Specialization or Fragmentation of Sociology: Scientific, Academic, and Professional Challenges

2021

AJIS

Self Cite

The spread of the COVID-19 pandemic has led to a profound change in the daily practices and symbolic representations of individuals, with strong social, economic and political implications, which no one is immune to. This article seeks to understand how a pandemic, specifically COVID-19, can generate or potentiate different forms of mental illness and living uneasiness. Thus, the aim is to know the varied manifestations of psychological suffering, from mild psychiatric disorders to the most intrusive ones, not forgetting the forms of widespread suffering which the pandemic causes and which are not reduced to the categories defined by the process of psychiatry. The relationships between mental illness, living uneasiness and COVID-19 are complex and multidimensional. Received: 13 October 2020 / Accepted: 12 December 2020/ Published: 17 January 2021

Section: Literature Reviewmentioning

confidence: 99%

Interdependencies between COVID-19, Mental Illness and Living Uneasiness

Martins¹,

Ferreira²,

2021

AJIS

Self Cite

“…The mobilization of appropriate methodologies to analyze the big data of this digital world (8,29); …”

Section: Challengesmentioning

confidence: 99%

Digital Society and Digital Sociology: One Thing Leads to the Other

2021

Sci Insigt

Self Cite

“…Despite various definitions, Sociology can be considered as a science (Michalski, 2020) that -in its theoretical specificities as multi-paradigmatic, object of study and methodological -seeks to grasp social reality in a rigorous manner through empirical information and by applying Durkheim's already classic general principle of explaining the social through the social (Ferguson, 2016;Ferreira & Serpa, 2017;Serpa & Ferreira, 2018, 2019a, 2019bSerpa et al, 2020). In line with Serpa and Ferreira (2019b), Sociology as a science and as a profession (in the diversity of roles and inherent professional cultures) studies the (dis)order of the social world, and deals with interactions, which result from the interaction and have implications in this interaction among human beings, such as objects, practices, representations and values, inserting them in their social context (online).…”

Section: Sociology As a Sciencementioning

confidence: 99%

“…There has always been tension since Sociology was established over the basic function of this scientific field (Aron, 1994;Cruz, 1995;Javeau, 1998;Mills, 1959;Weber, 1982;Paiva, 2014;Turner, 2019;Serpa & Ferreira, 2019a;Serpa, Ferreira, & Diogo, 2020;Daniels, 2018), exemplarily marked by Turner (2019) as follows: "Should it be an activist discipline devoted to the direct engagement of social problems or a scientific discipline committed to producing verified knowledge?" (p. 457).…”

Section: Introductionmentioning

confidence: 99%

Sociology: Tension between Science and Militant Activism?

Ferreira²

2020

JESR

Self Cite

This position paper is based on the assumption that there is an appreciation of Sociology as a justification for certain representations and practices of social and political intervention. In Sociology: Tension between science and militant activism?, the authors aim at justifying, on a reasoned basis, the relevance of Sociology as a specific form of scientific knowledge in current times, without, however, confusing the role of Sociology with the direct resolution of inequalities and injustices. At the methodological level, a bibliographic search on this subject has been carried out in scientific literature databases, such as Scopus, Web of Knowledge, SCILIT and institutional repositories, supplemented by the experience of the authors as sociologists, both in the teaching and research dimensions. Sociology focuses on sociological problems and not directly on social problems, and, as a science, it can contribute greatly to the understanding of the social world. Furthermore, the results from sociological research can potentially be applied in society in the most diverse political senses (in the broadest sense of this term). In conclusion, and as an implication, if this militant activist tendency is accentuated, Sociology may paradoxically lose recognition and scientific, academic and social legitimacy, contributing to its des-institutionalisation and consequent difficulty in having its knowledge applied to the resolution of social problems.