SOCIAL HISTORY

The course is among the Core Educational Activities of the Bachelor's degree course in History and among the Basic Activities of the Bachelor's degree course in Sciences of Society and Social Service. The course will have the history of inequality as its main thread

The objective is to know the themes and problems of social history on the one hand, and historiographical interpretations and research methods on the other.

Knowledge of the general outlines of modern and contemporary history acquired during high school.

In order to study inequality from a historical perspective, we will address various topics: consumption, standard of living, wealth distribution, poverty, colonial relations, theories on the origin of inequality and battles for social justice. The course will give references to the history of the family, globalization and institutions.

Two reference texts chosen from the following:

• Franco Ramella, Terra e telai. Sistemi di parentela e manifattura nel Biellese dell’Ottocento, Donzelli, Roma, 1983 (2022).
• Daron Acemoglu, James A. Robinson, Perché le nazioni falliscono. Alle origini di potenza, prosperità, e povertà, il Saggiatore, Milano, 2013.
• Thomas Piketty, Il capitale del XXI secolo, Bompiani, Milano, 2014.
• Bronisław Geremek, La pietà e la forca. Storia della miseria e della carità in Europa, Laterza, Bari, 1995 (2003).
• Alessandro Stanziani, Le metamorfosi del lavoro coatto: Una storia globale, XVIII-XIX secolo, il Mulino, Bologna, 2022
• Karl Polanyi, La grande trasformazione. Le origini economiche e politiche della nostra epoca, Einaudi, Torino, 2000.
• Chiara Giorgi, Ilaria Pavan, Storia dello stato sociale in Italia, il Mulino, Bologna, 2021.

The final exam is a written evaluation (same for attending and non-attending students) with 4 open questions on the two chosen textbooks. Attendance is recommended to better cope with the final exam.

Lectures and discussion

Italian

written