Sociology

This course address how the economy works and how it affects individuals and society by focusing on a critically important domain of the economy—namely, financial markets. Overall, the course provides a sociological understanding of why we have financial markets, who the key financial actors are, how financial markets are evolving, as well as how finance and financial logics affect individuals and society. More specifically, it introduces recent sociological discussions of two aspects of finance. The first concerns “financialization,” that is, the growing use and importance of financial logics in otherwise non-financial fields. One example of this is when production companies generate more revenue from finance operations than from their core production activities. Another dimension of financialization relates to the everyday life of ordinary citizens who are increasingly embedded in financial logics. For example, the course discusses inequalities pertaining to the ability to obtain loans (credit). The second aspect of the course focuses on the inner workings of contemporary financial markets. In addition to discussing the backdrop to the 2008 financial crisis, particular emphasis is given to understanding how financial markets have transformed in light of automated trading, that is, fully automated algorithms acting in markets without direct human involvement. It covers the main elements in present-day markets, including trading firms, financial exchanges, so-called dark pools, and financial regulation, as well as discusses the kinds of financial crashes automated trading might give rise to. The course draws upon a combination of classical sociological analyses and theories of financial markets (from Max Weber to Wayne Baker); more recent sociological discussions of performativity in markets; financialization literature; and social studies of science-inspired analyses of automation.

This course offers a study of the theory of social movements including features of social movements and key components for the emergence and development of social movements. It examines the history of social movements in three periods: 19th and 20th centuries (up to the 1960s); 1960s-1980s; 1990 to present. Finally, this course discusses specific social movements such as labor, racial and cultural rights, nationalism, feminism, environmentalism, LGBT, etc. 

Topics are chosen according to specific interests, such as sociology of medicine, sex roles, symbolic interaction, or applied sociology. A recurring theme in attempts to understand the nature and emergence of the contemporary world is the relationship between capitalism and colonialism. Not only have the attempts to understand this relationship been important to academic discussions, the have also shaped the rhetoric and actions of policy makers, international institutions, and anti-colonial movements.

This course examines a number of critical issues in the contemporary Pacific through a detailed consideration of the work, ideas, and writings of Pacific writers, artists, film makers, activists and scholars. It also encourages critiques of established historical and narrative accounts.

This course examines historical changes and the role of health and disease in the contemporary world. Topics include: health and disease in the Middle Ages and Renaissance-- modern medicine in context; scientific knowledge of disease; from public hygiene to social medicine; official medicine and folk medicine; prevention of disease; institutions; other medicines; current challenges.

This course is part of the Laurea Magistrale degree program and is intended for advanced level students. Enrollment is by permission of the instructor. The course provides knowledge of a portion of the vast field of diaspora studies. The course covers diasporic cultures, imaginaries, consciousness, subjectivities, and practices across a variety of contexts and assesses the stakes of ‘diaspora’ as an analytical concept as well as lived experience. The course also covers the importance of intertwining critical race theory with ethnography in order to understand diasporic subjectivities are racialized. The course also equips students with decolonial approaches and methodologies to migration and diaspora studies, building the tools to critically engage with historical and contemporary debates around identity, nationalism, race, multiculturalism, and difference. "Diaspora" as a concept has enabled an understanding of identities and cultures beyond national, ethnic, or racial connotations. Diaspora functions as a vision to think of subjectivities and communities not as epiphenomena of nation-states but as springboard for de-territorialized and transnational cultural and political formations and political subjectivities. The first part of the course introduces anthropological and social theories of migration and looks at what Diaspora as a heuristic device has brought to studies and understandings of home, belonging, identities, and political cultures. In the second part, the course focuses on how liberal states manage Diasporas through containment, confinement, disciplining, and through a highly emotional politics of fear. Finally, the course analyzes diasporas as "cultures of resistance" effecting a dissolution of borders and boundaries in their everyday aesthetic and performative practices.

Since the Covid19 pandemic and in the context of climate change, slogans such as “follow the science” or appeals to “trust science” have become ubiquitous. In fact, for modern societies, science and scientists are probably the last remaining unquestioned authorities; when we need guidance, we turn to scientific experts and trust that they will give us solid advice. However, this is a relatively new development; during the time of the ascent of the sciences, from the 18th through to the mid-20th centuries, new discoveries and inventions in the sciences as well as the scientists and inventors themselves were met with fear, skepticism or suspicion. One powerful expression of this attitude of societies towards the sciences can be found in popular works of fiction: we still use the names of fictional characters such as Faust, Frankenstein, Dr Jekyll or Dr Strangelove to characterize mad, evil or amoral scientists as well as dangerous scientific and/ or technological developments. Program: In this course, we will examine the development of literary / cultural imaginations of science and scientists, looking at key texts as well as key developments in the sciences: Mary Shelley’s Frankenstein, galvanism and the creation of life; Robert Louis Stevenson’s Dr Jekyll & Mr Hyde: experimental drugs and the split personality; H.G. Wells’ The Island of Dr Moreau: Vivisection and genetics; Aldous Huxley’s Brave New World: eugenics, genetic engineering and chemistry; the figure of the physicist J. Robert Oppenheimer, the ‘father of the atomic bomb’, in post-war reality and fiction, and, finally, the benevolent scientific research on climate change as presented in Kim Stanley Robinson’s Green Earth trilogy. Based on extracts from the texts and on academic texts which contextualize and analyze the topics, discussions in class will take literature as a point of departure for a more fundamental examination of the connection between science and society.

The course explores how the regional Catalan cinema (Catalan language productions), which encounters a disadvantage in the broader market dominated by Spanish-speaking audiovisuals, achieves distinctiveness, with a focus on the representation of women, social inequality, diverse minorities, and sustainability. Emphasizing the intersection of these issues, the course delves into the complexities of current Catalan social struggles on and off the screen. The course is divided into lectures, screenings, readings, discussions, group presentations, creative work in groups and field trips to filming locations and Catalan production firms.

This course aims to introduce students to the sociological study of social inequalities. That is, to gain a broad understanding of the social processes through which some end up having more resources than others and through which some become included and some excluded. In the introductory sessions, we will begin by defining social inequality and its relevant dimensions, learning about its trends in Europe and the world as well as its pernicious effects for society. Students will also learn key sociological concepts such as social class, social mobility, and ethnoracial categorization processes. In the second part of the course students will be introduced to some of sociology’s most studied mechanisms that help explain the perpetuation of inequalities in a wide range of contexts such as cumulative advantage, opportunity hoarding, discrimination, boundary making, and social networks. As a next step we will learn about some of the most relevant engines of inequality such as families and schools, labor markets, tax systems, extreme weather events, and migration systems. We will end the course by learning about how to tackle inequality. We will discuss how acceptance or opposition to it comes about and reflect on sociology’s relevance in addressing societal disparities.

Hannah Arendt's work has become a classic of modern political theory, drawing on themes of totalitarian rule, flight, and statelessness. In the context of current crises, such as the climate crisis and the global conflict between authoritarianism and liberal democracy, Arendt's concept of politics reemerges as relevant.  At the heart of this conflict is Russia's attack on Ukraine and Hamas's attack on Israel. Moscow has become the center of a new form of fascism. Russia's aggression against Ukraine is, alongside man-made climate change, the greatest catastrophe of our time. Why were we unable to recognize the signs of impending disaster? Everything is possible, even in this century. The elements and origins of totalitarian rule remain relevant. "The meaning of politics is freedom," wrote Hannah Arendt, a meaning that we have lost sight of in times of peace and prosperity. But what does the controversial term freedom actually mean? How is the distortion of freedom at the expense of people and nature connected to the destruction of a free society? Arendt's thoughts on freedom go beyond today's understanding of liberalism: individual freedom and community spirit are interdependent. Hannah Arendt allows us to rethink freedom.