Centro de Estudos Sociais

Centre for Social Studies

Founded in 1978, the Centre for Social Studies (CES) (www.ces.uc.pt) is a scientific institution devoted to research and advanced training in the area of the Social Sciences and Humanities. CES was awarded the status of Associate Laboratory by the Ministry of Science and has been evaluated as Excellent in international evaluations.

The team of CES researchers includes sociologists, economists, lawyers, anthropologists, historians, psychologists, experts in the fields of education, literature, culture and international relations, geologists, architects, gender studies, engineers, and biologists. CES numbers 127 researchers, 51 associate researchers, 80 post-doctoral researchers, more than 340 PhD students, 43 junior researchers and 27 admin staff.

The Centre’s researchers are organized in five Research Groups:
• Cities, Cultures, and Architecture (CCArq)
• Science, Economy and Society (NECES)
• Democracy, Citizenship and Law (DECIDe)
• Humanities, Migration and Peace Studies (NHUMEP)
• Social Policies, Labour and Inequalities (POSTRADE)

The research activities carried out at CES are based on 6 strategic guidelines:
a) promoting new epistemologies and stimulating cultural interaction of ideas and innovative research;
b) enhanced participation in national and international networks, with special focus on cooperation with Portuguese-speaking countries in North-South relations and in Europe;
c) supporting the development of progressive human rights concessions and the deepening of democracy;
d) deepening the knowledge of Portuguese society in a comparative and dialogic perspective;
e) support for the formulation of public policies and the reform of the administration of Justice; and
f) promoting the postgraduate studies and advanced training activities.

At present, there are more than 50 research projects ongoing, national and international, of different nature and size. Our current activities also include 12 PhD Programmes, in partnership with the University of Coimbra.