To train in and to teach sociology: the flexibility of theory and the differential value of the sociological perspective

Abstract

The objective in this article is to reflect upon the professional training in Sociology in the Faculty of Political and Social Sciences at unam. In the first place we offer a brief tour about the history of the Faculty along with data regarding undergraduate and graduate students of the degree in Sociology and its syllabuses. Secondly, we discuss the idea of the flexibility of theories and concepts and their connection with empirical investigation, preferably. This is done in order to wake the students’ interests in sociology by rethinking it towards the analysis of situations and issues of the current world, which is every time more precarious, provisional, novelty anxious, inter-connected and, frequently, extenuating. Thirdly, facing spontaneous sociology, some fundamental principles or “common standards” from the sociological perspective are presented along with their differential value, which will be presented as proposals of the basic skills of the students’ training.