SOCIOLOGIA GENERALE

The class has the explicit goal of providing students with the main foundations of sociology as the science studying society in a theoretical and empirical way. It will be provided a brief introduction to the different elements and fields of application of sociological knowledge: the dialectic between society and culture, the sociological concept of the individual and collective social actors, the notion of social structure both as institution and organization. Also, it will be introduced the notions of social change and social process from the of the classics' point of view as well as providing the necessary knowledge for learning the sociological thought history. Moreover, the class aim at training students to the methods and techniques of sociological research, making use of the research approach of who continually throwing doubt on the validity and reliability of the object to explain social phenomena; good knowledge of methods and tools for social research will therefore be essential to learn the construction of the research design, in both standard and non-standard approach. Finally, to complete the above work it’s proposed an insight of the most important American and European collective action theories, in order to provide students with a general framework on the various collective phenomena and suitable methodological approaches in contemporary society.

The monographic section will be focused on the issue of second-generation immigrants; the aim is to analyze the present-day position of young second-generation immigrants in Italy and Sicily, specifying and discussing the main issues arising from the emergence of this important social category, both from an institutional and cultural point of view, with particular regard to the Italian citizenship law issue.

The course will be divided into lectures and a series of seminar meetings on the main topics of the program. It will be also scheduled ongoing evaluations.

If teaching is given in a mixed or remote mode, the necessary changes may be introduced with respect to what was previously stated, in order to respect the program reported in the syllabus.

INSTITUTIONAL SECTION: 1) What is society?; Individual and collective social actors, and identity; Social structures: institution and organization. 2) The relationship between theory and research; Emile Durkheim; Georg Simmel; Karl Marx; Max Weber; The symbolic interactionism; The theories of social action. 3) Methodological aspects and functions of sociological research; Developing research questions; Comparing quantitative and qualitative methods; The sampling; The interview; Questionnaire and survey. 4) Collective action as a social process; Discontinuity and continuity in collective action; Models of rationality in collective action; Social movements as empirical referents; Collective action and methods of investigation; Concluding hypotheses. MONOGRAPHIC SECTION: 5) Introduction to the Second generation migrants' issues; the issue of citizenship; Life paths, identities at the border and forms of belongings; Cases and contexts: family, school, religion, and sport.

Titles translated from the Italian editions, not edited in the English language.

1) Crespi F., Introduction to sociology, il Mulino, 2002, Bologna, pp. 37-129.

2) Crespi F., The sociological thought, il Mulino, 2002, Bologna, pp. 9-76; 89-110; 159-167; 195-229; 265-277.

3) Daher L.M., Notes on sociological research methods (pamphlet online).

4) Daher L.M., Collective action. Theory and research, FrancoAngeli, 2021, Milano or the first edition: Daher L.M., Collective action. Theory and issues, FrancoAngeli, 2002, Milano, pp. 13-108.

5) Daher L.M., (a cura di), “Migrants” second generation: new citizens in search of identity, Aracne, 2012, Roma.