-book,open acces, Roma 2013
Further Readings:
-Infantino, L. (1998). L'ordine senza piano: Le ragioni dell'individualismo metodologico (Nuova ed.). Armando. tinyurl.com/3e663cy3
-Antiseri, D. (2005). Trattato di metodologia delle scienze sociali. UTET. tinyurl.com/49rtpmnh
Teaching Methods
Lectures, seminars, class exercitations
Assessment Method
Oral Exam, in which knowledge, skills and abilities, as well as critical skills will be assessed.
80% of the final mark will be determined by the final exam and 20% by class participation.
Thesis assignment criteria
Interest for the discipline; analytic and critic attitudes emerged during the course and from final examination; autonomous proposal of deepening an argument
Week 1 Contenuto sessioni on line e on campus
Introduction to the course; Background problems of social and political analysis; Individual and collective in social sciences.
Compulsory Reading: Micropolitica.
Week 2 Contenuto sessioni on line e on campus
Object and method of sociology; The historical origins of sociology; Proto-sociology: the Scottish School (Hume, Ferguson, Smith).
Compulsory Reading: Manuale, chap. 1.
Further Readings:
L. Infantino, L'ordine senza piano, Armando, Roma 2008.
Week 3 Contenuto sessioni on line e on campus
Positivism- French School Deterministic Positivism (Saint Simon, Comte)- English School Liberal-Evolutionistic Positivism (Spencer, Mill)- The rules of sociological method in the functionalist positivism of E. Durkheim.
Compulsory Reading: Manuale
Week 4 Contenuto sessioni on line e on campus
Beyond Positivism – Sociology of the economic and social conflicts from the perspective of the historical and dialectical materialism theory –The debate on methodology(Methodenstreint)-German Historicism: History and Psychology preeminence, sociology as an “auxiliary” science.
Compulsory Reading: Manuale
Week 5 Contenuto sessioni on line e on campus
M. Weber's mediation between generalizing and individualizing sciences- The method of ideal types - The genesis of capitalism- The forms of power on the basis of their respective legitimization processes. Compulsory Reading: Manuale
Week 6 Contenuto sessioni on line e on campus
The Modern State between market and bureaucracy-The functionalist approach- The absolute functionalism in cultural anthropology (Radcliffe Brown, Malinowsky). Compulsory Reading: Manuale
Week 7 Contenuto sessioni on line e on campus
The structural-functionalism in sociology (T.Parsons) – The Relative functionalism in Social Sciences (Merton).
Compulsory Reading: Manuale
Week 8 Contenuto sessioni on line e on campus
Individualism and Collectivism in Social Science – The Austrian Marginalist School- (Menger, Mises, Hayek)- The critical rationalism (K. Popper).
Compulsory Reading: Manuale
Further Reading: D. Antiseri, Trattato di metodologia delle scienze sociali, Utet, Torino,1996.
INTERACTIVE LABORATORIES: ONLINE LESSONS (IL)
Upon teacher assignement, small groups of students (max 40) participate in interactive ways in 1) recovery lessons, 2) discuss concepts and theories learned during the lessons, try to apply them to concrete cases, 3) write and exchange papers on certain topics, deepening the available and suggested literature, 4) simulate situations or tests of empirical research (eg preparation and administration of survey survey and / or "ecological" data analysis), 5) measure themselves on the possible applications of the investigation of the social sciences to daily reality and the possible projections and intersections on future studies of the degree course (through project "Movies and Society").
Week 9 Contenuto sessioni on line e on campus
Political action and power – Political power as control and decision – Political action and participation: political participation trade-off. Compulsory Reading: Micropolitica. IL
Week 10 Contenuto sessioni on line e on campus
Logic and paradoxes of collective action-Political action and representation- Representation Theories. Compulsory Reading: Micropolitica.
IL
Week 11 Contenuto sessioni on line e on campus
Political representation and Social representation-The agency model- The evaluation of representation- Groups, movements and parties. Compulsory Reading: Micropolitica.
IL
Week 12 Contenuto sessioni on line e on campus
Elite and power in modern society; Social classes and the state (Marxite and post-Marxist perspective); Liberalism and social class theory; Oligarchies without elites; places and forms of power in Italian society.
Compulsory Reading: I Molti e i Pochi
IL