In this Introductory Course to Sociology, students become acquainted with multiple sociological perspectives on relevant issues in contemporary society. They learn to distinguish and navigate different theoretical perspectives, link and combine them properly, and get a sense of how sociological research works. This course will allow students to (a) improve their critical thinking and appreciate the advantages of taking multiple perspectives on social reality; (b) understand sociology as a scientific discipline; (c) describe the main theoretical and empirical issues within both classical and contemporary sociology; (d) be prepared to attend other, more advanced or specific sociological courses; (e) take first steps in professional academic writing, i.e. using and citing literature, creating a bibliography, assessing sources.

There are no prerequisites for this course.

This course is designed to provide you with knowledge and understanding of sociology as a distinct scientific discipline. The aim of the course is to train you in taking a sociological perspective on relevant issues of contemporary society. The course offers a broad overview of the history of sociological thought and analyzes key-texts by the founders of the discipline. For every classical text from the history of sociology we also read a contemporary / non-classical text in order to valorize contemporary sociologists and sociology by groups that have been marginalized in the discipline for a long time (women, minorities, scholars from the global south). The first part of the course (weeks 1-7) is dedicated to the basics of sociological theory and research methods. The second part of the course (weeks 8-12) focuses on specific topics of sociological enquiry: Institutions and Organizations; Cities and Urban Life; Environment; Migration; and Feminism, Gender and Sexuality. The course includes an empirical component of student-led ENQUIRY. At the beginning of the term, you will be asked to form enquirer-teams; each team will be assigned a small research project. As a team, you will do field work and apply different theoretical perspectives to your topic. The aim of the research project is to develop your own sociological imagination. You will be guided in your enquiry projects by the teaching assistant, who will introduce you to the steps of a research project: planning a research process, reading relevant literature, doing field work, writing up observations, and using literature.

Course book: Giddens, Anthony & Sutton, Philip W. 2021. Sociology. 9th Edition. London: Polity. This book is available for free through the perlego-app (https://biblioteca.luiss.it/en/resources/perlego). The exact sections/pages assigned for each class will be specified in the detailed syllabus that will be made available at the beginning of the term. Primary readings by sociologists (past and present) will be made available through luiss-learn. All readings indicated in this syllabus are required readings and are relevant for the exam. The lecture-slides are an integral part of the course-readings and are also relevant for the exam. Lecture-slides are made available shortly prior to each class.

The teaching methods of this course are (1) reading, frontal lessons, interactive discussion of texts; (2) enquiry: elaboration of a small research project in groups. The project includes active fieldwork, the application sociological theoretical perspectives on a concrete case, the elaboration of a short essay and the public presentation of the results. The fieldwork and the presentation are part of module 1 “Grand Challenge”.

The assessment for this course is partially enquiry-based and includes two components. [1] A mid-term exam in week 6 covers content of weeks 1-5 and the theory clue of the enquiry-project: multiple choice + open questions; max. score 35 points. [2] The final exam in week 11 has two parts. Part Final_a covers content of weeks 6-10 with multipe choice questions; max. score 20 points. Part Final_b covers the enquiry project with open questions; max. score 35 points. In all open questions, your academic writing skills and the correct use of literature will be evaluated. Your final grade is computed as follows: sum of all scores (max. 90) ÷ 3. Students can obtain 1 additional point (or lode) for exceptional class participation. The maximum score for this course is 30, the passing score for this course is 18. For students who (in exceptional circumstances and with previous authorization by the competent offices and the lecturer) do not attend the course in presence and do not become part of an enquirer-team, the assessment method consists of one comprehensive oral exam on the whole content of the course plus 1 additionally assigned reading (a monograph). It is your duty to contact the course-teacher well ahead of the exam to receive the syllabus and the assigned extra reading.

For those of you interested, please reach me at vfabretti@luiss.it.