Conferences

Recommended Prerequisites

NA

Teaching Methods

This curricular unit consists of a series of sessions on scientific presentation, publication and debate and of conferences by national and international researchers and on themes relevant to contemporary sociology.

Preceding each Conference preparatory research work on the Conference topic will take place autonomously. Students will analyse the theoretical and methodological aspects of this theme and produce a synthesis report – to be presented in class – in order to be prepared for an active participation in each Conference.

Learning Outcomes

The Conferences Series is to be organized in the Ph.D. Program and aims to bring students into contact with the most recent sociological research, national and international, on contemporary sociological issues relevant to the advanced training to be acquired along the course.

It is intended to stimulate students’ comprehension and critical analysis and evaluation capacities of sociological themes as well as their skills of interpretative reading of sociological texts and oral and written presentation and argumentation in the context of scientific debate. Students will develop intellectual autonomy in research, analysis, organisation, elaboration and presentation of main themes of contemporary sociology as well as an increasing familiarity with the production and debate in the scientific context.

Work Placement(s)

No

Syllabus

This curricular unit includes a set of introductory sessions aiming at familiarizing the students with the contexts of scientific dialogue, namely at the level of the spaces of academic presentation, publication and debate. These sessions function also as preparatory work for the Conferences which constitute the core of the Cycle.

The various topics brought about by invited speakers will be accommodated within the major areas of the Program. These are, among others, Governance and public policy; Cities and cultural policies; Class analysis and conflict; Local governance; Organization and labor; Science and society; Social policy and inequality; Mobility and migration; Family and communities; Sociology of gender.

Head Lecturer(s)

Carlos José Cândido Guerreiro Fortuna

Assessment Methods

Assessment
The assessment consists of one report preceding one Conference - 30%; participation in a minimum of 4 Conferences - 20% and 2 post-Conference reports - 50%, one of which may be replaced by a book review: 100.0%

Bibliography

A. Denis & D. Kalekin-Fishman. The ISA handbook in contemporary sociology. London: Sage. 2009.

B. Lahire. L'esprit sociologique. Paris: La Découverte. 2007.

B. S. Santos (Dir.) A Sociedade portuguesa perante os desafios de globalização (8 vol.) Porto: Afrontamento, 2001-2002.

B. S. Santos. A gramática do tempo. Para uma nova cultura política. Porto: Afrontamento. 2006.

C. Béraud & B. Coulmont. Les courants contemporains de la sociologie, Paris: PUF. 2008.

D. Clawson, R. Zussman, J. Misra, N. Gerstel & R. Stokes (Eds).  Public Sociology: Fifteen Eminent Sociologists Debate Politics and the Profession in the Twenty-first Century. Berkley/Los Angeles; CA: University of California Press. 2007.

J. H. Turner. Handbook of Sociological Theory. New York: Springer. 2006.

N. Mouzelis. Modern and Postmodern Social Theorising: Bridging the Divide. Cambridge: Cambridge University Press, 2008.

S. Patel. The ISA Handbook of Diverse Sociological Traditions. London: Sage. 2009.