Society and Social Change

The overall objectives of the course consist in learning sociology's main concepts and theoretical-interpretive paradigms applied to its most relevant fields of investigation. First, the specificity of the sociological perspective as scientific knowledge (theoretical perspectives, methods, and techniques of social research) will be clarified. Students will then become familiar with the discipline's various fields of investigation (economic and labor market sociology, politics, the territorial dimension of social phenomena, family, school and religion, the media). On a weekly basis, throughout the course, exercises will be proposed aimed at promoting the development of soft skills (e.g., teamwork, argumentative skills, and public speaking). Particularly, attention will be paid to students' ability to understand and analyse the progress of the scientific debate on issues pertaining to the topics covered during the course, as well as to appreciate and distinguish the methodological approaches (qualitative or quantitative) used by the various proposed empirical research.

At the end of the course, students should have understood and acquired sociology's basic vocabulary, together with the knowledge concerning its main authors and its prevailing theoretical perspectives; they should have acquired the ability to distinguish between common sense assumptions and scientific knowledge; they should have developed the necessary skills to carry out a critical review of the scientific literature; they also should have developed autonomous analytical and judgment skills with reference to the main dynamics and processes characterizing contemporary societies, being therefore capable of consciously positioning themselves within the existing academic debate.
Students should have acquired the ability to autonomously apply the acquired knowledge to the analysis of ongoing processes in contemporary societies, also from a historical-comparative point of view.
Finally, students should have become familiar with the most relevant databases produced by the main national and international bodies (Istat, Eurostat, OECD), but also with the use of ad hoc software for the creation and administration of questionnaires, in order to develop, in the future, independent paths of research and study in the field.