Socl 280 / RoSt 299 / IntS 292 - Topics in Contemporary Sociology: Italy Today
Fall 2008 / Spring 2009
Instructor: Prof.ssa Sarah F. Maclaren
Meeting Day: Wednesday
Meeting Times: 3:40 - 6:10 pm
Course Description
We will study Italy from a sociological, cultural, political and anthropological viewpoint, in order to gain an overview of a country which has been a nation for just over one hundred years, marks considerable disparities, and has undergone great social and cultural changes since the end of World War II. This course is divided into two parts. We will begin by studying the dramatic social, political, economic and cultural transformations which turned Italy into one of the world's leading industrial democracies, starting from the post-war reconstruction, the industrialization, the economic miracle of the 1950s and 1960s, and the great internal migration, to the social movements from 1968 to 1980, to the formation of a post-industrial society. We will see how Italy has achieved a high cultural profile and a level of material prosperity that have generated a post-modern, mass consumer and globalized society. Then, adopting an interdisciplinary focus, we will examine diverse sociological and cultural aspects of contemporary Italy such as Catholicism, gender identities, the role of the family, emigration and immigration, stereotypes and regional identities, media and material culture, Italian design, the Italian language and linguistic pluralism, etc.
Learning Objectives
At the end of the semester, students should be able to
- demonstrate an understanding of Italy's social, cultural, political and economic history since the end of World War II
- demonstrate an understanding of the processes and components of Italian society and culture
- demonstrate an understanding of differences of class, gender, and race in Italy
- demonstrate an awareness that Italian values and behavior, lifestyles and consumption patterns are influenced by specific factors and have changed substantially over the last 60 years
- demonstrate an understanding that specific social and cultural traits, such as religion, family, gender, regionalism, and stereotypes are influenced by contest, culture, and time
- demonstrate an understanding of how the Italian individual self concept stems from the familial, societal, and cultural contexts in which Italians develop
- demonstrate effective critical thinking skills and dispositions.
You will learn to think critically about contemporary Italian society and the transformation of values, behavior, gender relationships and lifestlyes. You will learn to analyze Italy's specific cultural traits from the context and time in which they developed. You will learn to think critically about issues such as stereotypes, regional identities, and diversity in the global world.
Learning Activities
Required Texts
- Zygmunt Baranski & Rebecca West (eds.), The Cambridge Companion to Modern Italian Culture, Cambridge University Press, 2001
- Percy Allum, Italian Society Transformed, in Patrick McCarthy (ed.), Italy since 1945, Oxford University Press, 2000, pp 10-41.
- Selected articles in the packet
Course Procedure
The course will combine lectures, class discussions, films, documentaries and guest speakers (if feasible). Presentation of all material will be framed within relevant social and cultural contexts, and will be supported - when available - by audiovisual aids, such as photographs, newspapers, magazines, etc.
Evaluation Methods
Attendance and class participation Students are strongly recommended to be present, as the course also addresses the social and cultural experience of being and living in Italy. The assigned reading materials should be read before (not only after) the class as discussions on the topics dealt with are highly encouraged and are an integral part of the course.
Mid-term examination The midterm exam will include selected questions based on the assigned readings.
Tests There will be two (2) tests based on the topics and readings dealt with in the second part of the course.
Essay Students are required to write an essay on their personal experience of Italian society. The essay should be 6,000 characters long (including spaces, footnotes, and bibliography) to be handed in no later than November _____, 2008 for the Fall class and April ____, 2009 for the Spring class.
Final Examination
The final examination, in essay form, will be based on the topics covered in the second part of the course.
Grade Distribution
The final grade will be calculated as follows:
- Attendance, assigned readings and class participation .........................30%
- Midterm examination .......................................................................20%
- Final examination ............................................................................20%
- Test 1 ............................................................................................10%
- Test 2 ............................................................................................10%
- Essay .............................................................................................10%
Schedule
- Ice-breaking / Presentation of course and syllabus
- The Transformation of Italian Society, Part I
read "Italian Society Transformed," by Percy Allum in Patrick McCarthy (ed.), Italy Since 1945, pp 10-41 - The Transformation of Italian Society, Part II
read "Italian Society Transformed," by Percy Allum in McCarthy (ed.), Italy Since 1945, pp 10-41 - The Transformation of Italian Society: Part III read "Italian Society Transformed," by Percy Allum in McCarthy (ed.), Italy Since 1945, pp 10-41
- Emigration vs New Immigration
a) Asher Colombo & Giuseppe Sciortino, "Italian Immigration: the origins, nature and evolution of Italy's migratory systems," in Journal of Modern Italian Studies, 9 (1), 2004, pp 49-70 b) Emilio Reyneri, "Immigrants in a segmented and often undeclared labour market," in Journal of Modern Italian Studies, 9 (2), 2004, pp 71-93 c) Asher Colombo & Giuseppe Sciortino, "The flows and the flood: the public discourse on immigration in Italy," in Journal of Modern Italian Studies, 9 (2), 2004, pp 94-113 - MID TERM EXAMINATION
- Emigration vs New Immigration Film: L'America by Gianni Amelio
- Family, women, and gender relations
a) Chiara Saraceno, "The Italian family from the 1960s to the present," in Modern Italy, vol. 9, 1, 2004, pp 47-57
b) Sharon Wood & Joseph Farrell, "Other voices: contesting the status quo," in Zygmunt Baranski & Rebecca West (eds), Modern Italian Culture, 2001, pp 141-149 c) Massimo Livi-Bacci, Too Few Children and Too Much Family, 2001 d) Alessandro Rosina & Romina Fraboni, "Is Marriage loosing its Centrality in Italy?," in Demographic Research, vol. 11, art 6, 2004, pp 149-172 e) Luisa Tasca, "The 'Average Housewife' in Post-World War II Italy," in Journal of Women's History, vol. 16, n.2, 2004, pp 92-115 - Family, women, and gender relations Film: Casomai by Alessandro D'Alatri
- Catholicism and Catholic Cultures
a) Roberto Cipriani, "Religion as Diffusion of Values ... The Italian Case," in Richard Fenn (ed.), The Blackwell Companion to Sociology of Religion, Oxford, Blackwell (2001), pp 292-305 b) Massimo Introvigne & Rodney Stark, Religion Competition and Revival in Italy: Exploring European Exceptionalism, 2005 - The Italian Language and the Italian Linguistic Pluralism
Brian Richardson, "Questions of Language," in Zygmunt Baranski & Rebecca West, (eds.) Modern Italian Culture, 2001, pp 63-79 - Made in Italy: Design
Penny Sparke, "A modern identity for a new nation: design in Italy since 1860," in Zygmunt Baranski & Rebecca West, (eds.), Modern Italian Culture, 2001, pp 265-281 Deadline for essay - Review
- FINAL EXAMINATION