Learning objectives
Improve the ability to conceptualize the circular relationship between communication processes and cultural processes.
The course aims to provide students with the knowledge and the basic principles of the analysis of the transformations of information in our time in the light of the current crisis, considering the major advances that characterize the frontier of research in this discipline.
At the end of the course the student will also be able to understand the scientific texts that deal with issues of sociology of communication and social change, with particular reference to the processes that generate collective resentment.
Applying knowledge and understanding:
The student will be able to support and discuss clearly, through arguments appropriate, possible proposals to address problems of varying complexity in the dynamics do construction of information, with particular reference to the construction of stereotypes victimizing.
Making judgments
At the end of the course, the student must have acquired the ability to critically interpret the main nodes of the national and international debate on the emotional dimension of the current crisis ..
communication skills
The student will be able to communicate to various stakeholders, effectively and with appropriate language, their own reflections on the interpretation and evaluation of issues and problems related to the course content.
Ability to learn
The student must have acquired the ability to approach so as independent as possible in more complex studies and in-depth with the completion of an appropriate method of study, particularly in respect to matters of sociological character.
Prerequisites
Degree in letters, philosphy or social and political sciences
Course unit content
Information and resentment in contemporary society. Conceptual foundations and methodological criteria for the sociological analysisAnalysis of the cultural and communicative processes in the current crisis, with particular
reference to the situation of Parma, characterized affirmation of the "MoVimento 5 stelle".
Full programme
The course will address first the notion of information, seen as a generative and social process, governed by modes of thought and communication largely unaware, according to the theoretical perspective of ecology of mind by Gregory Bateson, and later will focus on the way in which the 'information' is created in contemporary society. The focus will be particularly on emotional organization of social relations in contemporary society, through the deepening of the notion of resentment, which was introduced in social analysis by Friedrich Nietzsche and developed in an original French anthropologist René Girard.
Bibliography
1. R. Girard, Il risentimento, Cortina, Milano, 1999 (except ch. 2).
2. S. Manghi, La conoscenza ecologica, Raffaello Cortina, Milano, 2010.
Those who have already studied it for a previous exame will sostitute it by: A. Bonomi, The: A. Bonomi, Il rancore. Alle radici del malessere del nord, Feltrinelli, Milano, 2010.
3. S. Tomelleri, Identità e gerarchia. Per una sociologia del risentimento, Carocci, Roma, 2009.
È caldamente consigliata, inoltre, la lettura dell’articolo di S. Manghi, La conversione mimetica (2013), scaricabile dal sito del docente, ma soprattutto la lettura anticipata dei due (bellissimi) romanzi di A. Camus, Lo straniero e La caduta.
Teaching methods
Lectures and discussion.
Assessment methods and criteria
Essay: between 10,000 and 18,000 characters (indicative reference). To be delivered or sent on paper at least one week prior to the appeal. Oral optional, admission requires a minimum score of 24/30 in the essay. This will be a "short essay" on an episode of resentment freely identified in history, in literature, film, television, etc. It is suggested to seek confirmation email to the teacher of the appropriateness of the topic identified. The analysis will be conducted in the light of the exam texts, which will be mentioned explicitly and appropriately, all in the text. Each work will have a title and will be preceded by a summary of c.ca 500 characters.
Other information
Updates and clarifications in the professor's website:
http://sergiomanghi.altervista.org
