CLASSICAL AND CONTEMPORARY SOCIAL THEORY

Università degli Studi
"G. d'Annunzio"

Chieti - Pescara

Course Sheet

Course code:

STOSO

Academic Year of enrolment:

2019

Year of supply:

2019/2020

Divisions:

Cognomi N-Z

Type of Course:

Basic

Degree:

Course of 1st Cycle Degree in SOCIOLOGY AND CRIMINOLOGY

Disciplinary Sector:

GENERAL SOCIOLOGY

Is part of:

CLASSICAL AND CONTEMPORARY SOCIAL THEORY

Location:

CHIETI

Credits:

Programme Year:

Professor and Collaborators:

ALTOBELLI DARIO

Cycle:

Second semester

Hours of classroom activity:

Individual study hours:

102

Objectives

The aim of the course is to provide students with the contents and theoretical-conceptual tools for acquiring a solid knowledge base of sociological thought in its main expressions. The knowledge of general theories is always inserted in the historical-social and cultural context, with regard to national traditions, as a necessary background to understanding and study.
The monographic part consists, in this perspective, in a deepening of the Italian and European sociological reality between the late nineteenth and early twentieth century, with specific, but not exclusive, reference to the work and thought of Cesare Lombroso, aimed at the knowledge related to the birth of criminology and criminal sociology and anthropology.

Contents

The course of "History of Sociology" is aimed at the knowledge and study of the major classical and contemporary sociologists and of the main sociological theories.
The course is divided into a general part and a monographic part.
The general part concerns the knowledge of sociological thought in its main exponents and scholars.
The monographic part consists of a focus on the positivist “criminal sociology” with particular reference to the Italian panorama and to the work of Cesare Lombroso.

Extended Syllabus

The course offers a complete and reasoned review of the thought of the main sociologists and of the most important and influential sociological theories from the origins of the discipline to the contemporary age.
Specific attention is given to the definition of historical-social and cultural coordinates, with regard to national traditions, in the birth, affirmation and consolidation of sociological reflection and its applications.
The study of the sociological discipline is configured as a field of reflection that also concerns the neighboring territories of the other human and social sciences, including in particular cultural and social anthropology.
Special attention is given to the history and birth of the criminological disciplines by addressing and reflecting, in particular, but not only, on the work of Cesare Lombroso, the well-known founder of criminal anthropology whose thought, though much criticized, remains alive and present even in some of the more recent declinations of criminological discourse.

Recommended Bibliography

For attending students:
1. F. Crespi, Il pensiero sociologico, il Mulino, Bologna, 2018.
2. J.-M. Berthelot, La costruzione della sociologia, il Mulino, Bologna, 2008.
3. D. Altobelli, L’utile e il ragionevole. Saggio su Cesare Lombroso, Mimesis, 2017.
4. And a text chosen from the following:
- K. Marx, Antologia. Capitalismo, istruzioni per l’uso, Feltrinelli, 2015.
- Émile Durkheim, Il suicidio. Studio di sociologia, ed. or. 1909, several times published and marketed in Italian edition.
- M. Weber, L’etica protestante e lo spirito del capitalismo, ed. or. 1905, several times published and marketed in Italian edition.
- G. Simmel: both the two volumes indicated below:
1. Il conflitto della civiltà moderna, ed or. 1912. Various editions are available including Aragno edizioni, 2019 or SE, 2017.
2. Il dominio, Bulzoni, 2017.
- Th.W. Adorno, M. Horkheimer, Dialettica dell’illuminismo, ed. or 1947, Einaudi, 2010.
- T. Parsons, Teoria sociologica e società moderna, ed. or. 1967, Pgreco, 2015.
- E. Goffman: one of the two volumes indicated below:
1. Asylums. Le istituzioni totali: i meccanismi dell’esclusione e della violenza, ed. or. 1961, Einaudi, 2010.
2. Il comportamento in pubblico. L’interazione sociale nei luoghi di riunione, ed. or. 1963, Einaudi, 2019.
- J. Habermas, Storia e critica dell’opinione pubblica, ed. or. 1962; Laterza, varie edizioni nel tempo.
- N. Luhmann, Potere e complessità sociale, ed. or. 1979, Il Saggiatore, 2012.

For non-attending students, in addition to the volumes indicated in points 1-4, it must be added:
5. A. Bixio, Profilo storico del pensiero sociologico, Tangram, 2013 (paper edition) or Giappichelli, 2015 (digital edition).

Teaching Methods

Lectures, use of ppt, any audiovisual aids useful for understanding the course contents.

Evaluation methods

Verification of learning:

Oral exams with grades expressed in thirtieths.

Università degli Studi
"G. d'Annunzio"

Chieti - Pescara

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