The main objective of the master's degree is to provide solid research training to social scientists and social science professionals. Students will learn how to formulate and empirically test alternative theories and hypotheses on the main socio-demographic changes affecting modern societies and their inequality structures.

The approach used in the master's degree is both analytical and empirical. First, students will learn how to apply the latest theoretical developments used by the scientific community to better understand the structure and dynamics of modern societies. Second they will learn how to apply state-of-the art methodological tools to test the validity of their theoretical propositions.

The master's degree programme combines theoretical and methodological tools from demography and sociology. On the one hand, the programme focuses on the main demographic dynamics (fertility, mortality, aging, migratory flows, etc.) that affect human populations at large and some of their key institutions like the family, school, or work, with the help of the best statistical tools available to researchers today. On the other hand, the programme applies multidisciplinary methodological tools to analyze the key social phenomena that ensue from social relations of rivalry, power, and cooperation (poverty, social cohesion, social mobility, etc.).

The result is an original and unique approach that takes into account how demographic and social dynamics interact with each other so as to better assess the direction in which modern societies are heading.