HISTORY OF SOCIETIES IN THE CONTEMPORARY AGE

Single discipline educational activity

Course Sheet

Course code:

RSPC14

Academic Year of enrolment:

2021

Year of supply:

2022/2023

Type of Course:

Characterising

Degree:

Course of 2nd Cycle Degree in SOCIAL RESEARCH, SECURITY POLICY AND CRIMINAL STUDIES

Disciplinary Sector:

CONTEMPORARY HISTORY

Language:

Italian

Location:

CHIETI

Credits:

Programme Year:

Professor and Collaborators:

FIMIANI Enzo

Cycle:

First semester

Hours of classroom activity:

Individual study hours:

102

Prerequisites:

Although a good basic knowledge of the fundamental historical issues of the contemporary era is desirable, the course is aimed, among other things, at filling any gaps for attending students.

Objectives

The general educational objectives aim at equipping the attending students with some mental tools to:
a) understand the importance of historical knowledge
b) form a perspective that helps them think in a historical and critical way, over the long term
c) know at least some rudiments of the historian’s methods and profession
d) approach the most relevant issues of contemporary history, from the French Revolution at the end of the 18th century to the beginning of the 21st century, delving into, among other things, the links between the historical acceleration of the last two centuries or so and the current events that students find themselves living in these years.

Contents

Attending students will be equipped with the tools:
1) to understand the importance of History and historical knowledge
2) to form a mental perspective that helps them think more historically and critically, over the long term
3) to know the main methods, meanings, objectives of the historian's profession
4) to approach the most relevant issues of contemporary history, from the French Revolution at the end of the 18th century to the beginning of the 21st century, delving into, among other things, the links between the historical acceleration of the last two centuries or so and the current events that students find themselves living in these early years of the 21st century.
5) approach a crucial aspect of the history of republican Italy: the history of its police (and in general of public order in a democracy), understood as a litmus test of the profound changes in Italian society from the post-World War II period to our present day.

Extended Syllabus

1) The first part of the course will be devoted to helping students understand the importance of history as a vehicle not only for knowledge but also as a critical and civic tool for living the present in an informed way.

2) In the second part, an effort will be made to acquaint students with the tools and methods of historians' work, in order to understand what is "behind" the teaching.

3) The third part of the course will provide a brief but critical and interpretative overview of some of the most relevant issues in contemporary history, from the French Revolution at the end of the eighteenth century to the beginning of the twenty-first century, exploring, among other things, the links between the historical acceleration of the last two centuries or so and the current times that students find themselves living.

4) In the fourth part, the monographic section of the course will be explored in depth, focusing on one of the great historical issues directly inherent to the themes and aims of the course of study (recalled by the very title of the Master's degree): the history, evolutions, organization, imagery and collective perception of the police in republican Italy in fact represent a fundamental perspective from which to look at the changes in Italian society from the post-war period to the present day, as well as the slippery knots of public order and the relationship between political power, the forces of law and order and citizens in a modern democracy. The following will be examined in depth the ways and times through which, starting as early as 1945 and immediately after the Second World War, a 'culture' of a republican Public Security has been structured; the limits of self-representations and of the internal imaginary of the Police the age-old difficulties, of the body and the governments on which it has depended over time, in following the great evolutions of Italian society from the 1960s onwards and in being an integral part of such a movement, up to the 1981 reform law that changed the status of the PS from military to civilian; finally, some police responses to decisive moments of tension and political violence in contemporary Italy, such as the 1970s, will be analyzed.

Please note that non-attending students must add the study of an additional essay
[for which see the "reference texts" section].

Recommended Bibliography

For attending students:

Michele Di Giorgio, «Per una polizia nuova. Il movimento per la riforma della Pubblica Sicurezza (1969-1981), Rome, Viella, 2019
https://www.viella.it/libro/9788833130873

Enzo Fimiani, Dall’altra parte della piazza. Il I reparto Celere a Roma nel 1977, in Il movimento del ’77. Radici, snodi, luoghi, edited by M. Galfré e S. Neri Serneri, Rome, Viella, 2018, pp. 283-298
[the essay will be made available by the lecturer, in pdf, on the telematics platform]

Not attending students have to read and study the following essay:

Marco Grispigni, Figli della stessa rabbia. Lo scontro di piazza nell’Italia repubblicana, in «Zapruder», I (2003), n. 1, pp. 50-71
[the essay will be made available by the lecturer, in pdf, on the telematics platform].

Methods of Provision

Conventional

Teaching Methods

The course consists of 6 credits (equivalent to 48 hours of frontal classroom activity) and will be held in the first semester, between October 2022 and January 2023, with 4 hours of lessons per week over two days (Monday and Tuesday, based on the academic calendar.

The lessons will be deliberately based on dialogue and interaction between lecturer and students.

Depending on the interests shown during the lessons, it will be agreed between the teacher and the students whether or not to use additional tools (such as the use of audiovisuals or the organisation of seminars led by historians or authoritative scholars, capable of broadening the educational horizon and cognitive stimuli).

Evaluation methods

Verification of learning:

The examination process consists of an oral exam.

The verification of learning will be based
1) for the attending students, both on the contents of the reference texts and on everything that will emerge from the frontal lessons
2) for non-attending students, on the contents of the reference texts.

The exam will aim to ascertain the level of preparation.
What is of most interest, however, is not the knowledge about the specific themes of the texts, but rather other aspects.
Among these, the development of the following skills:
(a) to think 'historically', with the critical tools to approach the more recent past and its complexities
b) to organise one’s knowledge in a comprehensive way
c) to use the enormous possibilities of the Italian language with a certain property of language.

Contacts/More Information

Class attendance is not compulsory.
The lecturer is available to clarify any doubts about the course during receptions.
The receptions can be arranged directly with the lecturer by writing to him in advance on his institutional e-mail address: enzo.fimiani@unich.it
(expecting a reply within a reasonable timeframe and not immediately).

Università degli Studi
"G. d'Annunzio"

Chieti - Pescara

Aree