Sociology of Cultural Processes
A.Y. 2020/2021
Learning objectives
To offer an understanding of the main fundamental concepts of sociology, with special reference to the sociology of culture.
Expected learning outcomes
Master the basic concepts of sociology, acquire the main analytical frameworks for socio-cultural analysis and obtain relevant insights as to their deployment for socio-cultural analysis as related to key empirical phenomena in contemporary society.
Lesson period: First semester
Assessment methods: Esame
Assessment result: voto verbalizzato in trentesimi
Single course
This course cannot be attended as a single course. Please check our list of single courses to find the ones available for enrolment.
Course syllabus and organization
A-K
Responsible
Lesson period
First semester
The course will take place entirely remotely. A videotaped lesson uploaded to Moodle and a synchronous lesson on Teams are therefore foreseen, with links to the live broadcast always accessible through the Moodle platform. The aim of the synchronous lessons is to encourage dialogue between students and teachers, keeping in mind the limits of the large numbers of the course, through moments of collective clarification on the work done at home on the assigned material and the use of instant survey tools, creation of wordclouds and other activities all available through Moodle, a platform to which you must log in with your account before the course. For those attending, the learning verification activities (see details in the dedicated section) will be ongoing, on a weekly basis, through tests on the Moodle platform, small group work around the study texts, and a small empirical research exercise by submit to the teacher in the windows provided before each exam session.
Attending students will have to examine the asynchronous lesson every week, read the material made available by the teachers on the Moodle platform and work on it according to the modalities that will be indicated during the course, in groups of 10 people always created through Moodle. The questions and reflections developed in the work at home will form the basis on which the next synchronous lesson will take place. The amount of weekly readings will be about 50/55 pages, divided between reading the textbook and reading material provided by the teacher lesson by lesson.
Non-attending students will find the asynchronous and synchronous lessons recorded on Moodle, together with the rest of the material made available (reading material, power points, links to external resources, etc.)
Attending students will have to examine the asynchronous lesson every week, read the material made available by the teachers on the Moodle platform and work on it according to the modalities that will be indicated during the course, in groups of 10 people always created through Moodle. The questions and reflections developed in the work at home will form the basis on which the next synchronous lesson will take place. The amount of weekly readings will be about 50/55 pages, divided between reading the textbook and reading material provided by the teacher lesson by lesson.
Non-attending students will find the asynchronous and synchronous lessons recorded on Moodle, together with the rest of the material made available (reading material, power points, links to external resources, etc.)
Course syllabus
The course intends to provide some theoretical and practical tools to investigate cultural processes in everyday life. The program is divided into two parts. In the first part a path is proposed that starts from the notion of culture and focuses on its incorporation, on the formation of classification categories, on the work of common sense, on the social construction of tastes, hierarchies, symbolic boundaries, the relationship with sexuality and the construction of gender and body techniques, allowing to study culture in action in the different areas of social life. In the second part, through a reference to classical and contemporary studies, we will focus on temporal, spatial and corporeal practices, touching on themes such as the construction of borders, the sense of living, the relationship between social times and subjective times, collective memory , the social significance of age and generations, the social processes that regulate birth and death, making use of examples taken from films and novels and dynamics of specific social fields such as, for example, the arts, leisure, consumption. In summary, we will try to read in a sociological key the different connotations that the concept of culture assumes and its connections with the multiple spheres of everyday reality.
Prerequisites for admission
Good knowledge in the humanities, curiosity and aptitude to observe and describe the world.
Teaching methods
The course will follow a flipped mode. The main educational reference platform will be Moodle. Inside it will be published from time to time activities and useful materials for each lesson, the recorded video lessons and the links to the Teams platform, which will be used for the use of the lessons in synchronous mode. The Ariel educational platform will only be used as a "Mirror" platform for storing basic information and notices
The general structure of the lessons will therefore be as follows:
- Wednesday: synchronous lesson. The lesson will focus on the clarification of doubts and on some ideas emerged from the reading of the texts (and related homeworks) as well as from the vision of the video lesson of the previous week. Through instant survey tools and other interactive tools we take an inductive look at the main contents of the lesson that will follow
- Thursday: asynchronous video lesson in which topics of the course are illustrated in a frontal way accompanied by texts, slides and any video material
The general structure of the lessons will therefore be as follows:
- Wednesday: synchronous lesson. The lesson will focus on the clarification of doubts and on some ideas emerged from the reading of the texts (and related homeworks) as well as from the vision of the video lesson of the previous week. Through instant survey tools and other interactive tools we take an inductive look at the main contents of the lesson that will follow
- Thursday: asynchronous video lesson in which topics of the course are illustrated in a frontal way accompanied by texts, slides and any video material
Teaching Resources
Mario de Benedittis, Sociologia della cultura, Roma-Bari, Laterza, 2013.
Reading materials provided by the teacher lesson by lesson (total: around 400 pages)
Reading materials provided by the teacher lesson by lesson (total: around 400 pages)
Assessment methods and Criteria
The evaluation of those who choose to attend the course will be the result of a weighting of three tests, according to the percentage values expressed in brackets:
- Test (40%): students will perform a short closed-ended test every week for a total of 9 tests. The grade will consist of the average of the 6 tests that obtained the best results, where at least 4 are sufficient. If a student is overall insufficient in this phase, he / she will have to take the entire exam in the manner prescribed by the non-attending course
- Group work (20%): every week, starting from the essays read, the manual and the asynchronous lesson of the previous week, the group will have to post a short output on the moodle platform whose specifications will be provided at the beginning of the course, which will be part of what will be commented during the synchronous lessons. At the end of the entire course, two of these works will be evaluated for each group: one chosen by the group itself, one drawn by the teacher from the rest (the first will not be evaluated, serving as a "training ground" to learn what is required)
- Individual paper (40%): (precise information on the number of pages etc. will be provided at the time of assignment of the task, at the end of the course) to be submitted at least 15 days before the exam session in which you intend to participate. The essay will focus on the sociologically oriented analysis of a personal situation of daily life, through the use of the concepts examined during the course, referring to the essays and materials previously analyzed
Non-attending students will be assessed on the same program as attending students: the text indicated in the bibliography and the reading material published on Moodle. The exam will consist of a two-part test. The first part will consist of a test of closed-ended questions aimed at evaluating the knowledge of all the bibliographic material in the program, the reading material and the contents of the loaded video lessons. This part of the exam is to be considered preparatory to the continuation of the test: a negative evaluation, therefore, will result in failure to pass the exam. The second part of the exam will consist of two open questions to be carried out over two hours. In the first, students will be provided with a text to comment. In the second, you will be asked to analyze a situation of everyday life using the concepts learned during the course. The final grade will consist of 40% of the result of the written question, 30% of the answer to the first open question and 30% of the answer to the second.
- Test (40%): students will perform a short closed-ended test every week for a total of 9 tests. The grade will consist of the average of the 6 tests that obtained the best results, where at least 4 are sufficient. If a student is overall insufficient in this phase, he / she will have to take the entire exam in the manner prescribed by the non-attending course
- Group work (20%): every week, starting from the essays read, the manual and the asynchronous lesson of the previous week, the group will have to post a short output on the moodle platform whose specifications will be provided at the beginning of the course, which will be part of what will be commented during the synchronous lessons. At the end of the entire course, two of these works will be evaluated for each group: one chosen by the group itself, one drawn by the teacher from the rest (the first will not be evaluated, serving as a "training ground" to learn what is required)
- Individual paper (40%): (precise information on the number of pages etc. will be provided at the time of assignment of the task, at the end of the course) to be submitted at least 15 days before the exam session in which you intend to participate. The essay will focus on the sociologically oriented analysis of a personal situation of daily life, through the use of the concepts examined during the course, referring to the essays and materials previously analyzed
Non-attending students will be assessed on the same program as attending students: the text indicated in the bibliography and the reading material published on Moodle. The exam will consist of a two-part test. The first part will consist of a test of closed-ended questions aimed at evaluating the knowledge of all the bibliographic material in the program, the reading material and the contents of the loaded video lessons. This part of the exam is to be considered preparatory to the continuation of the test: a negative evaluation, therefore, will result in failure to pass the exam. The second part of the exam will consist of two open questions to be carried out over two hours. In the first, students will be provided with a text to comment. In the second, you will be asked to analyze a situation of everyday life using the concepts learned during the course. The final grade will consist of 40% of the result of the written question, 30% of the answer to the first open question and 30% of the answer to the second.
SPS/08 - SOCIOLOGY OF CULTURE AND COMMUNICATION - University credits: 6
Lessons: 40 hours
Professor:
De Benedittis Mario
L-Z
Lesson period
First semester
The course will be held by online synchronous online lectures using Teams. Attending students must refer to all the lessons, materials and resources published on Ariel. The exam is oral and takes place in Teams
Course syllabus
The first part of the course will propose a general framework on the main theories on sociology of culture. More specifically we will analyse: the meaning of culture from a sociological point of view, the social construction of taste, the symbolic conflicts.
In the second part we will focus on the cultural aspects of the digital mediascape.
In the second part we will focus on the cultural aspects of the digital mediascape.
Prerequisites for admission
None
Teaching methods
Lectures, powerpoint presentations
Teaching Resources
Bibliography
- Mario de Benedittis, Sociologia della cultura, Roma-Bari, Laterza, 2013
- Pierre Bourdieu, Sul concetto di campo in sociologia, Roma, Armando editore
- Alessandro Lolli, La guerra dei meme, Effequ, 2017
- Filippo Domaneschi, Insultare gli altri, Einuadi, 2020
- Mario de Benedittis, Sociologia della cultura, Roma-Bari, Laterza, 2013
- Pierre Bourdieu, Sul concetto di campo in sociologia, Roma, Armando editore
- Alessandro Lolli, La guerra dei meme, Effequ, 2017
- Filippo Domaneschi, Insultare gli altri, Einuadi, 2020
Assessment methods and Criteria
Final written exam. For those attending the lessons there will be the option, at the first session, to do a presentation arranged with the teacher. In this case both the presentation and the written exam will contribute to the final grade.
SPS/08 - SOCIOLOGY OF CULTURE AND COMMUNICATION - University credits: 6
Lessons: 40 hours
Professor:
Ricci Oscar
Professor(s)
Reception:
Tuesday 14.30-16.30 and wednesday 14.30-15.30 by appointment via email
1st floor, room 1044 (Sesto)