Topic outline
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The course provides a general overview of some of the most relevant current debates in social
science. Every lecture is focused on a different topic and aims at highlighting the main questions scholars are dealing with, explaining the main approaches and theories involved, and presenting some recent research. In some cases, the lecture is organized as a debate between two or more scholars presenting different and/or opposite perspectives on the same phenomenon. The topics chosen for the current year are the following: the social and economic impact of globalization; individualization and the redefinition of social ties; ethnic differences in labor market and society; secularization; working in the service society; behavioral genetics and social processes; measuring well-being; hybrid organizations.Requirements
Students are expected to do the required readings prior to each lecture, and to participate actively in class discussions. As the final assignment of the course, students are required to choose one of the eight topics presented during the course and write a five-page paper presenting the debate and reviewing the relevant literature.
Grading
Final course grades are determined as follows: 50% class participation; 50% final paper.
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5. Randomized controlled trials in sociological research: revival of a valid method or positivistic drift? (March the 3rd 10-13)
Instructors
Gianluca Argentin and Rosaria Lumino
Contents
Causal inference and its threats: selection and natural trend – The strengths of randomized controlled trials – Social settings and threats to the experimental method – Social research and ethical issues – Causal inference and the complexity of social mechanisms – Mechanisms’ embeddedness: the relevance of social contexts – Uninformative null effects – Narrow causal view towards unexpected effects
Required readings
P.J. Gertler et ALII (2011), Impact evaluation in practice, Washington DC: The World Bank (chapters 3 and 4) - https://openknowledge.worldbank.org/handle/10986/2550
Additional readings
Jackson M. e Cox D.R. (2013) "The Principles of Experimental Design and Their Application in Sociology". In: Annual Review of Sociology 39:1, 27-49
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Instructor
Patrizia Farina (patrizia.farina@unimib.it).Contents
Beyond the economic indicators – Measuring well-being in developed countries – Comparing subjective and objective indicators – Validity, limits, and different approaches to defining and measuring well-being.Compulsory readings
Stiglitz, J.E., Sen, A., and Fitoussi, J.-P. (eds.) (2009), Report by the Commission on the Measurement of Economic Performance and Social Progress.
Jordá, V. and Sarabia, J.M. (2015), International convergence in well-being indicators, Social Indicators Research, 120, 1, pp. 1-27.Additional (not compulsory) readings
Bradshaw, J., Hoelscher, P., and Richardson, D. (2007), An index of child well-being in the European Union, Social Indicators Research, 80, 1, pp. 133-177.
Van Zanden, J.L., Baten, J., Mira d’Ercole, M., Rijpma, A., Smith, C., and Timmer, M. (eds.) (2014), How Was Life? Global Well-Being since 1820, Paris: OECD Publishing. -
Instructor
Carmen Leccardi (carmen.leccardi@unimib.it).Contents
Individualization as institutionalized process – “Individualized” biographies – New cultural politics of individualism – Information and communication technologies and individualization – The culture of short-termism and individualization – Individualization as “singularity” and the redefinition of social ties.Compulsory readings
Beck, U. and Beck-Gernsheim, E. (2002), Individualization: Institutionalized Individualism and Its Social and Political Consequences, Thousand Oaks, CA: Sage.
Elliott, A. and Lemert, C. (2006), The New Individualism: The Emotional Costs of Globalization, Abingdon: Routledge.
Elliott, A. and Lemert, C. (2009), The global new individualist debate: Three theories of individualism and beyond, in Identity in Question, ed. by A. Elliott and P. du Gay, Thousand Oaks, CA: Sage, pp. 37-64.Additional (not compulsory) readings
Martuccelli, D. (2010), La société singulariste, Paris: Armand Colin.
Turkle, S. (2012), Alone Together: Why We Expect More from Technology and Less from Each Other, New York, NY: Basic Books.
Rosa, H. (2009), Social acceleration: Ethical and political consequences of a desynchronized high-speed society, in High-Speed Society: Social Acceleration, Power, and Modernity, ed. by H. Rosa and W.E. Scheuerman, University Park, PA: The Pennsylvania State University Press, pp. 77-111. -
Instructors
Ivana Fellini (ivana.fellini@unimib.it), Giovanna Fullin (giovanna.fullin@unimib.it).Contents
Upgrading or polarization? – Employment structure of European countries – Front line service jobs – Working conditions and job satisfaction in service jobs.Compulsory readings
Oesch, D. (2015), Welfare regimes and change in the employment structure: Britain, Denmark and Germany since 1990, Journal of European Social Policy, 25, 1, pp. 94-110.Fellini, I., Fullin, G. (2018), Employment change, institutions and migrant labour: the Italian case in comparative perspective, in Stato e Mercato, n. 113, pp. 293-330.
Korczynski, M. (2009), The mystery customer: Continuing absences in the sociology of service work, Sociology, 43, 5, pp. 952-967.
Additional (not compulsory) readings
Bélanger, J. and Edwards, P. (2013), The nature of front-line service work: Distinctive features and continuity in the employment relationship, Work, Employment & Society, 27, 3, pp. 433-450. -
Instructors
Ilenya Camozzi (ilenya.camozzi@unimib.it), Ivana Fellini (ivana.fellini@unimib.it).Contents
Ethnic penalties – Immigrants’ occupational segregation – Second generation.Compulsory readings
Colombo, E., Leonini, L., and Rebughini, P. (2009), Different but not stranger: Everyday collective identifications among adolescent children of immigrants in Italy, Journal of Ethnic and Migration Studies, 35, 1, pp. 37-59.
Panichella, N. (2018). Economic Crisis and Occupational Integration of Recent Immigrants in
Western Europe, International Sociology, 33 (1), pp. 64-85.Additional (not compulsory) readings
Portes, A., Fernandez-Kelly, P., and Haller, W. (2005), Segmented assimilation on the ground: The new second generation in early adulthood, Ethnic and Racial Studies, 28, 6, pp. 1000-1040.Reyneri E. and Fullin G. (2011), Labour Market Penalties of New Immigrants in New and Old
Receiving West European Countries, in International migration, 49 (1), pp. 31-57. -
Instructors
Marco Gui (marco.gui@unimib.it).Contents
- Social inequality at the end of the 20th century– The expectations concerning digital media and social inequality
– “Haves” and “have nots” – From “digital divide” to “digital inequality” (the “second level digital divide”)
– Outcomes of Internet use (the “third level digital divide”)
– Digital overuse and social inequality– What can be done and what social scientists can do
Compulsory readings
Van Deursen, A. J., Helsper, E., Eynon, R., & Van Dijk, J. A. (2017). The compoundness and sequentiality of digital inequality. International Journal of Communication, 11, 452-473.
Gui, M., & Büchi, M. (2021). From use to overuse: Digital inequality in the age of communication abundance. Social Science Computer Review, 39(1), 3-19.
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Instructors
Andrea Fracasso (andrea.fracasso@unitn.it)Contents
Globalization; Global value chains; Is globalization a win-win solution?; Unilateralism; Weaponized interdependence (Sanctions and friendly-fire: self-inflicted pain; Diversion; Extraterritorial effects of sanctions)
Compulsory readings
Cohen, H. G. (2020), Nations and Markets, Journal of International Economic Law 23(4), 793-815WTO (2017), Global value chain development Report 2017, Geneva (chapter 1).
Additional (not compulsory) readings
WTO (2019) Global value chain development Report 2019, Geneva (chapter 2)
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3. Workplace well-being and digital technologies: from welfare to control in contemporary organizations (January 21st, 14.30-17.30)