The Master of Social Sciences at ENS de Lyon offers two-year training in the scientific methods and practices of the social sciences. Interdisciplinary,  the master allows the rigorous acquisition of quantitative and qualitative methods of data collection and analysis in their historical, spatial and social dimensions in common courses taught in M1 and M2 ( first- and second-year master’s). Each course also allows you to acquire a specialization based either on a disciplinary field or on a thematic approach.

The Temporalities, Powers, Societies program addresses social phenomena from a historical and institutional perspective. It is aimed at social science students wishing to acquire advanced research skills in the field of the study of historical evolutions in the forms of governance of societies and the structuring of societies: institutions, economic and social regulations, social movements, directories of action. It is aimed at students with initial training in history or political science, to enable them to develop their knowledge, both theoretical and practical, of the scientific treatment of these questions. The major challenges of the governance of contemporary societies: relations between civil societies and states, the emergence of new forms of transnational governance, the growing weight of organized action and various forms of management, the construction of categories of action, will be considered from a broad historical perspective.

The program is supported by a wide range of courses, allowing students enrolled in this program to extend their curiosity to various thematic, geographic and temporal areas. They will thus be able to validate, within the framework of the master's degree in social sciences, courses on different historical periods, from Antiquity to the present day, and to deepen their methodological and historical training in the tools specific to the older periods (paleography, ancient languages, etc.) or to take part in a more interdisciplinary perspective such as the socio-history of politics, by personalizing their choice of courses.