AIMS AND CONTENT

AIMS AND LEARNING OUTCOMES

The course has the following specific educational objectives and learning outcomes:

- Strengthen understanding of the impact of social capital and proximity networks in the prevention and mitigation of health risks;

- Improve critical thinking skills with regard to the processes of creating and disseminating technological and scientific innovations that have a direct impact on health;

- Provide an initial introduction to the concept of “intersectionality” in understanding inequalities: social class, space, health.

TEACHING METHODS

Oral lessons.

SYLLABUS/CONTENT

The course programme is structured in five sessions:

- Introduction to the fundamental theoretical frameworks of environmental and health sociology;

- Social capital and environmental risk: heat waves in Chicago;

- Mortality risk and social classes: socio-health inequalities in Turin and Genoa;

- Social modelling of biotechnological innovations: the case of protein vaccines against Covid-19;

- Review and discussion of the main topics covered in previous lessons.

RECOMMENDED READING/BIBLIOGRAPHY

Klinenberg E. (1999) - Denaturalizing disaster: A social autopsy of the 1995 Chicago heat wave. Theory and Society, 28: 239-295. https://doi.org/10.1023/A:1006995507723

Cardano M., Costa G., Demaria M. (2004) - Social mobility and health in the Turin longitudinal study. Social Science & Medicine, 58. DOI: 10.1016/S0277-9536(03)00354-X

Marciano, C. The social shaping of biotechnological innovation. The case of Covid-19 protein vaccine in Cuba and the US. BioSocieties 20, 271–299 (2025). https://doi.org/10.1057/s41292-024-00341-2

TEACHERS AND EXAM BOARD

Exam Board

PAOLA DEL SETTE (President)

MARIO SALISCI (President)

CLAUDIO MARCIANO (President and Coordinator of Integrated Course)

LESSONS

LESSONS START

04th March.

Class schedule

The timetable for this course is available here: Portale EasyAcademy

EXAMS

Exam schedule