The institute

The Institute of Social Sciences (ISS) is an interdisciplinary research and teaching centre that brings together four disciplines: cultural and social anthropology, social policy, social psychology and sociology. Social and cultural phenomena are analysed from a number of thematic angles (work, family, education, health, social policy, communication, culture, science and technology, identity and relationships between groups), and from various analytical perspectives (social stratification, gender studies, comparative studies, and life pathways). The ISS develops knowledge useful for the analysis of complex social and cultural phenomena in an academic environment nourished by interdisciplinary collaboration and critical exchanges.

The ISS offers all three cycles of higher education: Bachelor’s degrees, Master’s degrees in social sciences with a range of specializations, and various types of doctoral programmes (disciplinary and thematic). It has six research laboratories that explore a wide variety of social and cultural phenomena. Through the scientific activity of the laboratories, the ISS is very actively involved in multiple local, national and international research projects, and develops innovative social science research methods. It also has three observatories and three virtual centres.

The ISS (Institute of Social Sciences) was originally established on 1 July 2009, bringing together the four Institutes of the faculty already active in the social sciences: the ISSP (Institute of Social and Pedagogical Sciences), the ISCM (Institute of the Sociology of Mass Communications), the ITB (Interdisciplinary Institute for the Study of Biographical Trajectories), and the IAS (Institute of Anthropology and Sociology).

Following a further restructuring of research groups on 1 January 2016, the ISS now has six research laboratories, three observatories and three virtual centres. The range of research carried out and the scientists responsible are set out below.