This course aims to offer an introduction to the urban sociology debate. In particular, the course will highlight the issues raised by contemporary urbanism in the context of advanced economics and it will focus on the relationship between the great social transformations occurred with post-industrial society and interesting modifications of the urban phenomenon. The course will be structured in two parts. A first part will be dedicated to teach the foundations of the urban  sociology while a second part will focused on two emerging issues for social workers: territorial fragility (group A) and housing vulnerability (group B). Students will have to choose only one of the two topics and select monographic reading list.

Group A; Natural disasters, space and social cohesion

Very often, it is thought that natural disaster is a topic that is not very linked to the social sciences. On the contrary, the territorialist sociology of disasters in Italy has long standing tradition and the first studies date back to the late '70s and concern the earthquake of Friuli. Although each disaster has a specific date and time, the disaster cycle consists of a pre-event (prevention and mitigation) and a post-event (response and recovery).  Furthermore, the impact that a disaster has on a territory does not only depend on physical factors but also on the capacity of the affected communities and how those are able to respond (and be prepared) to the catastrophic event. This capacity islinked to the social, economic and political history of the territory. Natural disasters amplify the social vulnerabilities of the territory, highlight the virtuous mechanisms and malfunctions of local governance systems and enhance social capital. Natural disasters can be very different (earthquakes, floods ...) but in any case the social dimension is always present and the relationship between place and community in every phase of the disaster is central.

 Group B:  city, neighbourhood and housing vulnerability

In the new millennium, the need for a home has once again become a social issue. The housing vulnerability includes new dimensions compared to the past. The housing vulnerability is no longer a question of a few individuals excluded from the system but a problem that invests an increasing number of families, trapped in a middle ground, defined as the gray area of ​​new housing policies. This gray area has income too high to be considered eligible for residential housing protection, and too weak to enter the private housing market. The housing demand has therefore changed and a set of public and non-public policies is being set up, able in part to respond to emerging needs. The multiplicity of actors involved, the variety of types of interventions and the complexity in identifying the need made it necessary to introduce a new paradigm of housing policies, often called social housing.