Department Presentation

Presentation

*DEPARTMENT OF POLITICAL AND SOCIAL SCIENCES -- DSPS *

The Department of Political and Social Sciences (DSPS) gather together professors and researchers in political and social sciences of the University of Florence. The research and higher education program of the Department places emphasis on a multidisciplinary approach, based on the long-lasting tradition of the first Italian School of political and social sciences -- the "Cesare Alfieri" Faculty of political sciences -- nowadays updated and enriched with the contribution of professors and researchers coming from others faculties and departments of the University of Florence.

The DSPS is therefore an institution hosting the different disciplinary specializations of modern social sciences -- political science, sociology, political philosophy, contemporary history and international relations history -- oriented to the study of national, sub-national and transnational societies, of international relations, of contemporary social and political phenomena, analyzed in their inter-dependence, in their historical roots and in their recent changes, through empirical and comparative research.

Within the DSPS play a major role a number of Research centers: CIUSPO, Interuniversity Center of Political Sociology; CIRES, Interuniversity Center of research on South Europe; CIMESS, Interuniversity Center on Social Sciences Methodology; CSSII, Interdepartmental Center on International and Entrepreneurial Strategic Studies; CIMA, Machiavelli Center for Cold war studies; Communication Strategies Laboratory; Research Laboratory on Social
Change (CAMBIO).

The DSPS organize courses at the three different levels of higher education: two BA courses in Political Sciences, and in Social Work; five MA courses in Social Policies Design and Management, International Relations and European studies, Political Science and Decision-making, Sociology and Social research; the PhD in Social and Historical Sciences. The DSPS participate to the teaching and managing activities of three Florentine Schools: Political Science "Cesare Alfieri", Economics and Management, Humanistic and educational Studies.