Teaching and Assessment

 Educational Goals

The course has two main goals:

  1. to provide good knowledge of the main aspects and problems of political sociology;
  2. 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, exercises, case studies analysis.

Assessment method: test paper and papers discussed in class.

 

International Chairs

The chair of Political Sociology takes part in the “International Chairs Project”. In the frame of this project, some lectures will be held by Professor Darren Lilleker (Bournemouth University, UK). Prof. Lilleker is Director of the Centre for Public Communication Research at BU and he is one of the most important British scholars in Political Communication and Media and Democracy.

 

Exams

  1. Paper’s presentation in class (mandatory – 30%)
  2. Essay (max: 3,500 words – 40%)
  3. 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 2018.

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

See “Reference readings”

 

Exams: not attending students

The final exam previews:

  1. Essay (as for the attending students)
  2. 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 an article)
Not attending students  YES  NO YES (on 3 books and an article)

 

Reference Books and Articles

  1. Clemens, E. S. (2016) What is Political Sociology? Cambridge: Polity.
  2. Wilson, J. and Swyngedouw E. (2015) The Post-Political and Its Discontents. Spaces of Depoliticisation, Spectres of Radical Politics. Edinburgh: Edinburgh University Press.
  3. De Blasio, E. and Sorice, M. (2018) Populism among technology, e-democracy and the depoliticisation process. Revista Internacional de Sociologìa, 76(4), e109.
  4. della Porta, D., Fernandez, J., Kouki, H. and Mosca, L. (2017) Movement Parties Against Austerity. Cambridge: Polity.

 

The final exam will be based on the three books and the article (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

III exam session

First
Test

Timetable

Beginning:  18 September 2019

Class activities

 Wednesday  14:30 – 16:30  Room: tbd
 Thursday  8:30 – 11:00  Room: tbd

 

Warning! The inaugural lecture will be held on Wednesday 18 September at 9:00 (not at 14:30)