The Doctorate purpose is to train professionals with high-level competencies with regard to analysis and research work in the social sciences field. Such professionals should be able to disseminate the findings of their research work to the international scientific community, as it is also increasingly required today by the agencies in charge of the evaluation of the quality of research. Therefore, the Doctorate intends to encourage from the very beginning its students to turn out scientific products of such a type and quality that they can be published in international media. Concurrently, the Doctorate intends to use the English language in order to favour this international stance but also in order to receive and train foreign students. As a consequence, first, the Doctorate will accept only students with a good command of the English language; second, a substantial share of seminars and lectures will be held in English; third, the Doctorate will encourage the use of the English language for all the scientific production of its students. In terms of career opportunities for its Ph.D. graduates, the Doctorate purpose is to bring about a two-fold vocational profile (research-fellow/manager) for a three-fold employment sector (Universities and research institutions; public administration; private companies). More specifically, Ph.D. graduates are expected to find employment as research-fellow/teacher in Italian and foreign Universities; as research fellow in public and private research institutions dealing with socio-economic analysis (e.g., in Italy, ISTAT, CNR, CENSIS, ISFOL, INVALSI and, at the international level, FAO, World Bank, OECD, Eurostat, WHO, UNESCO, WTO, ILO, IOM); as research-fellow/manager in the public administration of local, regional or national level, as well as in private companies and NGO.