Portuguese Journal of Social Science - Volume 11, Issue 1, 2012

This paper aims to provide a systematised overview of the paradigmatic orientations in social psychology in Portugal by identifying the most cited publications. Results show that the eight most cited thematic are: (1) deviance and reactions to deviance, (2) methodology, (3) prejudice and discrimination, (4) gender studies, (5) risk, environment and safety, (6) information processing, social judgment, familiarity and mood, (7) social representations and (8) social justice and belief in a just world. These eight most salient thematics can be sorted into three current paradigmatic orientations in contemporary social psychology: (a) social cognition; (b) the study of collective beliefs, ideologies and social representations; and (c) the study of identity and its impact on intra- and intergroup processes. The paper finishes with a reflection on the future developments of the discipline and the dilemmas that social psychology in Portugal could face.

After a half century of history, sociological investigation in Portugal has entered a phase of advanced institutionalisation that is complete and with all the characteristics of an increasingly internationalised scientific field. The generators of sociological production – 'socio-cultural generator' and 'socio-political generator' – which consist of specific combinations of protagonists, themes and styles of sociology – have contributed to this process of institutionalisation that has been consolidated during the past two decades. These two generators are not responsible for all sociological output in Portugal, but they are responsible for the greater and more influential part. This article, then, provides a characterisation and comparative analysis of these generators, including the reciprocal citation patterns employed by their researchers.

This article is a contribution towards an assessment of economic idea in Portugal during the past 30 years. Following its renewal in the post-war period, it was with democracy that a significant academic community was created. It is possible to establish at least two phases that distinguish epistemological orientations and analytical interests. During the first phase a social science was constructed, the object of which was the economic system and its problems and dynamics. The interdisciplinary nature and substantive vocation of this were notable. In the second phase we witnessed what could be described as a disciplinary regression, with the domination of formalistic analyses. Empirically, through the analysis of three peer-reviewed journals (two economic and one interdisciplinary) and of the projects approved by Portugal's Foundation for Science and Technology (FCT – Fundação para a Ciência e a Tecnologia), we conclude there are several ways forward from the crossroads at which we now find ourselves. One of these is the insistence that economics is a 'science of the markets', which is legitimising and normative. Another values it as an open science that is based on pluralism and which has a critical relationship with reality.

Is history important in our day? Truthfully, following the nationalist conceptions that give a particular importance to history, and after it having become a weapon at the service of political conceptions of democratic openness and of opposition to lines of interpretation, or of ideology and memory, defended by authoritarian regimes, and even after it had been confirmed as a greatly important science, as an interpretation of the past and of the present, in an interdisciplinary space, history has involved itself in the vast and poorly defined field that is the social sciences. Consequently, it has at times lost its identity, more so to the extent to which it has become a narrative discourse of divulgation. This is the reflection that we seek to make, discovering whether – perhaps despite and because of the interdisciplinary nature of historiographical discourse – history is a science that pursues complex and objective analysis and interpretation that is not wrapped up in concerns for ideology and 'opinion' that is characteristic of a period of cultural crisis.

The question of the future of European social sciences is taken up by examining two examples of 'futures past' that represent significant moments of two different 'histories' of the social sciences. The first one is that of Max Weber in the years about 1910 when he engaged himself in the foundation of the German Sociological Association and in other initiatives. The second example is that of the efforts of Fernand Braudel, during the 1950s and 1960s, to reorganize social sciences and humanities in the frame of new institutions as the Ecole des Hautes Etudes en Sciences sociales and the Foundation Maison des Sciences de l'Homme. Both initiatives, the German and the French, combined an intellectual with an institutional project, the first being a story of failure, the second a story of success.

The actual situation is then examined under the viewpoint of the tensions between Eurocentrism and de-Europeanisation on the one side, monolingualism and pluri-lingualism on the other. Going back directly (and not via second hand lectures) to important intellectual projects as those of Weber and Braudel (or others) could be helpful for the design of the future of European social sciences.

This paper assesses a central challenge facing the social sciences – namely, implementing the outcomes of research, especially in the broader area of policy and practice. It notes the potential benefits of social sciences research, observing that a key reason for its limited application has been the search for a 'value free' social science. The role of values in social science is explored and it is argued that a more appropriate balance needs to be struck with the political underpinnings of the research enterprise. The importance of applying relevant research in the social sciences is underlined and the factors which inhibit and encourage this are considered. These include the way results are communicated – not least through the dissemination of research and the existence of institutionalised structures. The paper concludes by observing that the challenge is not just implementing social science research, but doing so in a manner resonant with the public interest.

SABER PRĀTICO DE SAŪDE: AS LÓGICAS DO SAUDĀVEL NO QUOTIDIANO, LUISA FERREIRA DA SILVA, 2008 Oporto: Afrontamento, 204pp ISBN: 978-972-36-0911-0, p/bk, €12.12

PERSPECTIVAS DE ANĀLISE ORGANIZACIONAL DAS ESCOLAS, LIMA, L. C. (ED.) (2011), VILA NOVA DE GAIA Fundação Manuel Leão, 224 pp., ISBN: 9789898151216, p/bk, €14.45