THEORY AND METHODS OF SOCIOLOGICAL RESEARCH

The class’s main objective is to provide students with the fundamental theoretical and empirical foundations of sociology. It therefore aims to offer an overview of the classics of sociology and some of the main contemporary sociological theories, as well as to introduce students to the principal methods and techniques of sociological research.

The following learning outcomes are expected to be achieved:

1.     Knowledge and understanding: to demonstrate knowledge and understanding that extend and/or reinforce those acquired during the first cycle of studies, with the aim of developing and/or applying original ideas within a process of speculative and/or applied research.

2.     Applying knowledge and understanding: to be able to use one’s knowledge, understanding, and skills to solve problems in unfamiliar and/or unconventional contexts, including interdisciplinary settings.

3.     Making judgements: to be able to integrate knowledge in order to manage complexity and to formulate judgements even on the basis of limited or incomplete information, including reflection on the social, scientific, or ethical responsibilities connected to the application of one’s knowledge and judgements.

4.     Communication skills: to acquire the ability to communicate one’s conclusions clearly and unambiguously, as well as the underlying knowledge and reasoning, to both specialist and non-specialist audiences.

5.     Learning skills: to develop learning skills that enable a self-directed or autonomous course of study.

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.

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 exponents of contemporary society (Pierre Bourdieu, Raymond Boudon, Anthony Giddens); 3) Aspects and functions of sociological research; Developing research questions; Comparing quantitative and qualitative methods; The sampling; The interview; Questionnaire and survey.  MONOGRAPHIC SECTION: 4) Defining social movements; Conceptualization dilemmas; The Italian empirical research; 4) Reading of a classic of sociology (see texts below). 

1) Coser L.A., Masters of sociological thought. Ideas in historical and social contexts. New York: Hartcourt 1971.

2) Bryman A., Social research methods, Oxford: Oxford University Press 2012.

3) Staggenborg S., Social movements, New York: Oxford University Press 2016.

4)  Simmel G, Fashion, The American Journal of Sociology, Volume LXII, 6, 1957.

The assessment of the examination will take into account the candidate's competency in content and skills, linguistic fluency and lexical propriety, as well as his/her argumentation ability and critical thinking 

Sample questions

The notion of interpretative interaction, according to Blumer, tends to:

a. make people the same

b. make people different

c. give the image of the group

Simon distinguishes the concept of rationality in:

a. simple and complex

b. substantive and procedural

c. economic and social

What does Durkheim mean by "social morphology"?

a) A series of elements connected to the space in which the company was structured;

b) A series of elements connected to the single individuals that make up society;

c) A series of elements related to time.

The interview aims to:

a) investigate emotions;

b) evaluate skills;

c) collect situations, behaviors, attitudes, and opinions.

What did the school represent for Marx in bourgeois society?

a) The expression of the ideologies of the ruling classes and had no other function than to reproduce the established order;

b) The place par excellence where it was possible to possess a critical reworking of traditional culture;

c) The place where meanings are reproduced