Scuola Universitaria Interdipartimentale in Scienze Strategiche (SUISS)

The course aims at at giving firstly a basic knowledge of the main sociological theories and concepts applied to the military, in order to

• Acquire the knowledge of the most important changes in the armed forces related to the economic, technological, sociocultural and geopolitical environments.
• Become able to understand and recognize the necessary adaptation and change processes within Military organizations.

KNOWLEDGE AND UNDERSTANDING

Ability to cope with main social problems within military organisations and in the armed forces and society relationships.

APPLYING KNOWLEDGE AND UNDERSTANDING

Ability to understand the main situations, with reference to Asymmetric Conflicts and Counterinsurgency.

Ability to cope with main social problems within military organisations and to understand armed forces & society relationships.
Ability to evaluate and apply appropriate solutions to problematic situations in military organisations and armed forces and society relationships.

INDEPENDENT JUDGEMENT

Autonomy in analytical evaluation processes

COMMUNICATION SKILLS

Ability to communicate and explain analysis results in multicultural environments and with regard to complex situations

LEARNING SKILLS

Autonomous ability to deepen and improve further knowledge useful for professional work.

Elements of General Sociology.

In particular, the topics are the following:

• Main theories to understand society
• the concepts of culture and subculture, cultural patterns and acculturation/culture contact processes
• the concepts of social structure, social status and role, role-set and role conflict
• social groups, types of group and group dynamics
• social inequalities and main theories 
• the concept of organisation, types of organisations, bureaucracy and bureaucratic structure.

These subjects are particularly relevant for military organisation, in WAR as well as in CRO-Crises Response Operations contexts and to understand armed forces and society relationships.
The military organisation is considered according the following main subjects:

• Theories on the Military Profession and the Military Organization.
• Effectiveness in military organization in WAR and CRO contexts; group cohesion and various types of cohesion
• The three military revolutions: All-Volunteer Force, Crises Response Operations, Gender integration

• Cultural diversity and flexibility in military personnel

Lectures in presence for 42 hours. Every lecture is based on a specific topic or sub-topic according to the general program, specific slides are used and reference to the corresponding written materials is clearly stated, for compulsory and eventual further and related topics.

Mid-term written exam with multiple choice questions and one open question, on about the first half of the program. Evaluation in marks along a 0-30 range.

Final written exam on the second half of the program, with multiple choice questions and one open question. Evaluation in marks along a 0-30 range.

For all subsequent exam dates, exams are oral with a minimum of three open questions on the whole program.

Students interested in further knowledge about the various topics can refer to the volume in English:

1. G. Caforio & M. Nuciari, Handbook of the Sociology of the Military, Springer International Publishing, AG, 2018

ISBN 978-3-319-71600-8 ISBN 978-3-319-71602-2 (eBook).

For any question and need, send an e-mail to:

marina.nuciari@unito.it to arrange a webex online meeting, normally every week since September 19th 2023, on Tuesday since 6pm to 8pm. The link for the online meeting will be provided accordingly.