The PhD in Political and Social Studies is an academically oriented program that trains researchers capable of comprehensively addressing contemporary sociopolitical phenomena, combining theoretical rigor, methodological pluralism, and a strong interdisciplinary approach.

Its distinctive character lies in the structural integration of the social and political sciences—such as sociology, political science, and economics—with the humanities, particularly philosophy and history. This articulation enhances the doctoral students’ critical, reflective, and creative capacities, enabling them to develop original research that transcends conventional approaches and engages with the challenges faced by Chile and Latin America.

The program is also distinguished by a highly personalized training model, within a collaborative academic community committed to the integral development of scholarly practice.

Research Lines

The program’s two research lines stem from the areas of interest, publications, and academic trajectories of its founding and/or projected faculty at the time of its creation. Nevertheless, the program foresees the possibility of reviewing and updating these lines, as well as incorporating new ones, in accordance with its academic development and the growth and diversification of its faculty body.

Research Line 1: Institutions and Sociopolitical Processes

This line focuses on the study of contemporary sociopolitical institutions, their historical transformations, and the cleavages that shape them at national, regional, and global levels. It addresses phenomena such as the crisis of democracies and the emergence of alternative regimes of government; revolutions and social movements; the interactions between politics and the economy; cultural, technological, and demographic changes; as well as emerging crises in the ecological and global geopolitical orders.

Research Line 2: Social Practices and Interpersonal Relations

This line centers on the study of the primary, everyday, and practical forms of interpersonal social relations, and their articulation with processes of transformation and crisis within cultural and institutional domains, as well as with life trajectories and the formation of personal identities. Topics of research include transformations in domestic and family configurations; care practices; modes of cooperation and trust in contexts of uncertainty; conflictive behavior and violence; changes in gender relations; and processes of subjectivity and identity formation.