Unit Complex systems and security management
- Course
- Socioanthropological studies for integration and social security
- Study-unit Code
- A004717
- Curriculum
- In all curricula
- Teacher
- Piero Dominici
- Teachers
-
- Piero Dominici
- Hours
- 36 ore - Piero Dominici
- CFU
- 6
- Course Regulation
- Coorte 2024
- Offered
- 2025/26
- Learning activities
- Caratterizzante
- Area
- Discipline sociologiche
- Sector
- SPS/08
- Type of study-unit
- Opzionale (Optional)
- Type of learning activities
- Attività formativa monodisciplinare
- Language of instruction
- Italian and English
- Contents
- Security is social complexity**. This is the strong premise, both epistemological and methodological, from which this university course originates. Within the theoretical framework of the scientific debate on paradigm shift, complexity sciences, and anthropological transformation, the course addresses the complex dimensions of security by placing them in a systemic analysis perspective that seeks to bring together the challenges of (hyper)complexity—rethinking education and training, governing uncertainty through AI technologies and systems, and building a "new culture of communication' (of risk, security, innovation) – with what are, in fact, the illusions of hyper-technological civilization. Among these illusions, in addition to the recurring ones of rationality and control, the course will explore the extremely widespread belief that total security in organizations and social systems can be achieved through technology and technological devices. This is achieved by eliminating error and unpredictability and, above all, by once again underestimating the ‘human factor’ – the social and relational factor that is the true ‘weak link’ in social ecosystems. It also involves continuing to confuse complicated systems with complex systems.
- Reference texts
- There are three required texts for the exam: 1) P. Dominici, Oltre i Cigni Neri. L'urgenza di aprirsi all'indeterminato (Beyond Black Swans: The Urgency of Opening Up to the Indeterminate), FrancoAngeli, Milan 2023 - with a preface by Edgar Morin 2) S. Russell (2019), Human Compatible, Italian translation, Compatibile con l'uomo. Come impedire che l'IA controlli il mondo, Einaudi, Turin 2025; 3) P. Dominici, Proprietà emergenti. Emergent Properties: dimensioni qualitative del Sociale e sfide epistemologiche dell’Intelligenza Artificiale, FrancoAngeli, Rome 2024.
- Educational objectives
- Objectives: 1) the knowledge of the most topical issues covered in the lessons 2) the ability to formulate – logical and coherent - arguments on the topics and to identify the connections between the levels of analysis involved 3) the ability to interpret data and recognize the methodological implications 4) the ability to formulate assessments in a fully autonomous manner 5) communicative skills for developing arguments in support of their ideas 6) the ability, through reasoning and insight, to define possible solutions and to anticipate new problems.
- Prerequisites
- Knowledge of the main sociological and philosophical theories. Knowledge of the epistemological and methodological implications of social research and the social sciences.
- Teaching methods
- Classroom lectures (face-to-face) - debate - seminars and practical training, but also Laboratory activities. Particular attention to the complexity of the issues/topics discussed (and to the urgency of a systemic approach to complexity)
- Other information
- Prof.Piero Dominici (PhD), Fellow of the World Academy of Art and Science and Official Delegate to UNESCO, is Executive President of Board of Directors of International Engineering and Technology Institute (IETI). Scientific Director of CHAOS - International Research and Education Programme on "Complex Human Adaptive Organizations and Systems" - Fellow of teh New England Complex Systems Institute and of Complex Systems Society. Here is the link to the CHAOS official website: https://www.chaoshumanresearch.com/ Director (Scientific Listening) – Global Listening Centre Complexity and Systems Thinking. Vice President of the World Complexity Science Academy LATAM. Linkedin: http://bit.ly/1TUwAyK - Visiting Professor. Awarded title of Full Professor (National Scientific Qualification - Ministry of Education, Universities and Research (MUR)
- Learning verification modality
- The exam is always oral (oral exam) and it has a duration of at least 25 minutes. The objectives of the exam are many: 1) to verify the knowledge of the topics covered during the course; 2) to evaluate the ability to analyze and make connections between the issues; 3) to evaluate the communication skills gained. It's also planned a presentation by the students of individual papers about topics covered in the course. Students may also choose to discuss the projects they developed, always concerning topics analyzed in the lessons.
- Extended program
- In the era of the global market and hyper-connectivity, the social production of capital goes hand in hand with the social production of risks. Indeed, the balance of power between the two logics has been reversed precisely because of the reflexivity that denies productive forces the opportunity to conceal their most latent side effects. The complex and articulated mechanisms linked to the social production of knowledge, supported by the new communication ecosystem, reveal this dimension, placing it back within the public sphere which, despite countless difficulties, has the opportunity to address issues and demands (including those coming from below) that were initially excluded from public debate. Hyper-technological civilization, with its paradoxical features, brings with it a series of illusions that can be traced back to the almost founding idea/vision that we will increasingly be able, at any level of complexity, to delegate our choices and—I would add—our responsibilities to technological systems and devices: in other words, the technologically controlled dimension will continue to increase and, with it, the illusion that the human, social, and relational factors are becoming less and less important in productive, social, and cultural processes will continue to spread. We are becoming increasingly convinced that digital technology can solve every problem and protect us from every danger, and we continue to ignore/underestimate ‘the’ decisive variable: the human factor that is ‘behind’ every process, every mechanism, every algorithm. We are faced with the urgent need for long-term strategic choices, even courageous ones, which increasingly concern not only the possibility of adapting to and/or managing change, but also the very opportunities to choose between freedom and security, between freedom and control/surveillance, and, above all, between ‘freedom/responsibility as citizens’ and ‘freedom/responsibility as subjects’. Between participation and freedom to be subjects. In the utopia of being able to go beyond the freedom to be subjects (DOMINICI, 2005, 2017)! Beyond the freedom of a life that is apparently safer but undoubtedly less free. Old dilemmas and challenges that—I repeat emphatically—are, first and foremost, educational and cognitive. The fundamental work to be done – and which is not being done – is, in terms of education and continuous training, on people and the relational and communicative spaces they inhabit, with the awareness that it is not, and cannot be, technology and digitalization that guarantee us “freedom,” “protection,” and “security” to the fullest extent.
- Obiettivi Agenda 2030 per lo sviluppo sostenibile
- SDG4 SDG10 SDG11