Scuola Universitaria Interdipartimentale in Scienze Strategiche (SUISS)

What is a public issue?

What is a public issue?

Anno accademico 2016/2017

Sommario insegnamento

• Obiettivi formativi
• Risultati dell'apprendimento attesi
• Modalità di insegnamento
• Modalità di verifica dell'apprendimento
• Testi consigliati e bibliografia
• Note
• Strumenti didattici

Obiettivi formativi

Learning Goals

This course is designed for students in social sciences (political science, sociology, history, media studies). It could be interesting for students in law or “hard” sciences too – the use of scientific discourse and facts in the public sphere is one of the focus of the teaching- as far as they are ready to invest in some basic concepts of social sciences.

Learning Objectives

 To understand how facts (the building of a high speed train line, women wearing burkinis or veils, chemicals in food, climate warming, corruption) are transformed into “public problems”, are debated and become istakes for policies... and conversely how other facts never reach this status

 To identify the “operations”, institutions and actors of these process.

 To question some current stakes on these questions: Are we facing a redefinition of “public problems culture”? Can one say that public problems are more and more structured beyond borders, that they “travel” between countries?

Risultati dell'apprendimento attesi

Students will have the following knowledge

 A basic culture of social science. What is constructivism? What are the main legacies of the Chicago school of sociology (labeling theory, notion of carreer)? What are a public sphere, the “agenda setting function”, the notion of “framing”? How are public policies working? There is no need for in-depth knowledge, but having followed a course/ or read a textbook giving an “introduction to” part of these questions would be useful.

 Students are invited to pay attention to the current stakes debated in the Italian and international press and media, to the political agenda. What are the “problems” currently debated in Italy, in Europe...

Modalità di insegnamento

The course consists of 10 lectures, 2 hours each, per week.

Students will be requested to read some scientific papers (a journal article, a book chapter) which would be available on line or photocopied. They are also invited to think of contemporary “cases” of public problems in Italy or abroad to feed the study and discussions.

Modalità di verifica dell'apprendimento

Each student would produce a small “reading note” (10 000 signs) on a book or article focusing on public problems. This note will a) Summarise the contribution and meaning of the text b) question its contribution: is it exploring a new dimension of social problems? Opening a scientific debate (if so against or among which approach/author)? Is the text still useful if it was written a long time ago? c) Express the reader's opinion: was the text exciting, surprising? Did it give the feeling of discovering something new or not? I will provide at my first lecture a longer bibliography that the one below. Having these “reading notes” for mid april would be a good timing.

Each student (or pairs of students) will produce for the end of my course a small case-study. Selecting a public problem (or a stake which never became a problem) in recent Italian (or foreign, or international) events, students would try applying the conceptual framework developed in the course (which includes showing its limits or blindspots). The aim is to develop a “processual” approach: how and why such stake became (or not) a public problem, was (or not) translated into policy. (20 000 signs, up to 30 000 if two students are working together).

The most basic references

Joel Best Social Problems, Norton, NY, 2008.

Joseph GUSFIELD, Symbolic Crusade. Status Politics and the American temperance movement (2° ed) University of Illinois Press 1963/1986.

Joseph GUSFIELD, , Drinking Driving and the symbolic order. The culture of public problems, The University of Chicago Press, 1981.

Hilgartner & Bosk, The rise and fall of social problems, AJS 1988.

Social Problems. THE journal of this sub field Joel Best & Doneleen Loseke, Social Problems, Constructionist readings, Aldline transaction, 2003.

John KITSUSE & Malcolm SPECTOR, Toward a sociology of Social Problems: Social Conditions Value Judgements and social problems, Social Problems, 1973 & “Constructing Social Problems, Aldine de Gruyter, New York, 1987.

Erik Neveu, Sociologie politique des problèmes publics, A Colin, Paris, 2015.

Tim BARTLEY, How Foundations Shape Social Movements: the Construction of an Organisational Field and the Rise of Forest Certification, Social Problems, Vol 54(3), 2007, pp 229-255. Un article.

Joël BEST,(Ed), Images of issues, Typifying contemporary social problems, Aldine de Gruyter, 1995.

Herbert BLUMLER, Social Problems as Collective Behaviour Social Problems, Vol 18, 1971, pp 298-305 .

Aeron DAVIES, Public Relations democracy. Public relations, Politics and the Mass Media in Britain. Manchester University Press, Manchester, 2002.

William GAMSON & André MODIGLIANI, « Media discourse and public opinion on nuclear power a constructionist approach, American Journal of Sociology, 1989 pp 1-37.

Philippe GARRAUD, Politique Nationale: Elaboration de l’Agenda, L’année sociologique, 1990, pp 27-41.

Marco GIULIANI, Sul concepto di imprenditore di policy, Rivista Italiana di Scienza politica, Vol 28, 2, 1998, pp 357-378.

Emmanuel HENRY, « Un scandale improbable. L’amiante: d’une maladie professionnelle à une ‘crise de santé publique’ », Presses Universitaires de Rennes, Rennes, 2007.

John KINGDON, « Agendas, Alternatives and public policies », Harper and Collins, 1984 Sylvain Laurens, Les courtiers du capitalisme, Agone, Marseille, 2015.

Daniel NAURIN, Deliberation behind Closed Doors, Transparency and Lobbying in the E.U.,European Consortium for Political Research Press, Colchester, 2007.

Wendy NELSON-ESPELAND & Michael SAUNDER, “Rankings and reactivity: how public measures recreate social worlds”, American Journal of Sociology, 2007, Vol 113 (1), pp 1-40.

Abigail SAGUY, Kjerstint GRUYS & Shanna GONG, Social Problem Construction and National Context: News Reporting on ‘Overweight’ and ‘Obesity’ in the United States, Social Problems, Vol 57(4), 2010, pp 587-610.

Diane STONE, Recycling Bins, garbage cans or Think-Tanks ? Three myths regarding Policy Analysis Institutes, Public Administration, Vol 85(2), 2007, pp 259-78.

Orario lezioni

Note

Gli studenti che frequenteranno il corso dovranno inserire le relative attività formative (per un totale di 5 cfu) all'interno del proprio piano carriera:

- What is a public issue?: MAN0231 - VP2 Seminar + MAN0162 - ALTRE ATTIVITÁ FORMATIVE II.

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