Extra-academic social scientists: professional identity in the research market

Abstract

The article presents part of an empiric research about the market of opinions surveys in Brazil and highlights some elements about these not-so-studied social authors, although significant, both in the social scientists professionalism and in relation to the political system and democracy. To start, a survey was conducted with the research institutes with the objective of tracing some of their general characteristics, focusing in the professional structure of these companies. This survey was the first step to a following procedure of interviews with social scientists who work in this activity, composing an investigation about the professional identity and about the extra-academic sociology.