TEORIE SOCIOLOGICHE E MODELLI DELLA COMPLESSITA'

Academic Year 2021/2022 - 1° Year
Teaching Staff
  • LE PRINCIPALI TEORIE SOCIOLOGICHE NEL DIBATTITO CONTEMPORANEO: Rossana Sampugnaro
  • SOCIOLOGICAL THEORIES AND MODELS OF COMPLEXITY - module FROM THEORIES TO MODELS: THE ANALYSIS OF SOCIAL COMPLEXITY: Rosalia Condorelli
Credit Value: 12
Scientific field: SPS/07 - General sociology
Taught classes: 72 hours
Term / Semester: 1° and 2°

Course Structure

  • SOCIOLOGICAL THEORIES AND MODELS OF COMPLEXITY - module FROM THEORIES TO MODELS: THE ANALYSIS OF SOCIAL COMPLEXITY

    The Course is divided into 6CFU. Lectures are held from March to May, on Monday and Wednesday (18 lectures) from 12: 00 to 14:00. Frequency is recommended. Exams are in oral mode.If the Covid emergency makes it necessary, lessons and examen will take place remotely.


Detailed Course Content

  • SOCIOLOGICAL THEORIES AND MODELS OF COMPLEXITY - module FROM THEORIES TO MODELS: THE ANALYSIS OF SOCIAL COMPLEXITY

    The course is aimed at explaining the contents of a systemic approach oriented to complexity from an epistemological, sociological and methodological point of view, providing orientation criteria with respect to critical reflection in the last decades. Conceptual categories by which Complexity Science has innovated, with respect to the classical scientific approach, the conceptualization of systems' operation and evolution processes and intervention procedures, will be analyzed, applying these cognitive tools to interpretation social systems as complex systems and to the use of methodologies based on non-linearity, specifically the non-linear equations with a logistic structure, for the study of change and innovation / intervention processes of social systems (analysis of social complexity in political, organizational and sociological fields, for the study of social control processes and social integration issues in individualized and globalized modern society). In this regard, particular attention will be given to social predictability issue, delineating, in the light of Complexity, limits and new possibilities. At the end of the course students will have gained awareness of a new contemporary scientific landscape, characterized by a Sciences’ unification process, and will have matured theoretical and methodological skills in order to analyze and interpret appropriately dynamics of contemporary society in its today's qualification as complex society


Textbook Information

  • SOCIOLOGICAL THEORIES AND MODELS OF COMPLEXITY - module FROM THEORIES TO MODELS: THE ANALYSIS OF SOCIAL COMPLEXITY

    Bertuglia C., Vaio F., Nonlinearità, caos, complessità. Le dinamiche dei sistemi naturali e sociali, Bollati Boringhieri, Torino, 2003, pp. 261-349.

    Bailey K., Beyond Functionalism:Towards a Nonequilibrium Analysis of Complex Social Systems, British Journal of Sociology, 35, 1984, pp.1-18.

    Horgan J., La fine della scienza, Adelphi, Milano 2015, Cap.8. La fine della Complessità, pp.293-244.

    Condorelli R., Le opposizioni di senso in dissolvenza nella cultura contemporanea. L’evanescenza dell’idea di normalità e la destrutturazione dell’ordine tradizionale, in Aleo S. (a cura di), Codificazione e Decodificazione, Vol. II, Giuffrè Francis Lefebvre, Milano, 2019.

    Condorelli R., Complessità e controllo sociale, Bonanno Editore, Catania, 2007, pp.53-90; pp. 91-124.

    Condorelli, R.,Complex Systems Theory. Some Considerations for Sociology. Open Journal of Applied Sciences, 2016, 6, 422.

    Condorelli R., Social Complexity, Modernity and Suicide: An Assessment of Durkheim’s Suicide from the Perspective of a Non-linear Analysis of Complex Social Systems. SpringerPlus, 2016, 5,374.

    Condorelli, R., Gender Abuse in Intimate Relationships: From Structural Coupling Theory to Emergence of Couple System. Sociology Mind, 7, 2017, 197-256. https://doi.org/10.4236/sm.2017.74013

    Condorelli R. Social Discontinuity and Systems Thinking. Cultural differentiation and social integration in times of globalization, Special Issue di Cambio Journal- RivIsta sulle trasformazioni sociali “Intercepting and Modeling Global Change”, Vol. 10, n.19, 2020, pp. 9-30. doi: 10.13128/cam bio-8487.

     

    Letture consigliate

    De Toni A., Comello L., Prede o ragni? Uomini e organizzazioni nella ragnatela della complessità. Utet, Torino, 2005.

    Prigogine I., La fine delle certezze, Bollati Boringhieri, Torino, edizione 2009

    Bocchi H., Ceruti M., La sfida della complessità, Bruno Mondadori, Milanio, 2007, pp.1-19; pp.155-169, pp. 170-183.Mitleton-Kelly E., Complex Systems and Evolutionary Perspectives on Organisations: The Application of Complexity Theory to Organisations, Elsevier, London, Cap 2., 2003.