Sociology

This course analyzes the various aspects where information technology and communication have had a significant impact, both at the macro and micro level, in the connection between technology and society.

The course offers a basic introduction to methods for the evaluation of health promotion activities. Half of the course specializes in health economic evaluations (cost-effectiveness) with a focus on prevention, interventions, and treatments to improve or protect the health of the individual or the population. Why and how economic evaluations are made, with special focus on assessing current examples in the literature are reviewed. The other half of the course focuses on effect evaluations in non-controlled research designs by means of quasi-experimental methods, which are used when randomization has not been carried out and tries to replicate a randomized experiment. The course introduces the most common methods, discusses their advantages and disadvantages, and how one can assess the application of the method in current examples from the literature. The course has an international perspective with respect to applications and analyses.

If the ‘everyday' refers to the mundane, the unremarkable – to the forms of life routinely taken for granted – it is also through the practices of everyday life that we experience who we are, how our lives are invested with meanings, and how we engage with change. In the modern world (especially in the developed north), it's difficult to think about cultures of everyday life without also considering the media and its contribution to the structuring of daily life, its varied use in daily life, and its discursive construction and engagement with aspects of everyday life. In this course, students explore critical approaches to everyday life, including those engaging with media.

Lectures in this course cover a range of practical policy analysis within the area of the criminal justice system. Students start by exploring the policy process within Ireland, and how different factors and narratives can shape and change policy, extended by how policy is analyzed and reviewed. 

This course provides students with an opportunity to learn how to systematically compare public policies. It pays attention to the reasons behind the similarities and differences in public policies in different countries. The course consists of three parts. The first part of the course introduces and discusses concepts, theories, and methods in comparative public policy. The second part covers real-case comparisons for problem-solving. Key public policy issues are examined in comparative perspectives. Finally, while examining cross-national policy learning and policy transfers, the course discusses the importance of comparative public policy in policy-making and formulation. The key purpose of the course is to strengthen students' capacity to compare public policies, devise policy alternatives, and enhance their ability to make good public policies. In this course, we will specifically focus on the Triple Transition—digital, climate, and demographic—and discuss how to design relevant and impactful policies during this era of great transformation through comparative analysis.

The seminar provides insight in the political situation of various states such as Myanmar, Syria, and Ukraine, and analyzes reasons for flight and implications for the receiving states. It outlines opportunities and challenges for the integration of refugees and explores human rights, especially refugee rights in the world. Students define a research question and investigate reasons for refugee movements and the paths of forced migration (especially in the Mediterranean Sea). The course provides an international perspective on displacements in other parts of the world (especially Southeast Asia, the European Union, and West Africa). It discusses these questions with experts and active NGO members in an open atmosphere to analyze and consider the situation of refugees today.

The course examines perspectives on the sociology of contemporary art, current national and global debates on the topic, and the main authors in the field (Passeron, Fabiani, Leenhardt, Heinich, Pequignot). Topics include: Latin American art; music and society; art and feminism; institutions of art and heritage.