Corsi di Studio del Dipartimento di Culture, Politica e Società

The course will be easier to follow for students who have acquired some previous knowledge of socio-cultural anthropology from introductory courses. However, this is no absolute requirement, as this module is designed to be essentially self-contained.

• The purpose of the course is to provide fairly advanced theoretical and methodological knowledge related to the most recent developments in socio-cultural anthropology and necessary to tackle from an anthropological vantage point a wide range of highly topical issues, from contemporary migrations to neoliberalism.
• More specifically, the aims of the course are:
  a) to follow the evolution of the anthropological study of complex societies from its origins up to its most recent developments;
  b) to single out the specificity of anthropological approaches vis-à-vis those of other disciplines that engage in the study of complex societies;
  c) to identify the distinctive methods and conceptual tools of the anthropological study of complex societies through the analysis of ethnographic monographs.

• Mainly through the analysis of ethnographic monographs and case-studies, this course provides students with theoretical tools and methodological skills which supplement the ones developed by socio-cultural anthropology in the study of so-called “simple societies”, thus increasing their proficiency in the study of cultural complexity.
• The course also enables students to broaden their ethnological horizons by focusing on such areas as the Alpine region and the Mediterranean world and paying special attention to urban studies.

Whole class teaching

• The exam will be oral: in addition to assessing the extent to which knowledge – ethnological as well as theoretical and methodological – has been successfully acquired, it will also serve to evaluate the student’s critical ability in reading the texts suggested for the exam and gauge the mastery of the anthropological skills required for the analysis of cultural complexity.
• Differential programmes have been devised for students who will attend the course and for those who will be unable to do so.

Topics:
• Origins, development and current tendencies of the social anthropology of complex societies.
• Anthropological studies of Europe and the Mediterranean area.
• The beginnings of urban anthropology: the Chicago and Manchester schools.
• Recent research in urban anthropology.
• The anthropological study of mobility and migration.
• Anthropological perspectives on neo-liberalism.

Differential programmes have been devised for students who will attend the course and for those who will be unable to do so.

A) For the exam the students who will be able to attend the course of lectures will have to demonstrate knowledge and understanding of:
1. The course content (notes from the lectures).
2. One general volume selected among the following:
• C. Capello, P. Cingolani, F. Vietti, Etnografia delle migrazioni, Rome, Carocci, 2014.
• U. Hannerz, Exploring the City. Inquiries toward an Urban Anthropology, New York, Columbia University Press, 1980 .
• A. Sobrero, Antropologia della città, Rome, Carocci, 1997.
• P.P. Viazzo, Upland Communities. Environment, Population and Social Structure in the Alps since the Sixteenth Century, Cambridge, Cambridge University Press, 1989.
3. One volume selected among the following:
• S. Allovio (ed.), Antropologi in città, Milan, Edizioni Unicopli, 2011.
•  D. Basile, Le vie sbagliate. Giovani e vita di strada nella Torino della grande migrazione interna, Milano, Edizioni Unicopli, 2014.
• A. Blok, The Mafia of a Sicilian village, 1860-1960 A Study of Violent Peasant Entrepreneurs, Oxford, Blackwell, 1974.
• L. Bonato, P.P. Viazzo (eds.), Antropologia e beni culturali nelle Alpi, Alessandria, Edizioni dell’Orso, 2013.
• C. Capello, Le prigioni invisibili. Etnografia multisituata della migrazione marocchina, Milan, Angeli, 2008.
• G. Fassio, “L’Italia non basterebbe”. Migrazioni e presenza italiana a Grenoble dal dopoguerra ad oggi, Roma, CISU, 2014.
• J. González Díez, S. Pratesi, A.C. Vargas (eds.), (In)Sicurezze. Sguardi sul mondo neoliberale, Rome, Novalogos, 2014.
• H.G. Rosenberg, A Negotiated World. Three Centuries of Change in a French Alpine Community, Toronto, Toronto University Press, 1988.
• P. Sacchi, P.P. Viazzo (eds.), Più di un Sud. Studi antropologici sull’immigrazione a Torino, Milan, Angeli, 2003.
• L. Urru, Il fantasma tra i ciliegi. Topografie di primavera a Tokyo, Naples, Liguori, 2007.
• L. Wacquant, Urban Outcasts. A Comparative Sociology of Advanced Marginality, Cambridge, Polity Press, 2008.

B) Students unable to attend the course will be expected to study, instead of the notes from the lectures, another volume selected among those listed immediately above.

NB: Reading lists on specific topics will be provided during the course and made available on line.

• This course is intended primarily for students of Cross-cultural communication, but all students from other degree courses are welcome.
• International and Erasmus students may prepare for examinations and take them in English. Specific reading lists consisting of books and articles in English will be made available on request from the teacher.