General information
The Department of Social Sciences, one of the largest in Italy, includes sociologists belonging to four faculties in the University of Turin: Political Sciences, Education, Literature and Philosophy, Economics. It comprises 17 full Professors, 17 associate Professors, 20 assistant Professors, 28 research assistants and Ph.D. students, plus 9 employees. The Department organizes a Ph.D. program on comparative social research.
Research programme
Current research themes include:
- The dynamics of poverty and vulnerability, processes of exclusion and inclusion, inequalities in health and in access to housing.
- Labour market and economic trends and changes
- Local societies
- National and local welfare regimes
- Immigration
- Trends in family formation, gender divisions, intergenerational relationships
- The use of time
- Values and norms
- Patterns of civic culture
The Department has institutional links with other inter-departmental centers within the University and with inter-university centers, namely:
- The Interdisciplinary Center of Women and Gender Studies (CIRSDe)
- The Inter-departmental Center of American and Euro-American Studies
- The Inter-departmental Center of Studies on religion
- The Inter-university International Centre of Studies on Migration (FIERI)
It has a good collaboration with the National Statistical Office (ISTAT).
International networks and collaboration
The Department has been the coordinating institute in the TSER funded project ESOPO on minimum income provisions in Europe. It has participated and is participating in other EU funded projects: the European network on family changes and family policies co-ordinated by Professor Peter Flora at MZES; the dynamics of precarity and resistance in urban contexts (BETWIXT) coordinated by Professor Daniel Bertaux in Paris; the network on Social Quality indicators, co-ordinated by the Institute of Social Quality in Amsterdam; to the European network on Gender and citizenship, coordinated by Professor Siim at the University of Aalborg. At present it is collaborating with WZB in Berlin and ESRI in Dublin on a project on the Quality of Living in Europe, for the European Foundation on Living and Working conditions. It is involved in a number of projects on Euro Regions and it has an ongoing research and teaching collaboration with Sciences Po in Paris.
