Global social inequalities

The aim of the course is to provide students with the analytical skills needed for a scientific understanding of the patterns of socio-economic inequality in contemporary societies. Attention will be given to the multi-dimensional nature of inequality, looking at a number of socio-economic outcomes including income, occupation, education; at its intergenerational transmission; at the history of inequality over time, both in a long- and short-run perspective. In terms of disciplines, the main reference will be sociological research on social stratification, but other disciplines will also be referred to, in particular labour economics; the sociology of education and social demography. Issues of definition and measurement will have a key role in the course, as to enable students to be able to evaluate which is the best analytical strategy for the issue at hands.

By the end of the course, students will have learned the foundations of inequality research. They will thus be able to study the distribution of inequality, as well as its changes over time, according to a number of complementary dimensions. Moreover, they will be able to understand the functioning of social reproduction from two complementary perspectives: the micro perspective, looking at the individual life course, from family of origin to occupational destination through the education system; and the macro perspective, which looks at the aggregate patterns of socio-economic inequality in comparison over time and space (international comparison). Students will also learn how scientific communication works, clearly distinguishing the steps of scientific research: literature review; hypothesis building; data collection; data analysis and discussion of the hypotheses.