Summer is here, and the desire to unwind after so much stress is high. Even though this is a unique year due to the Covid-19 pandemic, we still want to indulge in a tan. Many people have the habit of bringing a book on vacation to read , bought in the winter and kept there on the shelf, waiting for the right moment to start reading. Sometimes we arrive unprepared for this moment, which is why the author recommends a list of books to consider. The catalog is certainly extensive, including sociology texts , texts of sociological interest , and stories written by sociologists.
Fundamentals and new perspectives
Holidays can be a great opportunity to review (or revise) the The first recommended text is Zygmunt Bauman, think sociologicamenteIn this work, the author intends to propose a sociology manual that emphasizes the specific nature of the discipline, namely its being a "way of thinking." Bauman He tries to clearly explain how sociology is not distinguished from other disciplines by its object, but by the way it is approached.
The second text, equally fundamental but more technical, is Logic, Method, and Language in the Social Sciences by Giovanni Sartori. According to the author, no scientific advancement can occur without a solid conceptual and methodological foundation. No significant result can be achieved without rigorously clarifying what is being studied and measured. To avoid being misled by increasingly sophisticated research techniques, the social scientist, for Sartori, must first and foremost be a "conscious thinker." That is, he or she must be capable of reflecting with clear discipline on their subject of interest.
A recent book that offers interesting insights into the sociology of communication is Fausto Colombo 's Ecologia dei Media (Media Ecology). The author offers a "manifesto for polite communication," a call to tone down and return to the courtesy of face-to-face conversation and respect for interlocutors. He invokes the gens to which we all belong, the human species, which alone, through communication, can think beyond the present, in continuity with past generations and with an open eye toward future generations.
Sociological Narrative
The list of books of sociological interest would be endless. However, the author has a weakness for the dystopian-uchronic genre and stories that take place in fantastical contexts or simply different from our own. Which is why a certain selection is easy (?). George Orwell is among the most famous authors of the genre. It is therefore essential to purchase and read a pair: 1984 and Animal Farm. Between political allegories and perspectives on mass media and crowds , these narratives (re)question the concept of control and social influence within groups.
Some Eastern authors lead us down very interesting narrative paths . Exemplary cases straddling eros and innocence, stories useful for a " sociology of relationships." Yukio Mishima 's Musica explores the first case. One autumn day, a charming young woman arrives at the door of Dr. Kazunori, a psychoanalyst, and informs him that she can't hear music. From here, a complex story unfolds, in which attempts to pinpoint the cause of the problem (music is a metaphor for orgasm) are described with the suspense of a detective novel.
The second text is High & Dry, Banana Yoshimoto 's first love . The protagonist Yuko, a highly empathetic 14-year-old girl, is able to see things that others cannot. Yuko is learning to assign a color to each mood and emotion. Her art teacher, Kyu, who is twice her age, teaches her this. When strange little green men emerge from the stem of a plant, they are the only ones who see them. Thus a bond is created, a first, tender and innocent form of love.
Sociologist writers
An interesting group is made up of professors and sociology scholars with a passion for writing. Stories to reflect on and stories to entertain. They are the protagonists of short stories, unusual yet enjoyable companions for us. The first recommended text is by Gianfranco Pecchinenda , Come Se Niente Mattera (As If Nothing Had Happened). The protagonists of these stories share a naive vision of the world, perceived through a gaze whose peculiarity is to remain constantly balanced, straddling the ever-precarious boundary separating everyday reality from that of literature. It is a gray area, the one in which these characters are immersed, where at times the profound and sometimes painful existential questions that common sense tends to prudently conceal beneath the superficial veneer of conventions and habits suddenly become apparent.
Another interesting text is by Sergio Brancato , City of the Sun and the Moon, Six Neapolitan Noirs . As the title suggests, this is a text whose underlying theme is a dark, nocturnal, lunar Naples. Six investigations within and beyond the idea of crime, six alibis to visit a place in the mind where the victim is confused with the executioner and the crime with innocence or guilt.
Francesco D'Ambrosio
Lecturer in Communications and HR Management. Journalist with a degree in Sociology (cum laude). Editor-in-Chief of Sociologicamente.it.
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