Vitor Sérgio Ferreira is a sociologist. He is currently Research Fellow and lecturer in the post-graduation at the Institute of Social Sciences of the University of Lisbon (ICS-ULisboa).

After finishing his degree in Sociology (1995) and a post-graduation in Communication, Culture and Information Technology (1998), he concludes his PhD in Sociology in 2006, in the specialty of Sociology of Communication, Culture and Education. All his training was held at ISCTE-Lisbon University Institute (ISCTE-IUL).

His main areas of research are:

Sociology of youth: youth cultures and identities; transitions to adulthood and life paths; school, employability and work; generations and values; practices and lifestyles.

Sociology of the body: attitudes towards the body; practices of body maintenance and modification; somatic cultures.

Sociology of culture: cultural mediators; artists and creators; creativity; cultural practices.

Qualitative methods: interview techniques; discussion groups; content analysis, MAXQDA, biography and sociological portraits.

Lately, he has been interested in research: how and why generational categories have won prominence as symbolic devices of identification and enunciation of social inequalities in the post-crisis environment; the conditions of emergence of "new dream jobs" among aspirational configurations and professional routes of the newest generations; and the new and old ways of political acting and policies production by, for and with young people.

His current projects include: Youth Policies: from the local to the national level (funded by the Portuguese Institute of Sports and Youth); Youth Wiki: online platform about youth policies in EU State Members (funded by the National Agency Erasmus+ Youth in Action and European Commission); or Making dream jobs come true: transitions to new attractive professional worlds to young people (funded by Fundação para a Ciência e a Tecnologia, PTDC/CS-SOC/122727/2010).

His most recent publications include the books Millennium Generation? A Social and Political Portrait, and Research Young People. Methodological Routes and Challenges, both publish in 2017 by Social Sciences Press. He publishes regularly in several national and international journals of reference as Societies, Revista Educação & Realidade, Antropolítica - Revista Contemporânea de Antropologia, Young - Nordic Journal of Youth Research, Youth & Society, Saúde & Sociedade or Análise Social. Currently he is finishing a book on youth cultures and “new dream jobs”, and another on Youth Studies: Values, Practices and Discourses on Generations. He is also preparing a book about youth policy in Portugal.

He is member of the advisory boards in various international projects: European Advisory Board (EAB) and National Advisory Board (NAB) of the project YOUNG_ADULLLT - Policies Supporting Young People in their Life Course. A Comparative Perspective of Lifelong Learning and Inclusion in Education and Work in Europe (funded by European Commission); National Advisory Board (NAB) of the project Below 10 (funded by Erasmus+); and Youth Policy Adviser Group (YPAG) of the project MYPLACE – Memory, Youth, Political Legacy and Civic Engagement (funded by European Commission).

Currently, at ICS-ULisboa, he is the coordinator of the research group LIFE – Life Course, Inequalities and Solidarities: Practices and Policies, and vice-coordinator of the Permanent Observatory of Youth. He is also an elected member of the Scientific Board of the ICS-ULisboa, and a member of the Board of Ethics of the Portuguese Association of Sociology (APS).

At the level of postgraduate education, he represents ICS-ULisboa in the Scientific Committee of the Inter-University Doctoral Program in Sociology: Knowledge for Open and Inclusive Societies (OpenSoc), where he leads and teaches the course Qualitative Research Methods and Techniques, as well as the Research Seminars III. He is a member of the Pedagogical Committee and of the Committee of Postgraduate Studies at the ICS-ULisboa.

He has collaborated extensively with several post.-graduate programs abroad, with emphasis on Brazil, supervising many international visiting scholars at doctoral and post-doctoral level at ICS-ULisboa, with the support of several agencies and programs for scientific funding, such as the Erasmus program, CAPES, CNPQ or FAPESP. He was also a visiting Professor at the Faculty of Public Health at the University of São Paulo, coordinating and ministering the course Social Research Seminars: Theories, Research Methods and Techniques, in the PhD program in Global Health and Sustainability. He also regularly collaborates in the course Children and Youth: Interdisciplinary Perspectives, in the Master of Education & Society at the ISCTE-IUL.

For a more detailed profile and access to all publications, you may consult his personal website, as well as the links from the various repositories listed on the right side of this page.