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; a third part will focus on the phenomenology of political power, analyzed in the dimensions of "micro-sociology" or - to put it like Georg Simmel - through the "elementary forms of sociability”.
Reference Books
Compulsory Readings:
-De Mucci, R. (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. (2018). Metodi di analisi empirica in scienze sociali. una introduzione Rubbettino. (pp. 11-74)
-De Mucci, R, Fallocco, S (2023), Individuale e collettivo. Introduzione alle teorie sociologiche. Rubbettino. Soveria-Mannelli
Further Readings:
-Infantino, L. (1998). L'ordine senza piano: Le ragioni dell'individualismo metodologico (Nuova ed.). Armando.
Antiseri, D. (2005). Trattato di metodologia delle scienze sociali. UTET
Teaching Methods
Lectures, seminars, class exercitations
Assessment Method
Oral Exam, in which knowledge, skills and abilities, as well as critical skills will be assessed. 70% of the final mark will be determined by the final exam and 30% by class participation (included the midterm test)
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 on themes or authors in program.
Week 1
Introduction to the course; Background problems of social and political analysis; Individual and collective in social sciences.
Compulsory Reading: Micropolitica.
Week 2
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
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
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
The paradigm shift: the individualistic lesson of Weber and Simmel - Microsociology and formal sociology (Simmel) - The Weberian method of ideal types - The genesis of capitalism - The forms of power on the basis of the respective processes of legitimation. Compulsory Reading: Manuale
Week 6
The functionalist approach- The absolute functionalism in cultural anthropology (Radcliffe Brown); The structural-functionalism in Sociology (T.Parsons) – The Relative Functionalism in Social Sciences (Merton).
Compulsory Reading: Manuale
Week 7
MIDTERM TEST focused on: -Assimilation of concepts and theories (until then faced) -Exercises in application to social and political reality PLEASE NOTE: The topics covered in the test are not exempted from the final exame
Week 8
Individualism vs. Collectivism in the Social Sciences. Austrian Marginalistic School (Menger, Mises, Hayek). -Critical Rationalism (Karl Popper) Compulsory Readings: Manuale (chpp. 7-8)-Further Readings: Antiseri, Trattato (chapters 24-25-26) IL
Week 9
Political action and power – Political power as control and decision – Political action and participation: political participation trade-off. Compulsory Reading: Micropolitica. IL
Week 10
Logic and paradoxes of collective action-Political action and participation. “The Calculus of Consent”. Compulsory Reading: Micropolitica.
IL
Further Readings: J. Buchanan & G. Tullock, Il calcolo del consenso, Il Mulino, 1986
Week 11
Political representation and Social representation-The agency model- The evaluation of representation. Compulsory Reading: Micropolitica. IL Further Readings: D. Fisichella, La rappresentanza politica, Laterza 1986
Week 12
Notions of methodology: survey and “ecological” analysis. Empirical concepts, abstraction ladder. From Properties to Variables: measurements and control. Compulsory reading: Methods IL