Sociology: Knowledge for Open and Inclusive Societies (OpenSoc)

Sociology: Knowledge for Open and Inclusive Societies (OpenSoc)

Sociology: Knowledge for Open and Inclusive Societies (OpenSoc) is an interuniversity doctoral programme that mobilizes the theoretical, methodological and empirical heritage built up during 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.

The OpenSoc programme emerged out of growing collaboration in sociological research for over a decade among our universities:

The study plan is organized into four years (240 ECTS credits). We have defined a four-year horizon because we believe that conceiving and executing a project and writing down the thesis require that amount of time studying, reflecting and discussing to mature innovative and robust research at the boundaries of sociological knowledge, and indeed expanding them.

The first year is composed of seminars for advanced learning, updating and deepening of theoretical and methodological knowledge and skills, having as its backbone the development of the students’ doctoral research projects. The class burden is of 8 hours a week, after working hours (from 6 p.m.), so as to accommodate study and tutorial support with other activities. Weekly classes take place in one of the institutions located in Lisbon.

Besides the seminars, during the first year each student benefits of the support of an assigned tutor, a professor or researcher in one of the institutions collaborating in OpenSoc, and from the second year on of a thesis supervisor chosen from among the teaching and research staff of the associated institutions.

The first year’s course culminates with the discussion and assessment of the students’ projects in Research Seminar II, leading up to the registration of the thesis and to the awarding of a Diploma of Advanced Studies in Sociology.

The three remaining years are fully devoted to the implementation of the doctoral research project and the writing down of the thesis, followed and supported by the supervisor and by periodical discussions in the research seminars.

The thesis project is registered in the institution to which the supervisor belongs, but it goes on being discussed in joint research seminars. Upon successful completion, the four universities will jointly award the doctoral degree.

At ICS-ULisboa, each PhD student is integrated in one of the Research Groups of the Institute, the most suitable to the theme of your thesis project, and called to follow up and participate actively in the activities of the GI.

 

1st YEAR - 1st SEMESTER

Curricular Units ECTS
Sociological Theories: The Classics 8 ECTS
Research Methodology 8 ECTS
Advanced Seminar in Sociology I 4 ECTS
Research Seminar I 10 ECTS

 

1st YEAR - 2nd SEMESTER

Curricular Units ECTS
Advanced Seminar in Sociology II 4 ECTS
Research Seminar II 10 ECTS
Contemporary Theoretical Debates 8 ECTS
Elective Units 8 ECTS

 

2nd YEAR

Curricular Units ECTS
Research Seminar III 5 ECTS
Thesis 55 ECTS

 

3rd YEAR

Curricular Units ECTS
Research Seminar IV 5 ECTS
Thesis 55 ECTS

 

4th YEAR

Curricular Units ECTS
Research Seminar V 5 ECTS
Thesis 55 ECTS

Requirements

The following are admitted as applicants:

  • Holders of a Master's degree  or legal equivalent in the fields of Sociology, or any other field in social sciences or humanities;
  • Holders of a Bachelor's degree or legal equivalent, holders of an especially relevant academic or scientific curriculum in other scientific domains that is recognized as attesting to the ability to carry out this cycle of studies;
  • Exceptionally, holders of an academic, scientific aor professional curriculum that is recognized as attesting to the ability to carry out this cycle of studies.

Applications

Applications 2023/2024

1st Call:

  • Applications: 6th February 2023 to 28th February 2023
  • Interviews: 28th February 2023 to 10th March 2023
  • Results: 13th March 2023
  • Request for review of applications: until 3 work days after publishing of results
  • Registrations: 10 consecutive days after the homologation of the application

2nd Call:

  • Applications: 1st March 2023 to 1st May 2023
  • Interviews: 1st May 2023 to 10th May 2023
  • Results: 13th May 2023
  • Request for review of applications: until 3 work days after publishing of results
  • Registrations: 10 consecutive days after the homologation of the application

3rd Call:

  • Applications: 2nd May 2023 to 14th June 2023
  • Interviews: 14th June 2023 to 16th June 2023
  • Results: 26th June 2023
  • Request for review of applications: until 3 work days after publishing of results
  • Registrations: 10 consecutive days after the homologation of the application

4th Call:

  • Applications: 17th July 2023 to 4th September 2023
  • Interviews: 4th September 2023 to 7th September 2023
  • Results: 8th September 2023
  • Request for review of applications: until 3 work days after publishing of results
  • Registrations: 10 consecutive days after the homologation of the application

Applications through the ISEG FenixEdu platform: https://fenix.iseg.ulisboa.pt.
To create a registration, please access https://fenix.iseg.ulisboa.pt/accountCreation.
In case you already have a registration, you can recover the access at https://fenix.iseg.ulisboa.pt/passwordResetRequest.
In case you already have a student number at ISEG, you should use your Campus account credentials. You may recover your access to this account at https://utilizador.ulisboa.pt.

The application fee is € 100.

Applications must be submitted with the following documents:

  • Certificate of Qualifications (Master's or equivalent academic degree);
  • Academic, scientific and/or professional curriculum;
  • Supporting documents referenced in the Curriculum;
  • Letter of interest;
  • Research project (presented according to the template adopted for FCT doctoral grant calls) or, alternatively, a detailed proposal of a research theme or problem, including summary (max. 150 words) and the presentation of the theme or problem proposed for research, providing foundation for its sociological relevance (max. 1,500 words).

The documents must be presented in Portuguese, English, French, Italian, or Spanish. In case the documents are in any other language, you must present the original document accompanied by an official translation into any of the described languages.

Admission

The applicants will be ranked according to the final classifications attributed to the applications by the Selection Jury, based on individual merit, and denotes in a scale of 0 to 20 values, taking under consideration the academic, scientific and professional curriculums, the projects, and letters of interest to follow the doctoral programme. The following criteria are considered:

- Applicants holders of Master's degree, or legal equivalent, in Sociology or any other field in social sciences and humanities:

  • The academic grade of the Master's degree (10%);
  • The academic grade of the Bachelor's degree (10%);
  • The global evaluation of the academic, scientific and professional curriculum (20%);
  • The evaluation of the research project or research theme propoposal, and the letter of interest (30%);
  • The evaluation of the interview (30%).

- Applicants holders of Bachelor's degree or legal equivalent:

  • The academic grade of the Bachelor's degree (10%);
  • The global evaluation of the academic, scientific and professional curriculum (30%);
  • The evaluation of the research project or research theme propoposal, and the letter of interest (30%);
  • The evaluation of the interview (30%).

- Applicants that are not holders of Higher Education degrees or legal equivalent:

  • The global evaluation of the academic, scientific and professional curriculum (40%);
  • The evaluation of the research project or research theme propoposal, and the letter of interest (30%);
  • The evaluation of the interview (30%).

 

Nationals of non-EU or associated countries are advised to take into account the delay in obtaining a student visa in time to attend the courses, and preferably to apply for the 1st or 2nd call.

For more information, visit https://opensoc.pt/en/applications/

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