PRESENTATION

"... to attend the school of things ..."

SOCIOLOGY: KNOWLEDGE FOR OPEN, INCLUSIVE SOCIETIES (OpenSoc) is an interuniversity doctoral programme that mobilizes the theoretical, methodological and empirical heritage built up in sociology’s history, as well as its far-reaching interdisciplinary connections, in order to devise new guidelines for research and intervention in the face of present societal challenges.

The programme’s vision is encapsulated in its motto: OPEN societies, able to deal with new and changing intersections of local, national and global; public, private, and intimate; biographies, meanings, and structures. INCLUSIVE societies, able to use institutions, territories, groups and social networks to foster cohesion and equity in a changing, segmented and heterogeneous social fabric. KNOWLEDGE that empowers social actors to understand and manage diversity in a reflexive way, avoiding “easy” answers which lean towards closure, homogenization, and exclusion.

In OpenSoc, we bring our efforts together to provide an answer that is itself open and inclusive, to your quest for innovation and application of sociological knowledge. The interuniversity scope of our programme allows us to bring together a highly qualified and diverse set of teachers and researchers, with knowledge and experience across multiple social problematics and analytical dimensions, the plurality of theoretical paradigms, and the diversity of methodological approaches.

OBJECTIVES

We aim at providing our students the best experience in learning and scientific creation:

Advanced theoretical, methodological, and practical training in the “sociologist’s craft” and its social applications. Besides the seminars making up the study plan, we encourage students’ involvement in research teams’ activities. Students can also take advantage of Summer schools and specialized courses provided by the different universities in order to deepen and diversify their learning, as well as to gain transversal skills for knowledge communication and valorisation.

Quality of academic life, by providing an environment of constant reflexive stimulus, peer discussion and criticism, as well as good material and intellectual work facilities for doctoral studies, both in place and on-line.

Encouragement and opportunities for internationalization, by supporting individual or collaborative international publication, participation in international scientific events and networks, and mobility within and without the circle of OpenSoc partner institutions, including the possibility of obtaining the tile of Doctor Europaeus.

Acknowledgment of a doctoral training for excellence, by the joint granting of the doctoral degree in Sociology by the four universities associated in OpenSoc, whichever one the student chooses to conclude his or her thesis.

INTERUNIVERSITY COLLABORATION

"... the need to step out of oneself ... "

The OpenSoc programme emerged out of growing collaboration in sociological research for over a decade among our universities: the University of Lisbon, through the Institute of Social Sciences, the Institute of Social and Political Sciences, and the Lisbon School of Economics and Management; the NOVA University, through the NOVA School of Social Sciences and Humanities; the University of Évora, through the Institute for Advanced Studies and Research; and the University of Algarve, through the Faculty of Economics.

These institutions host the seven research centres associated in OpenSoc, all but one rated Excellent or Very Good by the Portuguese Foundation for Science and Technology and one of them holding the prestigious status of Associated Laboratory awarded by the said Foundation:

All our research centres take part in international social research and intervention networks, and carry out intense outreach activity, transferring knowledge between universities and society at the European, national and regional levels.