Educational Goals
The course has two main goals:
- to provide good knowledge of the main aspects and problems of political sociology;
- to provide a basic understanding of the theoretical tools, methodologies and techniques for the analysis of the relationships between politics and society.
These goals will be achieved through lectures, class activities, debating and case studies analysis.
Important
The course presents some topics close to that of Gender Politics, whose attendance is strongly recommended.
Teaching Method
Lectures, focused debating, papers presentation in class (online and on campus), exercises, case studies analysis.
Assessment method: test paper and papers discussed in class (online and on campus).
Exams
- Paper’s presentation in class (mandatory – 30%)
- Essay (max: 3,500 words – 40%)
- Final exam (Q&A: 30% – topics: books, lectures, paper presentation, essay)
1. Presentation in class
This assignment asks you to make an oral presentation, using ppt or similar, lasting about 20 minutes in which you report on the topic/s you received.
The presentation will be assessed in terms of (a) content, (b) organisation, (c) supporting materials, and (d) delivery.
2. Topics for essay
The essay’s length must be between 3,000 and 3,500 words.
It must be composed in Word format (.doc, .docx) and uploaded to the virtual class repository by 30 November 2020.
The suggested structure is the following:
- Introduction
- theoretical framework
- methodology (if the paper is based on a field research)
- findings and discussion
- conclusions
- bibliography.
The citation system must be “Harvard Citation System” (as described in “Final dissertation” page).
3. Final exam
An open-ended questionnaire.
4. Suggested reference books
Exams: not attending students
The final exam previews:
- Essay (as for the attending students)
- Final exam (Q&A) based on the three reference books and the article (the presentation in class is replaced by the third book).
| Essay | Presentation in class | Final exam | |
| Attending students | YES | YES | YES (on 2 books and some articles) |
| Not attending students | YES | NO | YES (on 3 books and an article) |
Reference Books and Articles (2020/2021)
- de Nardis, F. (2020) Understanding Politics and Society. London: Palgrave Macmillan.
- Blokker, P. and Anselmi, M. (Eds.) (2020) Multiple Populisms. Italy as Democracy’s Mirror. London: Routledge.
- De Blasio, E. and Sorice, M. (2019) E-Democracy and Digital Activism: From Divergent Paths Toward a New Frame. International Journal of Communication, 13: 5715-5733
- Articles and materials distributed by the teachers
Books at points 1 and 2 are also available as ebooks (Kindle, etc.); the article at point 3 is free for downloading (click the link)
For the reference readings of the academic year 2019/2020, please see “Reference readings”
The final exam will be based on the books and the articles (60%). The essay (40%) should be sent to the teacher at least ten days before the exam’s date.
- The essay’s length must be between 3,000 and 3,500 words.
- It must be composed in Word format (.doc, .docx) and sent to the teacher at least 10 days before the exam’s date.
- The topic can be cut from the course contents or constitute a deepening of the sub-topics (http://docenti.luiss.it/sorice/political-sociology/content/)
The suggested structure is the following:
- Introduction
- theoretical framework
- methodology (if the paper is based on field research)
- findings and discussion
- conclusions
- bibliography.
The citation system must be “Harvard Citation System” (as described in “Final dissertation” page)
EXAMS 2019/2020
I exam session
| First | Second | Third | |
| Test | 17.12.2019 | 22.01.2020 | 06.02.2020 |
II exam session
| First | |
| Test | 26.05.2020 |
III exam session
| First | |
| Test | 02.09.2020 |
Timetable
Beginning: 14 September 2020
Class activities
| *** | tbd | Room: tbd |
| *** | tbd | Room: tbd |