Análise Social and the development of the social sciences in Portugal

Abstract

This text is a statement concerning the birth and trajectory of the journal Análise Social, the first number of which was published in 1963. Reference is made to key moments in the history of the research and teaching institutions to which Análise Social and its editors have been associated over the past twenty five years: the creation in 1962 of the Gabinete de Investigações Sociais (GIS, Bureau of Sociological Research); the formation in 1966 of the Group of Research Fellows in Sociology by the Gulbenkian Foundation (later integrated in GIS); the reforms of the Instituto Superior de Ciências Económicas e Financeiras (School of Economics and Finance) in 1969 and of the Instituto de Estudos Sociais (School of Social Studies, later known as ISCTE) in 1972; and the transformation of GIS into the Instituto de Ciências Sociais of the University of Lisbon - a research institute with faculty status carrying out research in most fields of the social sciences. Análise Social opened up a new field of intellectual endeavour in Portugal. Guided by a consistent concern for objectivity, it introduced new themes and new methods in the study of social and developmental problems. The author describes the context which led to the appearance of this new space after a prolonged period of backwardness of the Social Sciences in Portugal - an underdevelopment which had political motives and was consciously maintained by the regime. Progressively, the journal took a greater interest in sociological explanations of social facts, eventually abandoning its first definition as a social studies journal and becoming a social sciences journal. Ultimately, this is an account of the history of the origins and development of the modern social sciences in Portugal, as Análise Social was doubtlessly the major participant in that process.