Sociology in Italy

The aim of this proposal is to provide a framework of the discipline of sociology and its sub-disciplines in Italy in both the academic and professional spheres. Through the different papers we will highlight some aspects of similarity and dissimilarity that accompanied first the development and then the affirmation of the discipline in the two macro fields of reference (academia and profession). Inevitably, in all the papers there will be historical hints (birth, development, crisis and attempts to position the discipline) that are intertwined with the evolution of the socio-cultural context of Italian society and also comparisons with the international development of the discipline (the latter dimension will be specifically related to the segment of the individual papers). The order in which the individual contributions are presented has its own internal logic that starts from the most general aspects, i.e. from the history and development to the socio-political positioning of the discipline, which has experienced favourable and unfavourable moments, to some more specific aspects such as the papers relating to the two sub-disciplines that have developed in more recent times (cultural production studies and gender studies). Between the general and the particular, there will be other contributions that will address the methodological issues that in Italy have seen (and in some aspects still see) a strong contrast between quantitative and qualitative methods, the difficult and complex relationship (sometimes missed) between academic sociologists and professional sociologists, which reminds us of sociological training in its dual guise of university training and training at high school level.