Sociology

This course examines the most recent and topical issues of crime and justice in Australia and elsewhere. It examines these in historical perspective and critically assesses them in the context of both contemporary and longstanding debates over criminal justice in politics, policy and criminological research.

What does it mean to exert, obey, resist, or think power? How does political power relate to violence and authority? What is the relationship between secular and religious notions of power? In inviting students to reflect upon these questions through a wide range of texts and classroom dynamics, this course explores the concept of political power and its multiple forms of expression, thus introducing critical theory, political thinking, and the global humanities. Topics include imperialism and colonialism; democracy; sovereignty; the relationship between intellectuals and power; feminist and revolutionary perspectives on power; critical, pedagogical, and aesthetic approaches to political power relations. 

This course provides students with a systematic introduction to the transformation of work in the context of rapidly changing aspects of labor markets in advanced market economies. The changing structure of labor markets is associated with new technologies, deregulation, flexibilization, and individualization. Students examine the increasing participation and changing position of women on the labor market. They further examine theories and empirical findings regarding the divisions of paid and unpaid labor, precariousness and impermanence, labor market participation of women. Wage and career inequality are discussed with a special emphasis on the interplay of individual decisions and formal and informal societal institutions. Students examine jobs, employers and careers/life cycle issues in a globalizing world, and the possible consequences of the rise of digitalization and artificial intelligence for the world of work.

This course is part of the Laurea Magistrale degree program and is intended for advanced level students. Enrolment is by permission of the instructor. There are two versions of this course; this course, UCEAP Course Number 152A and Bologna course number 90543, is associated with the LM in Sociology and Social Work degree programme. The other version, UCEAP Course Number 152B and Bologna course number 93217, is associated with the LM in Geography and Territorial Processes degree programme.

At the end of the course, students are able to: have a general overview of international migrations, their main interpretative models, and some related issues; and manage the main concepts for the study of migrations, without limiting to the classic economy and the demography ones, but paying attention also to some most recent approaches. The course provides the main conceptual and analytical tools for a sociological analysis of migrations, presenting the most accredited interpretation models, the most recent trends, and the social impact of this phenomenon in the Mediterranean area. The first part of this course considers the figure of the stranger and the interaction models with society as it emerges from the classical sociological debate (Simmel, Park, Thomas). The second part introduces the contemporary debate on international migrations and the interpretation models of this phenomenon from different disciplines. Special attention is given to: 1. theoretical contributions from the Chicago School of sociology in the 1920s; 2. considering migrations as a "total social fact," according to the Algerian sociologist A. Sayad; and 3. interethnic and cohabitation relations in urban settings. During the Laboratory experts and workers of the socio-sanitary field present their professional experience, in order to enlarge the debate with students about the main issues of the course of sociology of migrations.

This course engages with some of the large theoretical debates in the study of social movements, reading both empirical treatments of particular movements and theoretical treatments of key issues. It is particularly concerned with the social and political context of protest, focusing on basic questions, such as under what circumstances do social movements emerge? How do dissidents choose political tactics and strategies? How do movements affect social and political change?

This course explores the relationship between technology and human labor, with a special interest in its socio-political implications. Technological change is one of the fundamental drives that has shaped the modern economy. From factories, railroads, telegraphs, electricity, and petrochemical Industrial Revolution to the contemporary bio-digital revolution, technological changes have had profound impact on how human labor is organized, mobilized, utilized, and exploited. Technological changes have affected humans-tools relationship; created new breeds of workers (e.g. “proletariat class,” “white-collars,” “knowledge-workers,” “clinical laborers or bio-surrogates,” “platform workers,” and many kinds of invisible workers (such as undocumented immigrants) and changed work-place environments. 

Though technological changes are often recognized as (and indeed they are) “progress,” they also interact with and exacerbate the existing social inequalities and injustices and undermine the hard-won labor rights. The course focuses on market labor but will also include relevant discussions on non-market labor (such as households). The course also discusses broader structural changes such as economic globalization and its work implications. 

This course introduces students to the field of social geography, its theoretical perspectives and substantive concerns, centered upon an understanding of societies as products of uneven and always negotiated relationships of power. Drawing on a social constructionist approach, and using mainly UK examples, students consider intersecting constructions of social class, gender, race, and sexuality, and how these constructions both shape, and are shaped by space at a variety of scales. The course includes a field walk assignment designed to develop skills of critical observation and interpretation.

Do Google and Facebook understand us better than we do ourselves? Are we becoming lab rats every time we go online? Is the impartially designed algorithm for predicting the probability of recidivism truly fair for sentencing individuals? When big data analytics are routinely applied in our daily lives, the ability to audit the adopted algorithms becomes crucial. This course aims to build students’ big data literacy through three major areas of focus: (1) Defining what big data is; (2) Providing an overview of existing big data analytical techniques; and (3) Discussing opportunities and challenges of big data analytics in tackling social problems. 

This course is an introduction to the social and political dynamics that shape the lives of Muslim minorities in Western Europe and North America. The first part of the course situates Islam and Muslims within the larger European and American histories, by comparing how church-State relations, colonial history, immigration and racial inequalities have affected their representations. The second part unpacks a series of public controversies over Islam and Muslims and explores what they reveal about Euro-American societies. Finally, the course investigates how Islam is lived among ordinary European and American Muslims. This course takes a comparative stance by covering a plurality of national contexts to become familiar with the various public and academic debates surrounding European and American Muslims.

This course examines society’s continuing fascination with competitive sports and explore their role in European societies from the late 19th century to the end of the Cold War through the lenses of empire, nation, class, race, and gender.