Lisbon Institute of Social Sciences (ICS-UL)

ICS mission is to study contemporary societies with a special emphasis on Portugal and the societies and cultures with which it has a historical relationship.

These activities result from the collaboration between researchers of different disciplinar areas (Social and Cultural Anthropology, Economics, History, Human Geography, Political Science, Social Psychology, and Sociology), organized into 7 Research Groups: Empires, Colonialism & Post-Colonial Societies; Environment, Territory and Society; Identities, Cultures, Vulnerabilities; Life course, Inequality & Solidarity: Practices and Policies; Power, Society & Globalization; Regimes & Political Institutions; Socio-Political Attitudes & Behaviours. ICS has always been rated as an Institution of Excellence (the highest rating) by international FCT panels (1996, 1999, 2005 and 2008). These evaluations have provided a stimulus for innovative and interdisciplinary research, for high-quality teaching and for enhancing the social relevance of knowledge produced by ICS. Over fifty years, the driving force behind ICS has been the combination of researchers and the ideas they investigate with a scientific culture characterised by methodological and theoretical diversity.

Until 2020, ICS will be contributing to Changing Societies: Legacies and Challenges – a research agenda that lead the way to a new era as a research unit within the newly-merged University of Lisbon (ULisbon). This strategy is shaped by the need to respond to emerging societal trends and social issues in a changing and unstable world (namely those concerning Inequality, Citizenship and Sustainbility), taking into account both its structural underpinnings and short-term dynamics.