Ethnography in Sociology

The course proposes ethnography exercises in Sociology. Theoretical classes on this epistemological, methodological and analytical tradition are interspersed with double outings for observation and writing of field notes, as well as conducting ethnographic interviews and documentary analysis. Then, guidance is given on the analysis of this material, finding the analytical categories for the composition of short ethnographic essays. The multimetodological dimension of ethnography and its inference modes are also discussed. Ethnographic reference texts for Sociology will be used to support practical exercises in each module of the course. .

Sociology of Youth

In this discipline, we will seek to develop a sociological understanding of the social category of youth, analyzing the emergence and historical development of the concept of “young person” up to its contemporary representations. For that, we will approach historical studies on youth, in national and international scope, and some of the main studies developed in Sociology involving young people in the 20th and early 21st centuries. By the end of the course, students are expected to be able to mobilize the concepts and issues discussed in order to better understand the social role of young people in the social and political processes of recognition and claiming civil, political, social and human rights, as well as developing explanatory models for the main social problems experienced by young Brazilians today. The course is divided into two basic units: 1) The sociological debate about youth: origins, concepts, and the constitution of a field; 2) Thematic discussions and empirical research on youth.

Urban Sociology

The course addresses the debates of Brazilian Urban Sociology over the past four decades. We will highlight the relationship between the change in the central themes of this debate and the displacements about the configuration of the urban conflict. We will discuss pioneering authors of Brazilian Urban Sociology and contemporary works that have sought to understand urban conflict from its margins.

Social movements

The course aims to introduce students to the theme of social movements and collective actions, focusing on urban peripheries and contemporary Brazil. The course is organized into three debate modules: i) Introduction: movements and contexts – politics as a relationship; ii) Movements and policy: Marx, Weber, Simmel, Arendt, Rancière, Foucault, Das, Cavell; iii) Contemporary movements: identity (gender, race, sexuality); high school students; autonomists; the new old ones.

The marginal policy of Sociology by Georg Simmel

The course proposes a joint study with students in the vast – and complex – theoretical production of Georg Simmel, aiming at a critical reading of the present. If a good part of Simmel’s most important thematic essays has already been translated and is very influential in the corresponding thematic areas, his properly theoretical texts (although equally essayistic) are not as discussed in contemporary Brazil. From reading fragments of three of his main books: ‘Philosophy of Money’ (1900), ‘Sociology’ (1908) and ‘The Vision of Life’ (1918), plus a quick look at the “Fundamental Questions of Sociology” (1917), a study of epistemology, sociology and the way of conceiving science (and research) in Simmel. Hence, we will try to understand a way of conceiving politics, in Simmel. The most varied themes, such as the city and the urban, the relations between individual and society, action, partnership, modernity, form, and money will be auxiliary themes for this enterprise.