The main goal of the curricular unit is to provide students a theoretical framework to think contemporary societies and its major problems and, through the analysis of a specific case – the European Union and today’s political, economic and social crisis –, to develop their criticism and their civic conscience.
1. Generic skills:
1. Organization and fluency of oral and written expression.
2. Capacity of analysis and synthesis.
3. Capacity to cope with complex and contradictory information.
4. Capacity to conceptualize and to question.
2. Specific skills:
1. Generic knowledge on central issues of contemporary world like globalization, global risks and citizenship.
2. Capacity to think and to debate with well-founded arguments about urgent problems of contemporary European societies from an analytical and cross-disciplinary perspective.
3. Knowledge of concepts, theories and problems that stand at the core of the debates within the social sciences.
1. Introduction to the Study of Contemporary Society Themes
1.1. Study and methodology of the study
1.2. Theories and concepts
2. Historical Change and Social Evolution
2.1. Modalities of historical tradition
2.2. Revolution and social change
2.3. The social movements
2.4. The modernity and his dimensions
2.5. The globalization
3. The Ideologies and the Modern Society
3.1. The ideologies
3.2. Types and social functions of ideologies
3.3. Liberalism, capitalism, and socialism
3.4. The social irruption of the ideologies
4. Social Classes and Stratification
4.1. Systems of social stratification
4.2. Industrialization and social classes
4.3. Social classes and inequalities
4.4. Classes structures and social mobility
4.5. Social classes, social practices, and social action
1. In the curricular unit the teaching methodologies will be of two kinds: magistral and student-centered active methodologies (oral presentation and debates).
2. The teacher’s magisterial presentation will focus mainly on the theoretic issues, underlining the contribution of certain social scientists to the debates and to the way how social actors and the media use the vocabulary that will be analysed in the classroom.
3. Students will read and debate in class texts related with the central problems that are studied in the curricular unit. This will show if the concepts were correctly understood. Thus, the students themselves will participate in teaching in a way that we believe will improve the integration of teaching and learning.
Almeida, João Ferreira (1995). Introdução à Sociologia. Universidade Aberta: Lisboa.
Bourdieu, Pierre (2001). Contrafogos 2. Por um movimento social europeu. Celta Ed.: Oeiras.
Clanchy, John; Ballard, Brigid (1997). Como escrever ensaios. Um guia para estudantes. Temas e Debates: Lisboa.
Costa, António Firmino da (2012). Desigualdades Sociais Contemporâneas. Ed. Mundos Sociais: Lisboa.
Estanque, Elísio (2012). A Classe Média: Ascensão e Declínio. Fundação Francisco Manuel dos Santos: Lisboa.
Giddens, Anthony (1996). As Consequências da Modernidade. Celta Ed.: Oeiras.
Nunes, Adérito Sedas (1993). História dos Factos e das Doutrinas Sociais. Da formação capitalista ao marxismo. Ed. Presença: Lisboa
Nunes, A. Sedas (1969). Sociologia e Ideologia do Desenvolvimento. Moraes Ed.: Lisboa.
Rocher, Guy (1989). Sociologia Geral. Mudança Social e Acção Histórica. Ed. Presença: Lisboa.
Sztompka, Piotr (1995). Sociología del Cambio Social. Alianza Ed.: Madrid.
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