Learning outcomes

The educational objectives of the course are the following:
- supply the necessary expertise to define the features of the relational contexts to which individuals belong, including in particular those who have suffered the effects of a catastrophic event;
- provide the necessary theoretical and methodological expertise for empirical analysis of the morphological qualities and content of social networks through the presentation of some methodological concepts and tools that aid social network analysis;
- provide the skills needed for the use of social network analysis for knowledge of contexts affected by catastrophic events and relative social intervention.
Upon completion of the course, students should be able to use their acquired theoretical and applied comprehension skills for cognitive and social intervention purposes in contexts affected by catastrophic events. Students should be able to use an analytical framework for social network analysis regarding relations between both individual and collective subjects, using egocentric and sociocentric perspectives as a starting point. Students should be able to analyze and evaluate the structural qualities of relational contexts, describe them in a methodologically appropriate manner and deepen the analysis of their special characteristics, also through the ability to query the reference scientific literature in an appropriate manner. Students will also have to be able to find and propose action strategies aimed at resolving problems identified within relational contexts.

Program

In order to achieve the educational objectives, the course syllabus is subdivided into three sections:

1) Theoretical section:
- Society as a network;
- The concepts of relationship and network in sociology;
- Network paradigm: from the epistemological premise to the practice of social research.

2) Methodological section:
- Introduction to social network analysis;
- Relational sociology and social network analysis;
- Personal and whole network analysis;
- Relational data collection;
- Representation of social networks, graph theory and data matrices;
- Centrality and centralization;
- Breakdown and condensation of graphs;
- Analysis of positions and roles in social networks.

3) Empirical application section:
- The application of social network analysis to the study of catastrophic events: cognitive potential and directions for social intervention;
- Presentation, by way of example, of research carried out in contexts affected by catastrophic events, either of natural origin or connected to acts of terrorism, using both personal and whole social network analysis, in the study of networks consisting of individual subjects and those made up of collective subjects.

The program will be analytically presented during the frontal lectures. All the topics in the syllabus can be found in the reference books.


REFERENCE BOOKS

- P. Di Nicola (2015), La rete: metafora dell’appartenenza. Analisi strutturale e paradigma di rete, Milano, FrancoAngeli.
- A.M. Chiesi (1999), L’analisi dei reticoli, Milano, FrancoAngeli (except the Appendix).
- L. Tronca (2013), Sociologia relazionale e social network analysis. Analisi delle strutture sociali, Milano, FrancoAngeli (chapters 1 and 2).
- D.M. Varda, R. Forgette, D. Banks, N. Contractor (2009), Social Network Methodology in the Study of Disasters: Issues and Insights Prompted by Post-Katrina Research, in «Population Research and Policy Review», 28, 1, pp. 11-29.
- J.S. Hurlbert, V.A. Haines, J.J. Beggs (2000), Core Networks and Tie Activation: What Kinds of Routine Networks Allocate Resources in Nonroutine Situations?, in «American Sociological Review», 65, 4, pp. 598-618.
- N. Kapucu (2005), Interorganizational Coordination in Dynamic Context: Networks in Emergency Response Management, in «Connections», 26, 2, pp. 33-48.

Examination Methods

The examination is aimed at evaluating the theoretical and practical skills acquired by the students. The content of the syllabus is assessed. The examination consists of an oral discussion and is conducted in the same way for attending and non-attending students.

Teaching materials e documents

•   programma e testi consigliati (engl)   (msword, it, 41 KB, 8/23/17)
•   programma e testi consigliati (ita)   (msword, it, 39 KB, 7/24/17)