Sociology

This course introduces concepts used in sociology and anthropology and trains how to use those concepts in analyzing social institutions and processes. Students relate their experiences in society to the discipline of sociology. Topics include: the logic and methods of social investigation; family, work, and organization; power and the state; social inequality (including gender and ethnicity); mass communication and popular culture; values and beliefs; and deviance and social control.

Just as much as the city is a physical reality we all deal with in our daily lives, it is, and always has been, an idea. From ancient history onwards, planned cities (Caliph Al-Mansur's legendary Round City of Baghdad, Brasília) were thought up before they were built, and many cities of the imagination, such as Jonathan Swift's magnetic island of Laputa, were never built at all. While the biblical New Jerusalem was meant to inspire awe and glorify God, and Renaissance utopias illustrated a particular type of social organization, the modern imaginary cities that can be found in experimental urban planning, in literature and film offer a critique of contemporary urban life or serve as models for change. This course explores the history of the imaginary city from ancient times to the present, highlights a number of historical futuristic concepts such as Constant's New Babylon, and explores ideas ranging from a "velotopia" to the libertarian dream of seasteading. Student presentations round out the discussion by "visiting" imaginary cities in literature, film, land art, and gaming.

This is a graduate level course that is part of the Laurea Magistrale program. The course is intended for advanced level students only. Enrollment is by consent of the instructor. This course analyzes the way the western media covers the developing world and the humanitarian emergencies. Specifically the course explores the emerging and historical humanitarian narratives, with particular reference to the way in which the activities of NGOs are reported; how we understand and explain faraway disasters; how the media representations of suffering and violence has changed in the post-cold war period and in the digital era; the relationship between media, aid, corporate communication, and branding; and the relationship between power, media, and migration. This course encourages students to think sociologically about a range of issues and “social problems” related to the different ways in which media is used to report on humanitarian situations, and what impact this has. It also serves as an introduction to some important themes and issues within humanitarianism and migration. Areas under study include: the construction of “social problems,” media, ethics, human rights, disaster relief, war, famine, refugee camps, social movements, and NGOs.  A special focus is dedicated to the mediated performances that contribute to create the spectacle of the humanitarian border, which is physically and symbolically enacted by the different actors involved in contemporary management of migration. Moving from the assumption that our awareness of nearly all humanitarian issues is defined by the media, this course looks at the literature associated with humanitarian organizations and the NGO narratives, tracing the imagined and real encounters between solidarity, participation, and citizenship in the context of larger social processes of mediation and globalization. Examining humanitarian communication through various forms of aesthetic activism - documentary, photojournalism, benefit concerts, celebrities, and live blogging, the course explores how the circulation of humanitarian images and narratives impact the peoples it aims to serve, and what can be learned about global inequality from the stories associated with it. The course also focuses on how several news media framed Covid-19 as an invisible enemy, using metaphor of war to describe the current situation. The definition of the emergency as a war conducts inevitably to the identification of an enemy. The hyper-visibility of the war against this invisible enemy leads to a generalized fear of ‘the others’ and to the identification of this invisibility in visible bodies. Finally, the course reflects on long-term implications of the pandemic on mobility justice and what Mbembe (2020) has defined the “right to breath.” There are two versions of this course; this course, UCEAP Course Number 169A and Bologna course number 81782, is associated with the LM in Language, Society and Communication degree programme. The other version, UCEAP Course Number 169B and Bologna course number 75073, is associated with the LM in Sociology and Social Work and LM in Local and Global Development degree programmes.

The course discusses important issues in contemporary Japanese society, fostering a critical stance towards discourses around Japanese society. The course covers topics such as the low birthrate and aging society; rural and urban Japan; gender, sex, marriage, childbirth, and family; rituals, festivals, and traditions; education and media; the military, police and the prison system, and work and leisure. 

This course introduces the history of concepts of gender and sexuality, and covers topics such as heterosexuality, homosexuality, sex education, women’s emancipation, masculinity, prostitution, pornography, sexual nationalism, and transgenderism. It uses a diverse range of teaching methods including group work, movie screenings, and lectures. The course focuses on Denmark, but also studies how Denmark relates and compares to the rest of the world. The course does not require previous knowledge of theories of gender and sexuality and provides the opportunity to share knowledge of students' respective home countries in an academic setting.

Islam has become the subject of public debates and discourses in the Western World as well as a core research topic within various disciplines in the social sciences. This course takes a closer look at Muslims and Islam in Europe and tries to analyze and discuss the present condition of Muslims living in Europe from a socio-anthropological perspective. In order to do so, Islam is first introduced from a general perspective; students also visit a representative mosque in Berlin. The first sessions of the course provide an overview of theories of cultural difference and secularism. Having this theoretical lens in mind, the following sessions look at various public discourses regarding Islam and Muslims in Europe. Here issues such as Muslim-state relations, gender, policies, and religious practices of Muslims in Europe are examined and accompanied by a critical analysis of certain public controversies concerning Islam.