Corsi di Studio del Dipartimento di Culture, Politica e Società

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Goals:

1. Training students to sociological thinking, critique and analysis, making sense out of technoscientific issues;

2. Helping students identify issues, mechanisms, roles and trends in pseudoscience, mostly yet not exclusively on social media;

1. Being able to seek, analyse and make sense out of (pseudo)scientific controversies and conflicts;

2. Demonstrating a valuable ability to critically discuss the most publicly relevant issues on Science, Pseudoscience and Society.

3. Mastering a technical vocabulary.

**Non-Italian students can have the teacher engage with them and resume key-concepts of each lesson in English.**

Lectures

Seminar activities

Individual/groups virtual interaction on Instagram and Linkedin.

Engagement and participation will be always highly stimulated. 

* ATTENDING STUDENTS

LEVEL 1. quantity and quality of student's (class and virtual) interactions

LEVEL 2. short essays on a given topic based on the textbook, notes, etc.  (June22nd 2020 h 3 p.m.)

** NON-ATTENDING STUDENTS:

LEVEL 1. short essays on a given topic based on the 2 textbooks

LEVEL 1. Short essay based on (at least) the two textbooks indicated during the normal sessions of the exam sessions

WHAT IS A SHORT ESSAY?

A short essay is an original composition that the candidate carries out in total autonomy, dealing freely and creatively with the topic stimulated by the proposed case study and the materials provided;
The extension of the work must be between 10k and 20k characters, spaces and bibliography included;
plagiarism is a crime and, in any case, the work will be screened by university anti-plagiarism software. If the quantity of plagiarized material (used without adequate attribution of the source) exceeds 33%, the examination will be invalidated automatically;
From a formal point of view, the short essay can be thought of as a small-scale example of a thesis, the register of which must approximate a critical analysis of a sociological phenomenon;
The paper must contain: title (chosen by the candidate), index with page numbering, a structure in paragraphs and sub-paragraphs (decided by the candidate) and a complete bibliography at the bottom (in alphabetical order!);
It is allowed to consult the reference textbook(s), notes and other sources found online (books, scientific papers, newspapers, etc.) provided that everything is clearly mentioned according to the bibliographic standards (so to speak, quotation in the text in square brackets [Author, year: page] and NOT IN NOTE at the bottom of the page).
THE CASE STUDY ON WHICH TO PUT THE ASSAY IS PROVIDED FROM TIME TO TIME HERE giuseppetipaldo.com. (for registered and logged in users)

Details:

The candidate has exactly 3 hours of time for:

fill in the identification form on giuseppetipaldo.com, to have access to the exam platform
consult the material provided at the start (it will appear at the bottom of the form relating to the date of appeal in which it is presented, always on the giuseppetipaldo.com website)
gathering ideas, passing the case study to the critical examination of the notions acquired in the course (manual, video lessons, podcasts and notes)
expand its sources with targeted online searches (optional)
prepare a ladder of the essay
spread the essay on your computer
save your work in .docx or .pdf format
upload the file and send it within the 3-hour deadline (the time stamped in the software metadata will prevail).

NOTE:

1. It is possible to take the exam as a student only in the test reserved at the end of the course. After this session, the exam program will be for all NON-ATTENDING students.

2. the exemption is a barrier: absent and insufficient pass to non-attending status (the exam program changes accordingly).

NB:

1. the "ATTENDING STUDENTS" window expires within the end of the course. Students not attending/passing the test at the end of the course will be examined on the NON-ATTENDANTS program, no matter what. 

PART ONE: Social representations in the Facebook era: origins and coordinates of a complex phenomenon

1. In the beginning it was Nimby

«Not in my garden»
From 1960s environmentalism to today's accusations of "localism": the evolution of "nimbism" between clichés and turining points
«Nimby»: a label that also divides social scientists
Beyond common sense
The representation of the oppositional phenomenon in the international press
«Nimby»: origins and diffusion of a now popular term
«Nimby» lands in China

2 «Banana»: the globalization of «gardens»

The "no" came out of the garden
Towards a protest network?
The media representation of expertise: the High Speed ​​case in Val di Susa
Science and politics, part one: the scientization of policy

3 Nimbo: «Not In My BOdy»

Science and politics, part two: the media politicization of science
"Not in my body": the most recent mutation of the Nimby
«Type-a» and «type-b»: the two Nimbo strains
The "natural-artifact" tension and a narcissistic idea of ​​Self as Nimbo's ideological devices
 

PART TWO: Some striking cases of Nimbo

4. Nimbo at the table

Self-fulfilling prophecies and palm oil, that is: "who framed Nutella"?
If you write "red meat", Google suggests "tumor": why?

5. Goats, "grilli" and hyenas: Nimbo in medicine

History of a veterinarian and his "serum"
The «Di Bella Method»: from goat feces to somatostatin
A degree in literature, stem cells and a herd of hyenas
Alternative treatments in newspapers and on social media
fantastic «Objectior» and where to find them: the «no vax» online
 

PART THREE: Discerning good and bad explanations

 6. Ignorance? Media alarmism? Poor "civic culture"?

"People are ignorant": on the complex relationship between technoscientific conflicts and literacy
Is anyone skeptical or totally hostile to science really "ignorant"?
Incinerators, vaccines and scientific literacy
Why bring up the mass media?
The effects of agenda-setting in technoscientific conflicts
Mass media, "motives" and technoscientific conflicts
A problem of "civic culture"?
The "civic morality" in a Nimby conflict
What is generalized trust and why do we deal with it?
Intermezzo: a Frenchman in America
The main dimensions of trust
Trust in science
 

7 Hacking to understand

Data, without theory, is useless
The pseudoscience society: foundations for a multisystem analysis
Once upon a time there was a talented Russian linguist
Morphology of Nimby or Banana conflicts
Morphology of conflicts Nimbo
Sequences, roles and logic: the recurring elements of the "canovaccio"

ATTENDING S.

La Società della Pseudoscienza. Orientarsi tra buone e cattive spiegazioni.
Autore: Giuseppe Tipaldo Yr 2019
Casa editrice: Il Mulino
ISBN: 9788815280169
Url: https://www.amazon.it/societ%C3%A0-pseudoscienza-Orientarsi-cattive-spiegazioni/dp/8815280162

NOT ATTENDING S.

La Società della Pseudoscienza. Orientarsi tra buone e cattive spiegazioni.
Autore: Giuseppe Tipaldo Yr 2019
Casa editrice: Il Mulino
ISBN: 9788815280169
Url: https://www.amazon.it/societ%C3%A0-pseudoscienza-Orientarsi-cattive-spiegazioni/dp/8815280162

Apriti Scienza. Il presente e il futuro della comunicazione della scienza in Italia tra vincoli e nuove sfide
Autore: Sergio Scamuzzi, Giuseppe Tipaldo Yr 2015
Casa editrice: Il Mulino
ISBN: 9788815257529
Url: https://www.amazon.it/scienza-presente-comunicazione-scienza-vincoli/dp/8815257527