Sociology

GIUSEPPE RICOTTA
GIUSEPPE RICOTTA

1. Knowledge and understanding: after having passed the exam students should have advanced knowledge of sociological theory and empirical research in the “classic” as well as in the contemporary perspective.
2. Applying knowledge and understanding: after having passed the exam students should be able to plan and accomplish a research project endowed with a sound theoretical frame as well as using both qualitative and quantitative techniques.
3. Critical faculties should be developed through class debates applying sociological theories to contemporary social issues
4. Communications skills. The ability to communicate what was learned should be developed through questions, set speeches, classroom discussions.
5. Learning skills. The ability to continue studying the topics should be developed through the ability of understanding complex texts and expressing themselves (through both a verbal and written communication) at an adequate complexity level as well. Singling out texts and other sources, providing a bibliography, recording books and papers are desirable tools for that.

Upon completing the course, students will be familiar with the main currents of contemporary sociological theory — theories of modernity and globalization, feminist theories, critical race and postcolonial theories, post-structuralist and postmodern approaches, and the sociological analysis of the nexus between science, technology, and nature — and will be able to apply them:

To critically analyze contemporary social phenomena, with a particular focus on the intersection of gender, racialization, and migration policies in Europe.

To problematize the sociological canon itself through a decolonial lens, identifying the hierarchies of gender, race, and coloniality implicit in seemingly neutral categories such as modernity, development, citizenship, and social stratification.

It is recommended to have already passed the following courses/exams:
istituzioni di sociologia - storia della sociologia - introduzione alla ricerca sociale - metodologia e tecnica della ricerca sociale

The course is structured into three sequential modules:

Module 1 — Imaginaries and Narratives of Global Modernity: Contemporary theories of modernity and globalization theories (Ritzer, Stepnisky, Ch. 14, 16).

Module 2 — Gender, Race, Coloniality, and Social Stratification: Contemporary feminist theory, theories of race and colonialism, and critical approaches to social stratification (Ritzer, Stepnisky, Ch. 12, 15; G. Ricotta, paper). Applied case study: Femonationalism and European migration policies, analyzed through in-class group work (S. Farris, Femonazionalismo).

Module 3 — Contemporary Theoretical Turns (9 ECTS only): Structuralism, post-structuralism, and postmodern social theory; Science, technology, and nature (Ritzer, Stepnisky, Ch. 17–18).

- G. Ritzer, J. Stepnisky, Teoria sociologica (Italian 2nd edition, ed. by S. Tomelleri), UTET Università, Novara, 2025 — custom course pack in Italian provided by the publisher (in preparation), Chs. 1, 2, 3, 4, 5, 6 (formerly Chs. 12, 14, 15, 16, 17, 18 in the original edition).

- Sara R. Farris, In the Name of Women's Rights: The Rise of Femonationalism, Duke University Press, 2017 (Italian edition: Femonazionalismo. Il razzismo nel nome delle donne, Edizioni Alegre, 2019) — full reading.

- Giuseppe Ricotta, "Stratificazione sociale e colonialità. Appunti per una lettura decoloniale del canone sociologico" [Social Stratification and Coloniality: Notes for a Decolonial Reading of the Sociological Canon], Sociologia Classica Contemporanea, Vol. I, No. 1, 2025 (open access).

Lectures, complemented by seminar-style sessions and in-class group work activities on the second text.

Not mandatory. Students who do not attend take the exam under the same conditions as attending students, with one exception: the in-class group work on Farris, Femonationalism requires classroom presence; non-attending students bring the text to the oral exam instead, with an individual discussion that replaces the group-work component at the same weight.

The final grade is the arithmetic mean, equally weighted, of three components:
– Multiple-choice progress test on Ritzer/Stepnisky ch. 12, 14, 15, 16 and on Ricotta's essay (individual grade, 1/3)
– In-class group work on Farris, Femonationalism, with an assessed output (group grade, 1/3)
– Individual oral presentation at the exam on a topic or author chosen from ch. 17-18 (individual grade, 1/3)

Students who do not attend take the exam under the same conditions as attending students, with one exception: the in-class group work on Farris, Femonationalism requires classroom presence; non-attending students bring the text to the oral exam instead, with an individual discussion that replaces the group-work component at the same weight.

Additionally, students who miss or do not pass the mid-term exam can cover the corresponding course material in the oral exam during the regular exam sessions.