SOCIAL THEORIES AND GLOBALIZATION

This is one of the complementary courses within the "Japan" curriculum of the master degree programme in "Lingue, economie e istituzioni dell'Asia e dell'Africa Mediterranea". The course offers lectures on social theories, including political science, economics, sociology, anthropology, management studies, history, etc. The course aims to provide essential theoretical knowledge for activating research imagination.

Conoscenza e comprensione:
- Conoscere e comprendere gli elementi essenziali delle teorie sociali.

Applicare conoscenza e comprensione:
- utilizzare le teorie sociali per l'immaginazione della ricerca.

Giudizi:
- esercitare il giudizio in modo globale e multidimensionale.

Comunicazione:
- scrivere una thesina utilizzando le conoscenze delle teorie sociali su prospettive globali.

I recommend that students possess an intermediate level of Japanese (Level N3 JLPT) to integrate and deepen the issues presented during the course. Moreover, Students should have basic knowledge of the history and contemporary Japanese and Asian society or have received credits in SOCIETÀ CONTEMPORANEE DELL'ASIA ORIENTALE.

The first half of this course will provide a chronological interpretation of the history of social theories, including political science, economics, sociology, anthropology, management studies, history, etc. The second half of the course will focus on how to use social theoris in research and work.

The schedule of classes is as follows:

①Outline of lessons.
②: Research workshop (1) Disciplines
③: Wolin, Politics and Vision
④: Political science
⑤: Lectures by Japanese researchers
⑥: Research workshop (2): Previous researches
⑦: Economics
⑧: Sociology, Psychology, Anthropology I
⑨: Sociology, Psychology, Anthropology II
⑩: History, Geography, International Relations, Management Studies, Cultural Studies
⑪: Civilisation, modernisation, postmodernism, postcolonialism
⑫: Globalisation and transformation of society I: changes in space and time
⑬: Globalisation and transformation of society II: Globalising Japanese studies
⑭: Research workshop ③: Methodology
⑮: Research workshop④: Structure and writing

Disciplines
Chang, Ha-Joon, 2014, Economics: The User's Guide, Pelican.
Conrad, Sebastian, 2016, What is Global History?, Princeton University Press.
Hirschman, Albert O., 2013, The Passions and the Interests: Political Arguments for Capitalism Before Its Triumph, Princeton Univ Press.
Kiechel, Walter, 2010, The Lords of Strategy: The Secret Intellectual History of the New Corporate World, Harvard Business Review Press.
Koto Yosuke, 20, "Sgakai teki na mono" no Rekishi, The University of Tokyo Press.（『〈社会的なもの〉の歴史』）
Massey, Doreen, 2005, For Space, SAGE Publications.
Marcus, George E. E. and Michael M. J. Fischer, 1999, Anthropology as Cultural Critique: An Experimental Moment in the Human Sciences, University of Chicago Press.
Wolin, Sheldon S., 2004, Politics and Vision: Continuity and Innovation in Western Political Thought, Princeton University Press.

Contemporary social theories
Appadurai, Arjun, 1996, Modernity at Large Cultural Dimensions of Globalization, University of Minnesota Press.
Graeber, David, 2007, There Never Was a West: Or, Democracy Emerges From the Spaces In Between, From the collection "Possibilities: Essays on Hierarchy, Rebellion, and Desire" by AK Press.
Latour, Bruno, 2007, Reassembling the Social: An Introduction to Actor-Network-Theory, OUP Oxford.
Ong, Aihwa, 2006, Neoliberalism as Exception: Mutations in Citizenship and Sovereignty, Duke University Press.
Sassen, Saskia, 2014, Expulsions: Brutality and Complexity in the Global Economy, The Belknap Press of Harvard Unversity Press.
Tsing, Anna Lowenhaupt, 2015, The mushroom at the end of the world: on the possibility of life in capitalist ruins, Princeton University Press.

To successfully complete the course, students must write a research paper that will focus on the following arguments:

1) Introduce your research topic and thema about Japan.
2) Explain one or more previous researches that are related to your research topic.
3) Compare how your research topic is different from the previous researches.
4) State your research question and methodology.
Students are required to write a paper in either English (with a maximum of 1500 words) or Japanese (with a maximum of 3000 characters).

Students must also take an in-person oral interview on the same paper at the time of exam submission.

The examination is worth 30 points, with a minimum score of 18 points.

Non-attending students: The examination programme is the same for attending students.

Frontal lessons in Japanese.

All materials of the lessons and further readings will be available on the moodle platform dedicated to the course.

All course materials will be available on the moodle platform dedicated to the course.

Students who have obtained credits in East Asian History may also take this couse.

written

This subject deals with topics related to the macro-area "Poverty and inequalities" and contributes to the achievement of one or more goals of U. N. Agenda for Sustainable Development