Sociology for sustainability and analysis of global processes

Applied social research techniques. Purposes and types of applied social research. Data collection and analysis techniques for applied social research. Applied social research aimed at evaluating social policies, well-being, sustainability and quality of life. Phases and contexts of applied social research. Programs, projects, interventions: macro-meso-micro contexts of applied research. Products, results, effects and impacts. Evaluation and assessment. A pragmatist-constructivist approach to applied social research. Evaluative research as applied social research. Participative evaluation research. The process of operationalization. Information and secondary data. Reliability and validity problems. The quasi-experimental approach and counterfactual analysis. Multicriteria-multitechnical approach. The survey with a questionnaire. Study cases. Definition of indicator. Subjective and structural indicators, individual and ecological. Social indicators and social policies.

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1. Di Franco G., 2006, Corrispondenze multiple e altre tecniche di analisi multivariata per variabili categoriali. Milano, Franco Angeli. 2. Di Franco G., 2016, I modelli di equazioni strutturali: concetti, strumenti e applicazioni, Milano, Franco Angeli. 3. An article chosen among those used in the workshop activities (non-attending students can find the articles and other teaching materials distributed during the course by consulting the calendar of lessons reported in the classroom).

Attendance to the course, although not compulsory, is strongly recommended for having the opportunity to carry out the workshop activity.

To pass the exam you must obtain a grade of not less than 18/30. During the regular attendance of the course and with the drafting of a written report to be presented to the teacher at the end of the course, the student must demonstrate that he has acquired sufficient knowledge of the main topics of the research methodology and techniques of applied social sciences, a knowledge basic multivariate analysis procedures and to be able to identify the salient features of empirical research in the social sciences. To achieve the highest marks (30/30) the student must demonstrate that he has acquired excellent knowledge of all the topics covered during the course, being able to link them in a logical and coherent way and demonstrating the acquisition of a language property in the field of applied social research.

The course, through a didactic type of teaching, involves the learning of contents simulating practical-applicative exercises, starting from simulations of concrete cases of applied empirical research.