Sociology

This course develops a multi-disciplinary understanding of drugs in the UK and elsewhere by enabling students to apply sociological, criminological, historical, psychological and cultural perspectives to the study of drug use, and policy responses to this "social problem."  Students seek to understand why people take and sell drugs, how drug use is understood within societies, and how societies respond.  

This course explores concepts of race and ethnicity. Theories and models of inter-group relations provide the tools for understanding and analyzing race/ethnic relations and ethnicity in selected societies. This course refers to Malaysia/Singapore, Southeast Asian, and other societies where relevant. The topics explored also include race/ethnicity and the nation-state; ethnicity and citizenship/multiculturalism; ethnic identity; gender and ethnicity; race/ethnicity and its representations; race/ethnicity and crime. 

This course focuses on different body-political movements. Which bodies are excluded, suppressed, bequeathed, violated and how? Which resistances are formed against this? How do they organize themselves? What significance does corporality have in these resistances? For this purpose the course examines activist practice, as well as some theory. The course includes guest speakers (currently planned: "Sex Worker Action Group Berlin" and "Disabled and Crazy Celebration Pride Parade Berlin"), participatory observations, and opportunities to exchange knowledge, experiences, and different perspectives. This course includes a short review of topics covered during the first semester version of the course.

This course provides an introduction to youth studies, with a particular focus on the association between youth and the globalizing world. The course considers a broad body of interdisciplinary scholarships such as history, education, politics, and the environment. Students discuss the increasing use of social media by youth movements in creating changes in society and the notion of young people as the agents of change. This course brings in perspectives from various parts of the world through diverse reading materials. The reading materials provide a fundamental understanding of youth studies (Cieslik and Simpson, 2013), global situation of young people (UN, 2003), and engage critically in the discussion of youth as an agent of change (Sukarieh and Tannock, 2015; Kwon, 2013).

This course explores the foundations and components of social policy as an academic discipline and the historical relationship with social work. It examines the idea of social policy as a process, product, and intervention. This course discusses the historical process of social reform and the origins, development, and crisis of the welfare state.

The course is part of the Laurea Magistrale program and is intended for advanced level students. Enrolment is by permission of the instructor. This course explores the connection between globalization, the evolution of criminology, and crime, and how this connection changes in space and time. Globalization affects crime phenomena in a variety of ways: creating new conditions and opportunities for new types of crime or reshaping more traditional criminal behaviors and increasing insecurity and fear of crime. Moreover, globalization requires new categories to explain and understand crime and therefore affects and reshapes many traditional criminological theories. Finally, globalization has an impact also on strategies of crime control and surveillance.