STUDY PROGRAMME
Graphic Design and Art Direction

AFAM CODE
ABST56

DISCIPLINARY AREA
Sociological disciplines

DISCIPLINARY FIELD
Sociology of culture

CREDITS
6

APPROACH
Theoretical

This course provides analytical tools for the interpretation of contemporary social phenomena — multiculturalism, globalization, multimedia — that engage individuals, institutions and organizations in processes of identity definition. It has culture as a focal point and meaningful parameter of interaction and social life, including its extension into online communities.

Meaning-building and sharing processes that characterise contemporary communication will be analysed through a genealogic approach that allows for brand design creation, with a mindful vision of the social impact of communication.

The programme consists of one single module, which grants 6 credits.

Successful students will be able to:

• Understand, analyse and critically comment social and cultural phenomena that are relevant from an international perspective

• Understand some of the transactional dynamics and identify socio-cultural relations and connections

• Apply the presented methodologies - genealogy - to the analysis of a phenomenon to be analysed in a workshop

• Introduction to ideas and theoretical perspective in the sociology of cultural processes: the idea of culture in the anthropological and sociological approach; relational and communicative dynamics at the basis of collective identity and creation of meaning (dynamics of mobility/demographics; citizenship/belonging, inclusion/access, etc.)

• Reflexive sociology (from P. Bourdieu to A. Melucci)

• The genealogical approach as an analytical tool to read the contemporary cultural phenomena (F. Nietzsche, M. Foucault, G. Deleuze)

• The scientific humanism of Bruno Latour, mapping controversies and epistemological aspects: shared production of meaning in contemporary communication (Gregory Bateson, René Girard)

• Practical use and workshops: in-depth analysis of contemporary phenomena in cultural and communication dynamics (local/global; intercultural/populism; audit/automation; real/virtual; real/fake)

The programme focuses on theoretical courses.

Students will take part in the following activities, which may vary depending on the different topics covered:

• Classroom lectures

• Debates, presentations, peer assessment

• Use of tutorials, videos or other media tools

• Exercises and revisions

• Individual study and research

Assessment tools may include:

• Mid-term written exam: semi-open questions on the covered themes, and semiotic analysis of a case among those presented by the professor

• Oral exam: presentation of group research integrated with questions on a textbook to be chosen among those introduced by the professor

Further details about the exams will be provided by the professors.

• Mezzadra, S., Neilson, B. (2013) Border as Method, or, the Multiplication of Labor (a Social Textbook).

In addition, one of the books in the list below:

• Deleuze, G. (1968) Difference and Repetition (French: Différence et Répétition).

• Latour B. (1991) We Have Never Been Modern (Nous n’avons jamais été modernes: Essai d’anthropologie symétrique (Translation - 1993).

• Nietzche, F. (1887) On the Genealogy of Morality: A Polemic.

Many of the recommended sources, together with additional material, are also available online on MyNaba, in the Library section.

Books and resources might be requested or suggested by the professors.