Unit SOCIOLOGY OF SOCIAL NETWORKS
- Course
- Social policies and social work
- Study-unit Code
- A001415
- Curriculum
- Impresa sociale
- Teacher
- Lorenzo Bruni
- Teachers
-
- Lorenzo Bruni
- Hours
- 42 ore - Lorenzo Bruni
- CFU
- 6
- Course Regulation
- Coorte 2021
- Offered
- 2022/23
- Learning activities
- Affine/integrativa
- Area
- Attività formative affini o integrative
- Academic discipline
- SPS/07
- Type of study-unit
- Opzionale (Optional)
- Type of learning activities
- Attività formativa monodisciplinare
- Language of instruction
- Italian
- Contents
- The Sociology of Social Networks course aims to provide an in-depth analysis of the concept of social networks.
The first part of the course will focus on the sociological analysis of the network concept.
The second part of the course will focus on the thematisation of the relationship between social solidarity and social networks, with a particular focus on the empirical dynamics of the construction of solidarity ties in the context of innovative social networks operating in the Umbrian territory. - Reference texts
- 1)Stefania Vergati (2008), “Gruppi e reti sociali. Tra teoria e ricerca”, Bonanno Editore, Acireale-Roma.
For students attending: Chapters 1-2.
For non-attending students: the text must be studied in its entirety.
2) Lorenzo Bruni (2021), “Solidarietà critica. Patologie neoliberali e nuove forme del legame sociale”, Meltemi Editore, Roma.
The text must be studied by both attending and non-attending students. - Educational objectives
- The training objective of the first part of the course is to provide students with a solid sociological knowledge of the concepts of social network, social group. The training objective of the second part of the course is to provide students with a sociological analytical perspective on the relationship between social solidarity and social networks.
- Teaching methods
- In addition to lectures, individual and collective exercises will be carried out in the classroom on topics relevant to the course through the active involvement of students.
- Learning verification modality
- The assessment test will consist of an oral interview and will last no longer than 30 minutes.
- Extended program
- The Sociology of Social Networks course aims to provide an in-depth analysis of the concept of social networks.
The first part of the course will focus on the sociological analysis of the network concept, with particular attention to its historical contextualisation, its theoretical declinations and its empirical implications. In particular, the concept of network will be dealt with contextually to that of social group, in order to show how the two dimensions share a close familiarity. This recompositional operation, which is feasible because there is no antithesis between the network approach and the group approach, is based not only on a technical and conceptual reorganisation of network studies, but above all on the reappraisal of the great classics of social theory and research, without which the contribution of contemporaries would not be appreciable.
The second part of the course will focus on the thematisation of the relationship between social solidarity and social networks. First, the most recent social processes of reconfiguration of solidarity in our current societies will be analysed. Secondly, it will focus in a limited way on the empirical dynamics of the construction of social solidarity ties in the context of innovative social networks operating in the Umbrian territory. This part of the course will therefore focus on the sociological analysis of the processes of construction of collective experiences in which social subjects characterised by non-traditional forms of aggregation, by a problematic relationship with the institutional and party-political sphere; by a need for sociality in which the desire for individual self-realisation and participation in social life coexist; by new needs to be together that are intertwined with a more or less explicit tension of social criticism.
Main topics:
- Social networks in sociological reflection.
- Social networks. Definitions and operational tools.
- Social solidarity and social networks.
- The sociological dimensions of the construction of social networks, with particular focus on the empirical analysis of innovative collective experiences operating in the Umbrian territory.