The main goal here is to reflect about the conditions of exercise of sociology in various professional contexts, particularly in what comes to the (re)configuration of the cultural and practical bonds to the discipline while not working in the academy. Drawing from both Costa (1988) and Mills (1959), I argue for introducing the concept of sociological sensibility in the ongoing debate about the professionalization of sociology.

This article analyses the professional experiences of nonacademic sociologist’s, working in the public and private sector. On one hand, it intends to verify the extent to which these graduates link their professional activity, in terms of practices and representations, to the formative and scientific field of sociology (Costa, 1988 and 2004). On the other hand it intends to understand if their activities are characterized as a providing service to a community, with social concerns (Burawoy, 2005).

For the purpose of this research, the polysemic approach of sociology assigns symbolic representations to science, teaching and occupation. Thus, science associates the formal and informal roles of sociologist. Teaching represents anchored practices in social and professional responsibilities, integrating assumptions for social awareness and the construction of young people’s personality. Teaching is also inseparable from education and the values conveyed by the school. Occupation defines choice and accomplishment of a symbolic ideal in the current context. To the roles, practices and profession is embedded the cross-cutting concept of life and how to combine dream and reality for a sociologically sustainable future.

This article analyses the influence of academic training in sociology in individuals which hold or held political offices, through semi-directive interviews conducted in an research. The results reveal the ways in which sociology influences political activity theoretically and instrumentally. However, this influence varies based on different perspectives about political activity and sociology itself, mainly distinguishable with basis on the political party of the interviewees and the activities which they are currently involved in (sociology or politics, whichever the case it may be).

In this article, qualitative content analysis was used to analyze the professional experiences of sociology graduates, so to identify the dynamics of construction of disciplinary and professional identities in Portugal. The theoretical framework was primarily based upon António Firmino da Costa s professional culture models and Michael Burawoy s distinction between organic and traditional public sociology. This article proposes an analytical model to develop Burawoy s typology of sociological career pathways, taking into account different sociological paradigms relating to the validity of the production and use of sociological knowledge within the workplace.

This work aims to grasp what factors may be decisive in the process of admission to the profession, both in the recruitment or selection aspects, the consolidation process after getting the job, as well as how the sociologist can be distinguished from other candidates. It is proposed to map the mechanisms and processes that go along with the concept of building the "ideal candidate". To achieve the goal stated before, it was deemed to be of greater relevance to reference the experiences that three sociologists shared in an interview, about their own process of admission to the profession. Additionally, three forms where analysed. The first on the factors of competence evaluation in job interviews, used by a human resources company, and the rest are related to the performance evaluation system and career planning of coordination and team leader roles in a major national telecommunications company.

Employability is a concept that has been increasingly used in the debate about the relationship between universities and the labour market. In this article we intend to discuss this issue as a sociological problem and present three theses of the relationship between the science and the professionalization of sociologists. The first is that sociology can only be professionalized if its scientific domain contaminates the professional field it is inserted it. The second thesis is that the scientific professionalization depends on the rejection of a culture of dissociation between science and profession. The third thesis is that the professionalization of sociology is incompatible with the impoverishment of the critical dimension of sociologists.

The following essay is the result of a research on the practice of sociology in a non-academic setting and has three main objectives: first, to reflect on identity and professional culture; second, to understand the relation that non-academic sociologists establish between their academic path and their profession; finally, to understand their associative practices (professional and scientific, and others), their political participation and the social responsibilities they assume in different spheres. In regard to the last one, it should be highlighted the attempt to find out how the critical instruments mobilized by sociology are reflected in the everyday life of these sociologists.

The great increase of the number of graduated in sociology, especially after the democratic revolution of April’s 25th of 1974, have reconfigured the position of sociologists in the Portuguese labor market. In this essay the importance of several aspects of sociology in the sociologists’ professional integration is analyzed in the light of the relation of those that are considered the three pillars of the sociology of professions: Science, education and profession. Overall we tried to answer the questions raised in the problem of integration of sociologists in the labor market and identify some clues to the assertion of sociologists in non-academic professional context.

This article analyzes the importance of education in the real estate agent, an occupation seemingly distant from the academic circuit. The goal is to analyse the importance of university level education in the professional success and career evolution for these professionals. This analysis is based on a survey applied to the 50Portuguese best sellers of a real estate company, in 2008 and 2013. In a second qualitative approach, supported in directive interviews, we compare the experiences of two graduates (in sociology and engineering) with an agent with secondary level of education. At this stage, we try to analyse the features that differentiate these sellers.