Introduction to Sociology

Recommended Prerequisites

n.a.

Teaching Methods

The first part of the sessions is based on an expository method, with the lecturer presenting the main theoretical debates and conceptual frameworks, grounded in the course bibliography and in dialogue with students. Subsequently, students will present key texts, fostering a process of collective and shared learning. Finally, exercises will be carried out, including group discussions and other performative methodologies adjusted to the themes of each session.

Learning Outcomes

This course unit aims to provide students with a solid introduction to the language, key concepts, and main issues that define the specificity of Sociology as a scientific discipline. It seeks to foster the ability to distinguish a sociological perspective from common-sense understandings, placing particular emphasis on epistemological reflection and on the need to deconstruct seemingly self-evident assumptions about social reality.

Throughout the sessions, a critical approach will be adopted that, while maintaining theoretical rigour, engages students with a range of sociological traditions, highlighting the importance of theoretical pluralism in the construction of sociological knowledge. Within this framework, students will be encouraged to apply sociological thinking to contemporary social issues, developing reflexive, analytical, and interpretative skills grounded in the discipline’s theoretical diversity.

Work Placement(s)

No

Syllabus

1.Sociological perspective:relations between individual,society,and social action
Introduction to key issues in Sociology;distinction between common sense and sociological thinking;specificity of sociological knowledge as a social science;research methods and practices;articulation between social structures and individual and collective action.
2.Culture, socialisation, and the construction of social relations
Proc. of primary and secondary socialisation;multiple social. and plural contexts;social roles,norms,values,and institutions as mechanisms of social regulation;control,conformity,and resistance;critical analysis of deviance and normative narratives.
3.Social structure,power,and inequalities in contemporary societies
Contributions of Marx and Weber to the analysis of inequalities; changes in class dynamics and new axes of differentiation:gender,generation,ethnicity;intersectionality and multiple inequalities;power and domination;legitimation of social and cultural hierarchies.

Head Lecturer(s)

Claudino Cristovão Ferreira

Assessment Methods

Assessment
Exam: 50.0%
Group work/classroom presentations : 50.0%

Bibliography

Berger, Peter L.; LUCKMANN, Thomas-A construção social da realidade: um livro sobre sociologia do conhecimento. 2ª ed. Lisboa: Dinalivro, 2004. [BP 165 BER]
Berger, Peter- Perspetivas sociológicas. Petrópolis: Vozes, 1980. [316 BER]
Cardoso, G., da Costa, A. F., Coelho, A. R., & Pereira, A. (2015). A sociedade em rede em Portugal: uma década de transição. Coimbra: Almedina.
Diogo, F., Castro, A., Perista, P., & Silva, M. C. (2015). Pobreza e exclusão social em Portugal: contextos, transformações e estudos. Edições Húmus.
Giddens, A., & Sutton, P. W. (2021). Sociology (9th ed.). Polity Press.
Lahire, Bernard - “O actor plural”, in B. Lahire, O homem plural. As molas da ação. Lisboa: Instituto Piaget, pp. 21-47, 2003.
Mills, C. Wright- “A promessa”, in C. W. Mills, A imaginação sociológica. Rio de Janeiro: Zahar Editores, pp. 9-32, 1980.
Sandywell, B. (2013). Reflexivity and the crisis of Western reason: logological investigations: volume one. Routledge