Research areas
Research activities within the Department are characterized by their multidisciplinary nature. The main focus areas are sociology of culture and communication, general sociology, methodology of social research. Further themes are social psychology, marketing, linguistics and semiotics, contemporary history, politics and law.
The research focuses on the relationship between communications and different social groups, with specific attention given to practices and meanings that form within media systems. Interdisciplinary approaches are used to tackle the complexity of the relationships between these spheres, as well as the encouragement of dialogues between experts from the various sections of social sciences and humanities.
Some of the phenomena that are studied are:
- Media systems and their evolution, with attention given to the spaces in which language, stylistic, format changes occur, as well as where news modes of production and circulation emerge;
- Politics, also looked at from a historical lens, analysed both from an institutional perspective and a more informal point of view;
- Emerging conflicts and sustainable development models; themes relating to gender, in relation to processes of media representation and auto-representation; environmental themes
- New and old forms inequality and marginalisation
- Communication between institutions and brands
The department encourages synergy between the various disciplinary sectors and aims to enhance these thematic areas within the next three years.
Therefore, strategic areas to focus on in the next few years are:
- Platforms and digitalisation processes;
- Ecological transition and sustainability;
- Gender studies, focusing on the relationship between gender and media, also looking at the new master degree in Gender studies, culture and politics for media and communications;
- Environmental risks and perception of sciences;
- Enhancement and communication of urban spaces and cultures in relation to new forms of tourism;
- Made in Italy from a customer-based perspective;
- Politics of inclusion and contrasting social marginalisation;
- Democratic systems and citizenship participation processes.