Social Sciences Methodology

There is no recommended background Knowledge

Theoretical-practical teaching. In classes there will be space for exposition and discussion of concepts

Those already included in the course program

1. Epistemological reflection s: the critique of scientific knowledge

1.1 The various forms of interpretation of reality (scientific, philosophical, religious, aesthetic, common sense);

1.2 Modernity, post-modernity and science;

1.2.1 Concepts of modernity and postmodernity: description and criticism;

1.2.2 The paradigm of modern science;

1.2.2.1 Common sense as an obstacle to scientific knowledge;

1.2.2.2 The devaluation of social sciences;

1.2.2.3 Specialization of knowledge, discourse hermeticism and knowledge-power symbiosis;

1.2.2.4 Formal rationality and the pure science-applied science distinction;

1.2.2.5 The logic of scientific research: observation, measurability – disqualification of the “qualities” of objects;

1.2.3 The crisis of the modern science paradigm: theoretical conditions and social conditions;

1.2.3.1 Albert Einstein’s theory of relativity and the “local” character of measurements;

1.2.3.2 Quantum mechanics, the principles of uncertainty (Heisenberg) and complementarity (Bohr) and the impossibility of objectivity of knowledge;

1.2.3.3 Gödel’s theorems – the unprovability of fundamental mathematical axioms;

1.2.3.4 The failure of the assumption of the external autonomy of science – the importance of economic, social and political powers in the definition of scientific priorities;

1.2.3.5 The failure of the assumption of the internal autonomy of scientific knowledge – Lacan and the scientist's “unconscious desires” (desires for power, affection and transgressing taboos);

1.2.4 The paradigm of postmodern science;

1.2.4.1 The crisis of the natural sciences, the epistemological primacy of the social sciences and the revaluation of the humanities;

1.2.4.2 The “local” character of knowledge: from disciplinary hyper-specialization to thematic knowledge; from interdisciplinarity to transdisciplinarity;

1.2.4.3 Methodological transgression: from discursive tolerance to conceptual analogies;

1.2.4.4 The subjectivation and relativization of scientific-natural knowledge;

1.2.4.5 The reversal of the epistemological rupture: from “democratized” science to “enlightened” common sense;

1.2.5 On the way to a crisis of the postmodern science paradigm?

1.2.5.1 The return of the epistemological primacy of the natural sciences?

1.2.5.2 The crisis of the social sciences;

1.2.5.2.1 Formation and historical development of social sciences: the particular case of History and Economics - critical analysis;

1.2.5.2.2 Consequences of the “naturalistic temptation” in other social sciences: sociologisms and other social determinisms – the bankruptcy of social normativism;

1.2.5.3 The vengeance of the humanities – philosophy, religion, aesthetics, art, poetry as privileged “decoders” of the world and life;

2. Necessity and instruments of rupture with common sense in social sciences

2.1 Common sense as an obstacle to social-scientific knowledge?

2.1.1 Thesis that scientific investigation must begin by breaking with the typical pre-notions of current knowledge. The permeability of social sciences to common sense interpretations;

2.1.1.1 Critique by Boaventura Sousa Santos (remission): the break with the epistemological break;

2.1.1.2 Criticism by Augusto Santos Silva: common sense as one of the central objects of social sciences;

2.2 Content and scope of the methodological principle “explaining the social through the social”;

2.3 Criticism of some (metassociational) interpretations of common sense about social reality, in the light of three central themes of the social sciences: nature/culture; individuals/society; us/the others

2.3.1 The nature – culture split: naturalistic interpretations;

2.3.1.1 Rudimentary naturalism: invocation of “human nature” or other psychological universals;

2.3.1.2 Sophisticated naturalism: invocation of biological or physical factors;

2.3.1.2.1 Human ethology. Criticism;

2.3.1.2.2 Sociobiology. Criticism;

2.3.1.2.3 From biologisms to social Darwinism as an instrument for legitimizing unequal public policies;

2.3.2 Individual-society split: individualistic interpretations

2.3.2.1 Individualism and liberalism (political and economic);

2.3.2.1.1 The inorganic or atomistic conception of society (the society of individuals);

2.3.2.1.2 Individualism and classical and neo-classical economic theories: Critique of the axiom of “homo oeconomicus”:

2.3.2.1.2.1 The disregard of non-rational choices (importance of psychoanalysis, psychology and neurology – António Damásio);

2.3.2.1.2.2 The disregard of asymmetric personal relationships;

2.3.2.1.2.3 The use of the clause “coeterius paribus”;

2.3.2.2 The dialectic between individual action and social determinism;

2.3.2.2.1 Psychologisms;

2.3.2.2.2 Socilogisms;

2.3.2.2.3 Examples: The problem of the genesis and differential development of intelligence and its relationship with academic success; the individualist and structuralist paradigms in history;

2.3.2.2.4 Overcoming dialectics: from Bourdieu [individuals (biological) as social actors (subjects) only because (and as) socialized individuals] to Ortega y Gasset (“man is himself and his circumstance”)

2.3.3 Splitting “we” – “the others” – ethnocentric interpretations

2.3.3.1 Ethnocentrism: concept, characterization and function;

2.3.3.2 Forms of ethnocentrism;

2.3.3.2.1 Sexism – The Problems of Gender

2.3.3.2.1.1 Sex, gender and biology

2.3.3.2.1.1.1 Concepts of sex and gender

2.3.3.2.1.1.2 Will the differences in behavior have a biological basis? – “male aggressiveness” (women and war; male and female crime rates; but... violence between women in prisons; violence in lesbian relationships);

2.3.3.2.1.2 The socialization (“learning”) of gender;

2.3.3.2.1.2.1 Books and stories (boys' library, girls' library);

2.3.3.2.1.2.2 Television;

2.3.3.2.1.2.3 Influence of school (eg, regulatory differentiation of uniforms – skirts, dresses; textbooks; hidden curricula) and peer groups;

2.3.3.2.1.2.4 Difficulties of a non-sexist early childhood education;

2.3.3.2.1.3 Male domination (patriarchy);

2.3.3.2.1.3.1 Domestic work (and economic dependence on the husband);

2.3.3.2.1.3.2 Inequalities at work (maternity and professional success; the women's poverty trap – low wages, part-time work, unemployment);

2.3.3.2.1.3.3 Domestic violence (including child sexual abuse), sexual harassment, rape (fear of rape and female anxiety as an instrument of male intimidation) and prostitution;

2.3.3.2.1.3.4 The underrepresentation of women in the spheres of power and political, economic and social influence: Nancy Chodorow's sociobiological thesis (the social position of women and their “abandonment” from the public space is shaped by their involvement in the reproduction and raising of children) and Marx's thesis (the differences in power and social position as a reflection of class divisions);

2.3.3.2.1.4 Class and gender divisions;

2.3.3.2.1.4.1 Goldthorpe's Thesis (bi-univocal): the social class of a married individual depends on the position of the spouse – the higher social class spouse (male or female) determines the household classification;

2.3.3.2.1.4.2 Theses (univocal) according to which the female social position is always determined or a reflection of the social positions of her fathers or husbands;

2.3.3.2.1.5 Feminism

2.3.3.2.1.5.1 The French Revolution and the Declaration of Women's Rights, by Marie Gouze;

2.3.3.2.1.5.2 The English and North American suffrage movement;

2.3.3.2.1.5.3 The resurgence of feminism in the late 1960s: May '68, flower power, equality, sexual liberation, abortion and divorce rights;

2.3.3.2.1.5.4 Post-feminism - return to a traditional view of role differentiation; feminism and unhappiness; the postmodern status of the feminine;

2.3.3.2.2 Racism and Ethnicity – The problems of race, ethnic minorities and minority groups;

2.3.3.2.2.1 Ethnic groups, minority groups and race

2.3.3.2.2.1.1 concept of ethnicity – cultural practices (language, history, religion, way of dress, sexuality, etc.) and perspectives on the world and life that distinguish a given community of people;

2.3.3.2.2.1.2 concept of plural societies – those where there is a wide variety of ethnic groups encompassed in the same political and economic order;

2.3.3.2.2.1.3 race and biology – the failure of the genetic thesis: racism as a (wrong) attribution of hereditary personality and behavioral characteristics to individuals with a given physical appearance;

2.3.3.2.2.2 Minorities and Ethnic Antagonism

2.3.3.2.2.2.1 From ethnic prejudice (stereotyped thinking – influence of family and educational socialization in childhood) to ethnic discrimination (exclusive behavior, ie, denial of rights and opportunities granted to majority groups); the ethnic group closure;

2.3.3.2.2.2.2 Ethnic antagonism and the psychological mechanisms of displacement and projection - the scapegoats;

2.3.3.2.2.2.3 Apartheid (separate development) and the various forms of racial segregation;

2.3.3.2.2.2.3.1 micro-segregation – segregation of public places (washrooms, waiting rooms, cafes, train carriages, etc.);

2.3.3.2.2.2.3.2 mesosegregation – segregation of urban housing spaces (ghettos);

2.3.3.2.2.2.3.3 macro-segregation – segregation of entire populations into “native reserves”;

2.3.3.2.2.3 Racial discrimination in a historical perspective – some examples;

2.3.3.2.2.3.1 The European case;

2.3.3.2.2.3.1.1 The European colonial expansion – slavery (relief of the transatlantic slave trade), color (the symbolic weight of the black) and paganism;

2.3.3.2.2.3.1.2 The persecution of the Jews – from the peninsular expulsion to the final solution;

2.3.3.2.2.3.1.3 Treatment of migrant populations – nationalism and xenophobia; “Fortress Europe” (from Schengen to “sans papiers”);

2.3.3.2.2.3.2 The case of Brazil - Gilberto Freyre's Lusotropicalism;

2.3.3.2.2.3.3 The case of South Africa - apartheid (remission);

2.3.3.2.2.3.4 The case of the USA;

2.3.3.2.2.3.4.1 The abolition of slavery (civil war; the Ku-Klux-Klan);

2.3.3.2.2.3.4.2 WASP America and the civil rights movement – ​​from Martin Luther King to Black Power (Malcolm X); the persistence of inequalities and the “affirmative actions”;

2.3.3.2.2.3.4.3 The future of ethnic relations in the US: assimilation (the “Americanization” of immigrants), melting pot (new cultural patterns resulting from the mixing of cultural traditions of dominant groups with those of immigrant groups) and cultural pluralism ( equitable treatment of different subcultures, in the global context of national culture);

2.3.3.2.3 Classism – Stratification and class structure;

2.3.3.2.3.1 Social stratification systems;

2.3.3.2.3.1.1 Slavery;

2.3.3.2.3.1.2 Varieties;

2.3.3.2.3.1.3 States;

2.3.3.2.3.1.4 Classes;

2.3.3.2.3.2 Stratification theories in modern societies;

2.3.3.2.3.2.1 The theory of Karl Marx;

2.3.3.2.3.2.2 Max Weber's theory;

2.3.3.2.3.2.3 Erik Olin Wright's theory;

2.3.3.2.3.2.4 Frank Parkin's theory;

2.3.3.2.3.3 Social classes in current western societies;

2.3.3.2.3.4 Social mobility;

2.3.3.3 Ethnocentrism in the Social Sciences

2.3.3.3.1 In History: anachronism (ex.: Rabelais' atheism; homosexuality in Ancient Greece, the Church's requests for forgiveness, etc.);

2.3.3.3.2 In Anthropology: from the romantic look at the “savage” (Tarzan) to the legitimation of cultural domination over the “primitive” or “barbarian”;

2.3.3.4 The new ethnocentrisms

2.3.3.4.1 “Politically correct” thinking as a brand new tool for ethnocentric normalization;

2.3.3.4.2 The problem of the globalization of social life;

2.3.3.4.2.1 Colonialism, imperialism, first world and third world; Brief reference to other moments/models of globalization (from Imperial Rome to the Christian Republic; communist internationalism);

2.3.3.4.2.2 The compression of territorial, ecological and communicational space-time – from the global village to the global society; non-state actors and transnational corporations;

2.3.3.4.2.3 The economic (free trade), political (universalization of representative democracy and individual and social rights of citizenship) and cultural (cultural assimilation/standardization or melting pot/cultural pluralism?) dimensions of globalization. The case of the European Union;

2.3.3.4.2.4 Alternatives to globalization

2.3.3.4.2.4.1 From the return of local authorities (economic protectionism, nationalism and protection of “cultural specificities”) to alternative models of globalization;

2.4 Conditions of rupture with common sense

2.4.1 Relativization - contextualization of human facts;

2.4.2 The relationship of human facts;

2.4.3 The scientific analysis of common sense conceptions;

2.4.4 The inversion of the epistemological rupture (Boaventura Sousa Santos) – remission;

3. The unity of the social and the plurality of social sciences

3.1 Concept of total social phenomenon (Marcel Mauss);

3.2 The differentiation of social sciences (remission);

3.3 The crisis of the social sciences (remission);

4. Sociology

4.1 The historical development of sociological theory;

4.1.1 Durkheim: the objectification of social facts; social constraints; modernity and anomie;

4.1.2 Marx: the materialist conception of history; class struggle and historical determinism (the end of history);

4.1.3 Weber: the rationalization of production, bureaucracy and modernity; Protestantism and Capitalism;

4.2 Modern sociological thought;

4.2.1 Functionalism;

4.2.1.1 Merton's version of functionalism: function and dysfunction; manifest function and latent function;

4.2.1.2 Parsons' general theory of action (remission);

4.2.3 Structuralism;

4.2.3.1 Structuralism and Linguistics (Saussure);

4.2.3.2 Structuralism and Anthropology (Lévi-Strauss);

4.2.3.3 Structuralism and Semiotics (Barthes, Eco);

4.2.4 Symbolic interactionism

4.2.4.1 The role of symbols in everyday social life (special reference to Goffman);

4.2.5 Marxisms;

4.2.5.1 Historical materialism and functionalism (Cohen);

4.2.5.2 Historical materialism and structuralism (Althusser);

4.2.5.3 Historical materialism and symbolic interactionism (Marcuse and Fromm);

4.2.6 The post-modernity sociologies;

4.2.6.1.1 Lyotard and the end of narratives;

4.2.6.1.2 Lipovetsky and the return of radical individualism – from hedonistic narcissism to the hyperconsumption society.

4.2.7 The sociology of risk (Ulrich Beck);

4.2.8 Modern sociological thinking: theoretical dilemmas;

4.2.8.1 The Consensus-Conflict Dilemma (Functionalism and Marxism; Habermas and Luhmann);

4.2.8.2 The action – structure dilemma;

4.2.8.2.1 Social action;

4.2.8.2.1.1 Macrosociology and microsociology; social interaction;

4.2.8.2.1.2 Objective (Durkheim) and subjective (Weber) conceptions of social action;

4.2.8.2.1.3 The general system of action – the contexts of action;

 

 4.2.8.2.1.3.1 The cultural system;

4.2.8.2.1.3.2 The social system;

4.2.8.2.1.3.3 The psychic or personality system;

4.2.8.2.1.3.4 The biological system;

4.2.8.2.1.3.5 The cybernetic hierarchy of action contexts;

4.2.8.2.1.4 The normative foundations of social action;

4.2.8.2.1.4.1 The norms of social orientation: social constraint (remission);

4.2.8.2.1.4.2 The normative structure of social action;

4.2.8.2.1.4.2.1 Relief of cultural models;

4.2.8.2.1.4.2.2 Relief of social roles;

4.2.8.2.1.4.2.3 Relief of sanctions – social control and social compliance; variance and deviation;

4.2.8.2.1.4.2.4 Relief of socialization;

4.2.8.2.1.4.3 Determinism and freedom (remission);

4.2.8.2.1.5 The ideal and symbolic foundations of social action;

4.2.8.2.1.5.1 Values ​​- social function of values;

4.2.8.2.1.5.1.1 Coherence of cultural models;

4.2.8.2.1.5.1.2 People's psychic unity

4.2.8.2.1.5.1.3 Social integration;

4.2.8.2.1.5.2 Symbols - social function of symbols;

4.2.8.2.1.5.2.1 Communication function (thought and language) – semiotics;

4.2.8.2.1.5.2.2 Participation function – symbols of solidarity, hierarchical organization, the past and religious;

4.2.8.2.1.5.3 The culture system;

4.2.8.2.1.5.3.1 Definition of culture (collective ways of feeling, thinking and acting);

4.2.8.2.1.5.3.2 The symbolic apparatus (values, ideas, symbols, roles, knowledge, ideologies);

4.2.8.2.1.5.3.3 Institutionalization (transcription of cultural elements into concrete models of social action – translates into the materialization of cultural elements, that is, their passage from general norms to concrete norms for guiding action);

4.2.8.2.1.5.3.4 Social function and psychic function of culture;

4.2.8.2.1.5.3.5 Culture and nature – intention and instinct;

4.2.8.2.1.5.3.6 Culture and civilization;

4.2.8.2.1.5.3.7 Culture and ideology – Marxist concept of ideology as “false consciousness”;

4.2.8.2.2 The Social System (Parsons);

4.2.8.2.2.1 Structure of the social system – structural elements of the social system;

4.2.8.2.2.1.1 Values;

4.2.8.2.2.1.2 Standards;

4.2.8.2.2.1.3 Collectivities (family, school, factory, club, party);

4.2.8.2.2.1.4 Roles;

4.2.8.2.2.1.5 The cybernetic hierarchy of structural elements;

4.2.8.2.2.2 Functions of the social system – the functional imperatives of the social system;

4.2.8.2.2.2.1 Normative stability (protection and maintenance of the normative order);

4.2.8.2.2.2.2 Integration;

4.2.8.2.2.2.3 Pursuit of purposes;

4.2.8.2.2.2.4 Adaptation;

4.2.8.2.2.2.5 The cybernetic hierarchy of functional imperatives;

4.2.8.2.2.2.6 Relation of functional imperatives with concrete structural sets (Socialization; Law and the Judiciary; Political Organization and Organization of the Economy);

4.2.8.2.2.2.7 Relation of functional imperatives with structural elements;

4.2.8.2.2.2.8 Relation of functional imperatives with subsystems (culture, social, personality and biological) of the general system of action;

4.2.8.2.2.3 Social transformation;

4.2.8.2.2.3.1 Equilibrium transformation – influence of the equilibrium concept in mechanics (simple systems) and the homostease concept in biology (closed systems); criticism – the complex and open nature of the social system;

4.2.8.2.2.3.2 Transformation of structure (supposes a transformation in the cultural universe of values, ie, in the normative stability function); social change;

 

Manuel de Sá e Souza de Castelo Branco

NAO

Fundamental bibliography

– Boaventura de Sousa Santos, Um Discurso Sobre as Ciências, Edições Afrontamento;

–Hubert Reeves, René Thom et alia, Abordagens do Real, Publicações Dom Quixote;

– Augusto Santos Silva, A Ruptura com o Senso Comum nas Ciências Sociais, em Metodologia das Ciências Sociais, A.Santos Silva e J. Madureira Pinto (orgs.), 29-53, Edições Afrontamento;

– António Pires de Carvalho , Colectânea deTextos de apoio, ISCAC;

 – Anthony Giddens, Sociologia, 2ª Edição, Fundação Calouste Gulbenkian, 199-237,307-345,619-661;

–  Bryan S. Turner, ed., Teoria Social, Difel, 313-346;

–  A.J. Avelãs Nunes, Noção e Objecto da Economia Política, Almedina, 34-104;

– Henry Gleitman, Psicologia, 5ª Edição, Fundação Calouste Gulbenkian, 505-555

 António Pires de Carvalho , Colectânea deTextos de apoio, ISCAC;

–Guy Rocher, Sociologia Geral- A Acção Social, Editorial Presença;

– Guy Rocher, Sociologia Geral- A Organização Social, Editorial Presença;

–  Anthony Giddens, Sociologia, 2ª edição, Fundação Calouste Gulbenkian, 43-77, 829-861;

–  J.M Carvalho Ferreira, João Peixoto, Anabela Soriano Carvalho, Rita Raposo, João Carlos Graça e Rafael Marques, Sociologia, McGraw Hill, 215-241, 289-321, 407-477;

–  Raymond Aron, As Etapas do Pensamento Sociológico, Publicações Dom Quixote, 139-211, 475-541;

– Bryan S. Turner, ed., Teoria Social, Difel, 51-81, 143-170, 195-254, 405-436;

–  T.B. Bottomore, Introdução à Sociologia, Ed. Zahar, Rio de Janeiro

– Gilles Lipovetsky, Os Tempos Hipermodernos, Edições 70

 

Complementary bibliography

– Boaventura de Sousa Santos, Introdução a uma Ciência Pós-Moderna, Edições Afrontamento;

– Boaventura de Sousa Santos, A Crítica da Razão Indolente, 39-110, Edições Afrontamento;

– Edgar Morin, Amor, Poesia e Sabedoria, Instituto Piaget;

– Alain Sokal e Jean Bricmont, Imposturas Intelectuais, Gradiva;

–  Anthony Giddens, O mundo na era da globalização, Editorial Presença;

– Joseph Stiglitz, Globalização – A Grande Desilusão, Terramar;

– Jean Pierre Warnier, A mundialização da cultura, Editorial Notícias;

– Amartya Sen, L’Économie est une science morale, Éditions La Découverte ;

– Karl Polanyi, A Ilusão da Economia, Edições João Sá da Costa- – Público;

– Peter Burke, Sociologia e História, Edições Afrontamento;

– Marcel Blanc, Os Herdeiros de Darwin, Teorema;

– Danilo Martucelli, Sociologies de la modernité, 187-231, 260-289, 323-369, 437-474, Folio;

– Miguel Baptista Pereira, Modernidade e Tempo, 39-113, Minerva;

– Jean – François Lyotard, O Pós-Moderno Explicado Às Crianças, Publicações Dom Quixote;

– Jean – François Lyotard, A condição pós-moderna, Gradiva ;

-Ulrich Beck, La sociedad del riesgo, Paidós;

– Gilles Lipovetsky, A Era do Vazio, Relógio d’Água;

– Gilles Lipovetsky, O Crepúsculo do Dever, Publicações Dom Quixote;