Eunice Castro Seixas | SOCIUS/CSG - Investigação em Ciências Sociais e Gestão, ISEG - Lisboa School of Economics and Management (original) (raw)
Papers by Eunice Castro Seixas
CIVITAS, 2023
Artigo está licenciado sob forma de uma licença Creative Commons Atribuição 4.0 Internacional.
Children, Youth and Environments
Frontiers in Sociology, 2022
The development of green spaces in cities has corresponded to a need to deal with a series of soc... more The development of green spaces in cities has corresponded to a need to deal with a series of socio-environmental and health problems felt in urban spaces. However, these are often fragmented or somewhat disconnected interventions that leave out vulnerable and subaltern groups like children, being also commonly based on strictly formatted designs, with more urban furniture than natural elements. In view of the need to make urban spaces healthier, safer, more resilient, and at the same time more child-friendly, in this Conceptual Analysis paper we build from the literature on Urban Green Spaces, Child-Friendly Cities and environments, and Children's Infrastructure to propose the concept of Children Green Infrastructure (CGI), and discuss its application to urban planning, foregrounding the need for fairer, more inclusive and participatory approaches. GGI derives from the Children Infrastructure concept but it puts at the center of the debate the idea of connecting children to nat...
Front. Psychol., 2021
In this paper I discuss the concept of the right to the city in articulation with the concept of ... more In this paper I discuss the concept of the right to the city in articulation with the concept of urban play and more specifically, the diverse body of research related with playable and playful cities. Following a brief review of these two concepts and related studies, I critically discuss the possibilities of articulating Lefebvre's radical concept of the right to the city to contemporary interventions on urban and digital play.
Frontiers in Sociology, 2021
Although militaristic metaphors have been pervasive during health crisis in political and science... more Although militaristic metaphors have been pervasive during health crisis in political and science communication, few works have examined how these linguistic devices may influence crisis communication. Drawing on critical discourse analysis (CDA) and on crisis communication literature, I show how political representatives have used the war metaphor for very different purposes in terms of crisis communication and management of the current Covid-19 pandemic. I suggest that these findings challenge previous criticisms of the war metaphor as inherently negative and damaging. Finally, I discuss possibilities of using CDA, and specifically, metaphor analysis to inform and expand crisis communication.
Volume 3: Public Space and Mobility
Starting from a research carried out in the city of Porto, Portugal, on the uses of public parks ... more Starting from a research carried out in the city of Porto, Portugal, on the uses of public parks by children with different social backgrounds, this chapter discusses the practices and views of children when they visit parks in times of pandemic. Playing outdoors potentially contributes to the well-being of children. However, children’s independent mobility and use of public space were already declining prior to the pandemic, with urban childhood increasingly revolving around indoor settings including the home and school. The observations of playgrounds in Porto before and after the lockdown reveal that children now engage more in solitary play, isolated from peers. As such, they might be playing outdoors again, but they are not playing together.
Praxis Educacional, 2020
Resumo: Os jardins e os parques urbanos são espaços públicos construídos socialmente pela ação hu... more Resumo: Os jardins e os parques urbanos são espaços públicos construídos socialmente pela ação humana, nas suas múltiplas dimensões e na diversidade dos grupos sociais, culturais e geracionais que os frequentam. No entanto, o espaço urbano não tem sido compatível com a inclusão social plena de todas as crianças. Estes espaços são geralmente concebidos sem a sua participação, com base numa série de assunções e imaginários culturais e sociotécnicos sobre a infância e as crianças. Estas assunções, ao serem efetivadas no espaço público, contribuem para a estandardização e normalização das crianças nesses espaços, com implicações nos modos de administração simbólica da infância contemporânea, nomeadamente pela restrição da sua agência e práticas socioespaciais. Este artigo analisa o(s) modo(s) como crianças e adultos percebem e experienciam dois espaços públicos diferenciados da cidade de Lisboa (Portugal): o Jardim Vasco da Gama, em Belém e o Parque urbano da Quinta das Conchas, na Alta de Lisboa. Partindo de uma análise etnográfica assente na observação participante e em entrevistas qualitativas a frequentadores destes espaços e recorrendo a perspectivas da Sociologia Urbana e da Sociologia da Infância, pretende-se dar visibilidade às crianças como produtoras de conhecimento diferenciados dos adultos. Estes estudos de caso possibilitam discutir a situação da infância na cidade como revelador social, com especial incidência nos jardins/parques urbanos, enquanto espaços sociais estruturados, onde as crianças são particularmente tornadas visíveis nas interdições formais e simbólicas feitas às mesmas, mas também no modo como se apropriam do espaço público e efetivam o seu direito à cidade. Palavras-chave: Cidade. Infância. Jardins/Parques urbanos. Abstract: Urban gardens and parks are public spaces socially constructed by human action, in their multiple dimensions and in the diversity of the social, cultural and generational groups attending them. However, urban space planning and management have not been fully compatible with the social
Sociologia: Revista da Faculdade de Letras da Universidade do Porto, Número Temático - Direitos das crianças: abordagens críticas a partir das ciências sociais, 2020
Participação em processos de consulta pública: Percepções dos cidadãos e recomendações para autor... more Participação em processos de consulta pública: Percepções dos cidadãos e recomendações para autoridades responsáveis Relatório produzido pelo projecto COMPOLIS-Comunicação e Envolvimento Político com Questões Ambientais Projecto financiado pela Fundação para a Ciência e a Tecnologia (EXPL/IVC-COM/1717/2012
Comunicação e Sociedade, 2019
O procedimento de consulta pública tem sido, cada vez mais, utilizado em projetos com impacto amb... more O procedimento de consulta pública tem sido, cada vez mais, utilizado em projetos com impacto ambiental, supostamente como uma forma de assegurar que as preocupações e sugestões das pessoas e das comunidades interessadas e afetadas pelos projetos são tidas em conta. No entanto, esta forma de participação pública tem vindo a ser bastante criticada, por ser uma prática meramente simbólica e sem consequências concretas. Neste artigo, apresentamos um estudo focado no processo de consulta pública relativo ao projeto de construção de uma linha de muita alta tensão entre o Norte de Portugal e a Galiza (Espanha). Especificamente, analisamos discursos de cidadãos relativamente às barreiras à sua participação pública, bem como diversas recomendações para desenvolvimento de processos de consulta pública éticos e relevantes. A análise apresentada é baseada em entrevistas semiestruturadas a 26 pessoas e em cinco grupos focais (N=37) realizados em quatro localidades do Norte de Portugal. A partir...
Lo Squaderno. Explorations in Space and Society, 59, Beyond urban violence, pp. 61-66., 2021
This paper aims to discuss how various types of violence are at play in a stigmatized neighborhoo... more This paper aims to discuss how various types of violence are at play in a stigmatized neighborhood in the periphery of Lisbon. Through the lenses of several critical, including post-colonial and decolonial authors, we read the data here succinctly described, that was collected and analyzed for the Masters’ thesis of the first author (Giacchetta, 2020).1 The thesis analyzes several neighborhoods in the periphery of Lisbon Metropolitan Area, which were built mostly in the 1970s, by populations moving to the city from rural regions and former Portuguese colonies (Abrantes, 2011). In particular some neighborhoods have become stigmatized places, inhabited mostly by precarious workers of African origin, where the construction of informal settlements and the occupation of private dwellings has resulted in poor housing conditions (Viegas, 2017). In this paper we focus on one of those neighbor-hoods, Jamaica, in the city of Seixal, as a case-study of territorial stigmatization, thus a place with a negative public image,2 wherein specific populations are relegated, becoming “urban outcasts” (Wacquant, 2008).
Revista Comunicação e Sociedade, 2019
Public consultations are increasingly used in projects with environmental impact, allegedly as a ... more Public consultations are increasingly used in projects with environmental impact, allegedly as a way to ensure that affected people and communities have their concerns recognised and addressed. There have been multiple criticisms of this form of public participation, with consultations frequently viewed as a tokenistic practice. In this study, we focus on a public consultation on extra-high voltage power lines projected to go from northern Portugal to northwestern Spain. We analyse citizens' discourses regarding hindrances to participation as well as envisaged possibilities to improve it. The study draws on semi-structured interviews with 26 people and five focus groups discussions (N=37) carried out in localities in the north of Portugal that would be affected by the project. Based on citizens' narrated experiences of participation we discuss the relevance and the ethics of participation in access, standing and influence in public consultations processes.
Punishment & Society , 2017
Since prison life is out of common people’s sight, the media have a particularly important role i... more Since prison life is out of common people’s sight, the media have a particularly important role in legitimating or, conversely, de-legitimating public discourses and policies about punishment, incarceration and rehabilitation. In the present study, our analysis was grounded in 83 news, 55 of these about men prisons, 24 about women prisons and 4 news about public policies in general, although having specificities about men’s and women’s prisons published in a Portuguese national newspaper between 2005 and 2014. The analysis suggests that, with very few exceptions, gender is an important issue in the media construction for men's and women's prisons and male and female inmates; gender norms of masculinity and femininity are essentialized, justifying different practices of control in prison policies. Dangerous, violent, resistant and manipulative male inmates call for prison policies based on risk control and managerialism, whereas docile and reliable female inmates call for policies grounded on rehabilitation but also security. Apart from this representation, our analysis also shows that the news, in general, tends to align with a reformist approach, failing to interrogate the wider role of imprisonment in social control or to discuss its alternatives.
Journalism, 2017
Little attention has been paid to the relation between citizens’ representation in news media and... more Little attention has been paid to the relation between citizens’ representation in news media and citizen participation in readers’ comments, and to the roles both discourses may play in fostering public engagement in official consultation processes. This article
offers a discursive analysis of these questions by focusing on how commenters, through their uses of language in connection with news texts, address the political ordering of news discourse and their positioning therein. Using Critical Discourse Analysis and
other interaction-oriented forms of discourse analysis, we examine, first, the topics and the framing of voices in news coverage and, second, the interactional order, stance markers and style features of readers’ comments. Based on data regarding a policy plan on hydroelectric power in Portugal that was submitted to public consultation, we
show that citizen positionings emerging from the interaction between news texts and comments change the balance of power within the discussion, but their participatory potential is restrained by traditional citizenship regimes.
Political Psychology, 2017
It is crucial to gain better insights into how psychosocial processes can limit the power of the ... more It is crucial to gain better insights into how psychosocial processes can limit the power of the political/legislative sphere for promoting social change through new laws. One form of accomplishing this is by illuminating the arguments and the content and value of social representations at play in cases in which the public sphere succeeds in contesting new laws. In this article, we explore a case of successful resistance to new ecological laws in a Portuguese Natura site. The laws, restricting recreational fishing, were made less stringent after meeting with local opposition. Content analysis of 122 articles published from 2006 to 2014 in regional and national newspapers reveals that protestors (fishermen, local authorities) received higher visibility and support and had more direct voice than the political sphere in both presses. Dialogical analysis of direct quotations of protestors shows how they seek legitimacy by establishing common ground with valued representations, vividly invoking people-place bonds and tradition, and also how they attempt to undermine the law's legitimacy by linking local and national concerns, avoiding (potentially devalued) “Nimby” (“not in my backyard”) arguments. The discussion highlights what can be learned from using the press to investigate policy struggles that successfully organized their argumentation to contest new laws.
Public participation in environmental governance is typically associated with citizen access to p... more Public participation in environmental governance is typically associated with citizen access to power despite many closures and limitations having been identified in participatory processes. This article proposes an analytical framework to analyse discursive practices involved in public consultation processes. Critical Discourse Analysis is used to
examine and appraise citizens’ access, standing and influence. We apply that framework to a ‘notice and comment’ process on a hydroelectric power plan in Portugal and show that it
was discursively managed to justify the decision of constructing 10 large dams and to reject critical or alternative views. Citizens’ access, standing and influence were constrained
through diverse discursive practices which (re)produced very unequal power relations between policy proponents and participating individuals. More generally, the article illustrates the potential of Critical Discourse Analysis to assess voice(s) in policy processes. Focusing on argumentative, interactional and rhetorical levels, and how they are interwoven in public consultation discourses, the proposed framework is conceivably applicable in other studies.
Internationalization, anchored in the idea of competitiveness in a global knowledge-based economy... more Internationalization, anchored in the idea of competitiveness in a global knowledge-based economy is one of the driving forces of the higher education reforms in Europe. At a time of economic crisis, internationalization is fundamental to attracting students and promoting the institution on a global scale. For Portugal, the
‘Lusophone space’ emerges as a preferred market, legitimized by political, economic and cultural rationales linking the ideas of ‘lusophony’ and education. In this paper I critically examine how the Portuguese press (comparing the weekly newspapers ‘Expresso’ and ‘Sol’) reconstruct these discourses on lusophony and internationalization.
Revista Universitas: Relações Internacionais
Este artigo analisa criticamente o enfoque atual da cooperação para o desenvolvimento, democratiz... more Este artigo analisa criticamente o enfoque atual da cooperação para o desenvolvimento, democratização e construção da paz em critérios psicossociais e culturais para além dos critérios formais e institucionais. Esta análise supõe um questionamento de alguns conceitos centrais à cooperação para o desenvolvimento, nomeadamente, os conceitos de desenvolvimento, paz liberal, sociedade civil e direitos humanos. Sugere-se que a relevância do campo cultural na cooperação para o desenvolvimento, democratização e construção da paz não constitui um dado novo, tendo ressonância com a teoria da modernização e até com processos coloniais, na medida em que contribui para uma criação de uma diferença entre o self ocidental e 'outro' não ocidental. A cultura como foco e mecanismo da governação liberal global relaciona novos conceitos ('boa governação' , 'segurança humana') com conceitos mais clássicos ('sociedade civil' , 'direitos humanos') e permite simultaneamente uma invisibilização das relações de poder e uma evasão da responsabilidade por parte dos poderes ocidentais. Palavras-chave: Construção da paz. Cooperação para o desenvolvimento. Paz liberal. Sociedade civil. Direitos humanos. Abstract This article examines critically the current focus of development cooperation, democratization and peace building in psychosocial, cultural and institutional criteria. This analysis implies a questioning of some concepts central to development cooperation, including development concepts, liberal peace, civil society and human rights. It is suggested that the relevance of the cultural field in development cooperation, democratization and peace--building is not a new fact, having resonance with modernization theory and colonial processes, contributing to create a difference between the Western self and 'other' non-Western. Culture as a focus and mechanism of global liberal governance relates new concepts ('good governance' , 'human security') and classic concepts ('civil society' , 'human rights') and allows both an invisibility of power relations as an evasion of responsibility of Western powers.K eywords: Peace building. Development cooperation. Liberal peace. Civil society. Human rights. Para publicar na revista Universitas Relações Internacionais, entre no endereço eletrônico www.publicacoesacademicas.uniceub.br. Observe as normas de publicação, facilitando e agilizando o trabalho de edição.
holds a degree in Psychology by the FPCE of Porto University (in 1996), and a Master in Social Ps... more holds a degree in Psychology by the FPCE of Porto University (in 1996), and a Master in Social Psychology by the same institution (in 2004). She has worked as a psychologist, as an assistant at university and collaborated in research projects. Presently she is affiliated with Center for Social Studies, Coimbra University, where she does her doctoral studies.
CIVITAS, 2023
Artigo está licenciado sob forma de uma licença Creative Commons Atribuição 4.0 Internacional.
Children, Youth and Environments
Frontiers in Sociology, 2022
The development of green spaces in cities has corresponded to a need to deal with a series of soc... more The development of green spaces in cities has corresponded to a need to deal with a series of socio-environmental and health problems felt in urban spaces. However, these are often fragmented or somewhat disconnected interventions that leave out vulnerable and subaltern groups like children, being also commonly based on strictly formatted designs, with more urban furniture than natural elements. In view of the need to make urban spaces healthier, safer, more resilient, and at the same time more child-friendly, in this Conceptual Analysis paper we build from the literature on Urban Green Spaces, Child-Friendly Cities and environments, and Children's Infrastructure to propose the concept of Children Green Infrastructure (CGI), and discuss its application to urban planning, foregrounding the need for fairer, more inclusive and participatory approaches. GGI derives from the Children Infrastructure concept but it puts at the center of the debate the idea of connecting children to nat...
Front. Psychol., 2021
In this paper I discuss the concept of the right to the city in articulation with the concept of ... more In this paper I discuss the concept of the right to the city in articulation with the concept of urban play and more specifically, the diverse body of research related with playable and playful cities. Following a brief review of these two concepts and related studies, I critically discuss the possibilities of articulating Lefebvre's radical concept of the right to the city to contemporary interventions on urban and digital play.
Frontiers in Sociology, 2021
Although militaristic metaphors have been pervasive during health crisis in political and science... more Although militaristic metaphors have been pervasive during health crisis in political and science communication, few works have examined how these linguistic devices may influence crisis communication. Drawing on critical discourse analysis (CDA) and on crisis communication literature, I show how political representatives have used the war metaphor for very different purposes in terms of crisis communication and management of the current Covid-19 pandemic. I suggest that these findings challenge previous criticisms of the war metaphor as inherently negative and damaging. Finally, I discuss possibilities of using CDA, and specifically, metaphor analysis to inform and expand crisis communication.
Volume 3: Public Space and Mobility
Starting from a research carried out in the city of Porto, Portugal, on the uses of public parks ... more Starting from a research carried out in the city of Porto, Portugal, on the uses of public parks by children with different social backgrounds, this chapter discusses the practices and views of children when they visit parks in times of pandemic. Playing outdoors potentially contributes to the well-being of children. However, children’s independent mobility and use of public space were already declining prior to the pandemic, with urban childhood increasingly revolving around indoor settings including the home and school. The observations of playgrounds in Porto before and after the lockdown reveal that children now engage more in solitary play, isolated from peers. As such, they might be playing outdoors again, but they are not playing together.
Praxis Educacional, 2020
Resumo: Os jardins e os parques urbanos são espaços públicos construídos socialmente pela ação hu... more Resumo: Os jardins e os parques urbanos são espaços públicos construídos socialmente pela ação humana, nas suas múltiplas dimensões e na diversidade dos grupos sociais, culturais e geracionais que os frequentam. No entanto, o espaço urbano não tem sido compatível com a inclusão social plena de todas as crianças. Estes espaços são geralmente concebidos sem a sua participação, com base numa série de assunções e imaginários culturais e sociotécnicos sobre a infância e as crianças. Estas assunções, ao serem efetivadas no espaço público, contribuem para a estandardização e normalização das crianças nesses espaços, com implicações nos modos de administração simbólica da infância contemporânea, nomeadamente pela restrição da sua agência e práticas socioespaciais. Este artigo analisa o(s) modo(s) como crianças e adultos percebem e experienciam dois espaços públicos diferenciados da cidade de Lisboa (Portugal): o Jardim Vasco da Gama, em Belém e o Parque urbano da Quinta das Conchas, na Alta de Lisboa. Partindo de uma análise etnográfica assente na observação participante e em entrevistas qualitativas a frequentadores destes espaços e recorrendo a perspectivas da Sociologia Urbana e da Sociologia da Infância, pretende-se dar visibilidade às crianças como produtoras de conhecimento diferenciados dos adultos. Estes estudos de caso possibilitam discutir a situação da infância na cidade como revelador social, com especial incidência nos jardins/parques urbanos, enquanto espaços sociais estruturados, onde as crianças são particularmente tornadas visíveis nas interdições formais e simbólicas feitas às mesmas, mas também no modo como se apropriam do espaço público e efetivam o seu direito à cidade. Palavras-chave: Cidade. Infância. Jardins/Parques urbanos. Abstract: Urban gardens and parks are public spaces socially constructed by human action, in their multiple dimensions and in the diversity of the social, cultural and generational groups attending them. However, urban space planning and management have not been fully compatible with the social
Sociologia: Revista da Faculdade de Letras da Universidade do Porto, Número Temático - Direitos das crianças: abordagens críticas a partir das ciências sociais, 2020
Participação em processos de consulta pública: Percepções dos cidadãos e recomendações para autor... more Participação em processos de consulta pública: Percepções dos cidadãos e recomendações para autoridades responsáveis Relatório produzido pelo projecto COMPOLIS-Comunicação e Envolvimento Político com Questões Ambientais Projecto financiado pela Fundação para a Ciência e a Tecnologia (EXPL/IVC-COM/1717/2012
Comunicação e Sociedade, 2019
O procedimento de consulta pública tem sido, cada vez mais, utilizado em projetos com impacto amb... more O procedimento de consulta pública tem sido, cada vez mais, utilizado em projetos com impacto ambiental, supostamente como uma forma de assegurar que as preocupações e sugestões das pessoas e das comunidades interessadas e afetadas pelos projetos são tidas em conta. No entanto, esta forma de participação pública tem vindo a ser bastante criticada, por ser uma prática meramente simbólica e sem consequências concretas. Neste artigo, apresentamos um estudo focado no processo de consulta pública relativo ao projeto de construção de uma linha de muita alta tensão entre o Norte de Portugal e a Galiza (Espanha). Especificamente, analisamos discursos de cidadãos relativamente às barreiras à sua participação pública, bem como diversas recomendações para desenvolvimento de processos de consulta pública éticos e relevantes. A análise apresentada é baseada em entrevistas semiestruturadas a 26 pessoas e em cinco grupos focais (N=37) realizados em quatro localidades do Norte de Portugal. A partir...
Lo Squaderno. Explorations in Space and Society, 59, Beyond urban violence, pp. 61-66., 2021
This paper aims to discuss how various types of violence are at play in a stigmatized neighborhoo... more This paper aims to discuss how various types of violence are at play in a stigmatized neighborhood in the periphery of Lisbon. Through the lenses of several critical, including post-colonial and decolonial authors, we read the data here succinctly described, that was collected and analyzed for the Masters’ thesis of the first author (Giacchetta, 2020).1 The thesis analyzes several neighborhoods in the periphery of Lisbon Metropolitan Area, which were built mostly in the 1970s, by populations moving to the city from rural regions and former Portuguese colonies (Abrantes, 2011). In particular some neighborhoods have become stigmatized places, inhabited mostly by precarious workers of African origin, where the construction of informal settlements and the occupation of private dwellings has resulted in poor housing conditions (Viegas, 2017). In this paper we focus on one of those neighbor-hoods, Jamaica, in the city of Seixal, as a case-study of territorial stigmatization, thus a place with a negative public image,2 wherein specific populations are relegated, becoming “urban outcasts” (Wacquant, 2008).
Revista Comunicação e Sociedade, 2019
Public consultations are increasingly used in projects with environmental impact, allegedly as a ... more Public consultations are increasingly used in projects with environmental impact, allegedly as a way to ensure that affected people and communities have their concerns recognised and addressed. There have been multiple criticisms of this form of public participation, with consultations frequently viewed as a tokenistic practice. In this study, we focus on a public consultation on extra-high voltage power lines projected to go from northern Portugal to northwestern Spain. We analyse citizens' discourses regarding hindrances to participation as well as envisaged possibilities to improve it. The study draws on semi-structured interviews with 26 people and five focus groups discussions (N=37) carried out in localities in the north of Portugal that would be affected by the project. Based on citizens' narrated experiences of participation we discuss the relevance and the ethics of participation in access, standing and influence in public consultations processes.
Punishment & Society , 2017
Since prison life is out of common people’s sight, the media have a particularly important role i... more Since prison life is out of common people’s sight, the media have a particularly important role in legitimating or, conversely, de-legitimating public discourses and policies about punishment, incarceration and rehabilitation. In the present study, our analysis was grounded in 83 news, 55 of these about men prisons, 24 about women prisons and 4 news about public policies in general, although having specificities about men’s and women’s prisons published in a Portuguese national newspaper between 2005 and 2014. The analysis suggests that, with very few exceptions, gender is an important issue in the media construction for men's and women's prisons and male and female inmates; gender norms of masculinity and femininity are essentialized, justifying different practices of control in prison policies. Dangerous, violent, resistant and manipulative male inmates call for prison policies based on risk control and managerialism, whereas docile and reliable female inmates call for policies grounded on rehabilitation but also security. Apart from this representation, our analysis also shows that the news, in general, tends to align with a reformist approach, failing to interrogate the wider role of imprisonment in social control or to discuss its alternatives.
Journalism, 2017
Little attention has been paid to the relation between citizens’ representation in news media and... more Little attention has been paid to the relation between citizens’ representation in news media and citizen participation in readers’ comments, and to the roles both discourses may play in fostering public engagement in official consultation processes. This article
offers a discursive analysis of these questions by focusing on how commenters, through their uses of language in connection with news texts, address the political ordering of news discourse and their positioning therein. Using Critical Discourse Analysis and
other interaction-oriented forms of discourse analysis, we examine, first, the topics and the framing of voices in news coverage and, second, the interactional order, stance markers and style features of readers’ comments. Based on data regarding a policy plan on hydroelectric power in Portugal that was submitted to public consultation, we
show that citizen positionings emerging from the interaction between news texts and comments change the balance of power within the discussion, but their participatory potential is restrained by traditional citizenship regimes.
Political Psychology, 2017
It is crucial to gain better insights into how psychosocial processes can limit the power of the ... more It is crucial to gain better insights into how psychosocial processes can limit the power of the political/legislative sphere for promoting social change through new laws. One form of accomplishing this is by illuminating the arguments and the content and value of social representations at play in cases in which the public sphere succeeds in contesting new laws. In this article, we explore a case of successful resistance to new ecological laws in a Portuguese Natura site. The laws, restricting recreational fishing, were made less stringent after meeting with local opposition. Content analysis of 122 articles published from 2006 to 2014 in regional and national newspapers reveals that protestors (fishermen, local authorities) received higher visibility and support and had more direct voice than the political sphere in both presses. Dialogical analysis of direct quotations of protestors shows how they seek legitimacy by establishing common ground with valued representations, vividly invoking people-place bonds and tradition, and also how they attempt to undermine the law's legitimacy by linking local and national concerns, avoiding (potentially devalued) “Nimby” (“not in my backyard”) arguments. The discussion highlights what can be learned from using the press to investigate policy struggles that successfully organized their argumentation to contest new laws.
Public participation in environmental governance is typically associated with citizen access to p... more Public participation in environmental governance is typically associated with citizen access to power despite many closures and limitations having been identified in participatory processes. This article proposes an analytical framework to analyse discursive practices involved in public consultation processes. Critical Discourse Analysis is used to
examine and appraise citizens’ access, standing and influence. We apply that framework to a ‘notice and comment’ process on a hydroelectric power plan in Portugal and show that it
was discursively managed to justify the decision of constructing 10 large dams and to reject critical or alternative views. Citizens’ access, standing and influence were constrained
through diverse discursive practices which (re)produced very unequal power relations between policy proponents and participating individuals. More generally, the article illustrates the potential of Critical Discourse Analysis to assess voice(s) in policy processes. Focusing on argumentative, interactional and rhetorical levels, and how they are interwoven in public consultation discourses, the proposed framework is conceivably applicable in other studies.
Internationalization, anchored in the idea of competitiveness in a global knowledge-based economy... more Internationalization, anchored in the idea of competitiveness in a global knowledge-based economy is one of the driving forces of the higher education reforms in Europe. At a time of economic crisis, internationalization is fundamental to attracting students and promoting the institution on a global scale. For Portugal, the
‘Lusophone space’ emerges as a preferred market, legitimized by political, economic and cultural rationales linking the ideas of ‘lusophony’ and education. In this paper I critically examine how the Portuguese press (comparing the weekly newspapers ‘Expresso’ and ‘Sol’) reconstruct these discourses on lusophony and internationalization.
Revista Universitas: Relações Internacionais
Este artigo analisa criticamente o enfoque atual da cooperação para o desenvolvimento, democratiz... more Este artigo analisa criticamente o enfoque atual da cooperação para o desenvolvimento, democratização e construção da paz em critérios psicossociais e culturais para além dos critérios formais e institucionais. Esta análise supõe um questionamento de alguns conceitos centrais à cooperação para o desenvolvimento, nomeadamente, os conceitos de desenvolvimento, paz liberal, sociedade civil e direitos humanos. Sugere-se que a relevância do campo cultural na cooperação para o desenvolvimento, democratização e construção da paz não constitui um dado novo, tendo ressonância com a teoria da modernização e até com processos coloniais, na medida em que contribui para uma criação de uma diferença entre o self ocidental e 'outro' não ocidental. A cultura como foco e mecanismo da governação liberal global relaciona novos conceitos ('boa governação' , 'segurança humana') com conceitos mais clássicos ('sociedade civil' , 'direitos humanos') e permite simultaneamente uma invisibilização das relações de poder e uma evasão da responsabilidade por parte dos poderes ocidentais. Palavras-chave: Construção da paz. Cooperação para o desenvolvimento. Paz liberal. Sociedade civil. Direitos humanos. Abstract This article examines critically the current focus of development cooperation, democratization and peace building in psychosocial, cultural and institutional criteria. This analysis implies a questioning of some concepts central to development cooperation, including development concepts, liberal peace, civil society and human rights. It is suggested that the relevance of the cultural field in development cooperation, democratization and peace--building is not a new fact, having resonance with modernization theory and colonial processes, contributing to create a difference between the Western self and 'other' non-Western. Culture as a focus and mechanism of global liberal governance relates new concepts ('good governance' , 'human security') and classic concepts ('civil society' , 'human rights') and allows both an invisibility of power relations as an evasion of responsibility of Western powers.K eywords: Peace building. Development cooperation. Liberal peace. Civil society. Human rights. Para publicar na revista Universitas Relações Internacionais, entre no endereço eletrônico www.publicacoesacademicas.uniceub.br. Observe as normas de publicação, facilitando e agilizando o trabalho de edição.
holds a degree in Psychology by the FPCE of Porto University (in 1996), and a Master in Social Ps... more holds a degree in Psychology by the FPCE of Porto University (in 1996), and a Master in Social Psychology by the same institution (in 2004). She has worked as a psychologist, as an assistant at university and collaborated in research projects. Presently she is affiliated with Center for Social Studies, Coimbra University, where she does her doctoral studies.
Conceitos-chave em Sociologia da Infância. Perspetivas Globais / Key concepts on Sociology of Childhood. Global Perspectives, 2021
book: Sustainable policies and practices in energy, environment and health research: Addressing cross-cutting issues Publisher: Springer, 2022
Decades ago, concerns were raised about "sustainability" undermining critical approaches to educa... more Decades ago, concerns were raised about "sustainability" undermining critical approaches to education. It has become the green discursive umbrella in a globalized capitalist economy, which promotes capital accumulation through its commitment to a free-market. This neoliberal "development" has deepened social inequities and power differential between North and South. Within ocean governance this framing of issues has enhanced social, gender and race inequalities, excluding fishers' and social scientists' knowledge. Crises arise from the way marine resource management understands and constructs the ocean. As the Decade of Ocean Science for Sustainable Development begins, apolitical sciences conflate education as knowledge transfer, and natural sciences dominate "Ocean Literacy". This chapter explores assumptions within research and education about knowledge, human/ocean relationships, and ocean-based human activities. Alternative discourses for critical pedagogy and cross-cutting place-conscious education arise from local stakeholders and long-term ethnographies with small-scale fishing communities.
Téwodros Workneh and Paul Haridakis (Eds), Counter-terrorism Laws and Freedom of Expression: Global Perspectives, pp. 43-64. Lexington Books., 2021
As diferentes contribuições para este livro oferecem uma visão crítica de como as leis antiterror... more As diferentes contribuições para este livro oferecem uma visão crítica de como as leis antiterrorismo afetaram negativamente a prática jornalística, cidadania digital, privacidade, ativismo online, e outras formas livres de expressão. Embora os governos afirmem a necessidade de tais leis para proteger a segurança nacional, sob um ângulo crítico o que se observa é que as leis de contraterrorismo são propensas a serem utilizadas indevidamente pelos governos para reprimir a dissidência política, visar jornalistas e restringir outras formas de expressão cidadã.
In José Maria Carvalho Ferreira (Org.), A Desmaterialização da Economia nas Ciências Sociais e Humanas (cap. 2, pp. 29-48). Forte da Casa, Portugal: Clássica Editora., 2020
Resumo A transparência emergiu recentemente como um valor e uma norma quer na área da governança ... more Resumo A transparência emergiu recentemente como um valor e uma norma quer na área da governança global, quer no setor da Comunicação Organizacional, agregando as ideias de eficiência do mercado, democracia e responsabili-dade social das organizações. Este ideal de transparência surge revitalizado pelas tecnologias digitais que potenciam formas de interação virtual entre a empresa e os seus múltiplos stakeholders. No entanto, a literatura denota uma polarização normativa em torno do potencial emancipatório da trans-parência, sendo ainda manifesta a falta de estudos sobre os processos de produção de transparência na sua relação com a Comunicação Organiza-cional. Este texto propõe em alternativa, uma perspetiva comunicacional e constitutiva da transparência digital, baseada na CCO e na sociologia do conhecimento.
EU, Europe Unfinished Mediating Europe and the Balkans in a Time of Crisis
Mathew Chambers (ed.), Hearts and Minds: US Cultural Management in 21st Century Foreign Relations.
Social Inequalities, Media and Communication: Theory and Roots, Feb 4, 2016
Olivera Simic & Zala Volcic (eds.), Transitional Justice and Civil Society in the Balkans, New York: Springer. pp. 69-86, 2013
The purposes of this chapter are twofold: to explore the representations that NGO members hold co... more The purposes of this chapter are twofold: to explore the representations that NGO members hold concerning two of the main actors in Bosnia–Herzegovina, civil society and the political elite; and to discuss the impact of these representations on the prospects of justice and peace in the country. How are civil society and the political elite perceived in the NGO world? Are they considered legitimate political or moral authorities to promote peace and justice? What are the implications of these representations for transitional justice in BiH? This chapter suggests that these important questions need to be considered to build a contextually grounded, bottom-up approach to transitional justice.
The main objective of this thesis is to critically analyze the processes of developmental aid and... more The main objective of this thesis is to critically analyze the processes of developmental aid and democratization in Bosnia-Herzegovina (BiH) and the Russian Federation (Russia). The interest of this project is linked to the idea that, in the context of global liberal governance, Eastern Europe seems to constitute the new focus of euro-american imperialism. This thesis, supported by a postcolonial/descolonial framework and by recent critical studies of the liberal peace, aims to investigate this idea. Specifically, one wishes to analyze in which measure can the present politics of cooperation to development and democratization in BiH and Russia constitute forms of western domination, supported on the one hand, by a ‘normative power’, associated to the liberal discourse of human rights, democracy and civil society and, on the other hand, by specific economic, political, ideological or social practices. Although the focus of this analysis are the NGOs linked to human rights and democr...
TESE DE MESTRADO, FPCE, UNIVERSIDADE DO PORTO, 2004 RESUMO Segundo os estudos do efeito ovelha ne... more TESE DE MESTRADO, FPCE, UNIVERSIDADE DO PORTO, 2004 RESUMO Segundo os estudos do efeito ovelha negra, os processos de recordação, diferenciação e rejeição dos desviantes do endogrupo e de percepção da homogeneidade endogrupal representam estratégias de criação de uma distinctividade positiva. Prevemos que um grupo dominado estaria mais motivado para as implementar, na medida em que o desviante ameaçaria por um lado, o valor do self, e por outro, a coesão grupai característica destes grupos e necessária à mobilização colectiva. Segundo a teoria dos grupos agregado vs colecção, seriam os grupos dominantes, os mais propensos a derrogarem os desviante endogrupais, de modo a legitimarem uma crença personológica e meritocrática, validando simultaneamente a heterogeneidade do endogrupo, numa estratégia de justificação e protecção do status quo. Com o objectivo de comparámos estas predições contrastantes, derivadas dos 2 modelos referidos, efectuámos 2 estudos com alunos do ensino complemen...
O direito das crianças à cidade: Perspetivas desde o Brasil e Portugal, 2022
Relatos do confinamento e do desconfinamento das crianças: Contingências da pandemia ao nível das... more Relatos do confinamento e do desconfinamento das crianças: Contingências da pandemia ao nível das práticas digitais, do contato com a natureza e do regresso ao espaço público. In; José Maria Carvalho Ferreira (Org.), Contingências da Pandemia gerada pelo Covid-19 nas Sociedades Contemporâneas, in press.
Cadernos da Pandemia, 2020
Este volume 6 da publicação do IS-UP ‘Cadernos da Pandemia’ tem como tema “Crianças na cidade em ... more Este volume 6 da publicação do IS-UP ‘Cadernos da Pandemia’ tem
como tema “Crianças na cidade em tempos de Covid-19: Reflexões a
partir da investigação em espaços públicos no Porto e em Lisboa”. Reúnem-se aqui um conjunto de análises e ‘reflexões’ a partir do trabalho de campo realizado pelos investigadores do Projeto CRiCity “As crianças e o seu direito à cidade: Combater a desigualdade urbana através do desenho participativo de cidades amigas das crianças” (Referência PTDC/SOC-SOC/30415/2017).
Os textos incidem sobre diferentes aspetos da relação das crianças com
a cidade, que vão desde o modo como a etnia, a identidade racial e a
classe social pautam o uso do espaço e a sociabilidade nos parques urbanos analisados, antes e após a emergência da pandemia, a uma discussão de questões mais concetuais como o direito das crianças à cidade na sua relação com a resiliência urbana em tempos de pandemia, ou ainda a uma descrição e análise dos desafios que a pandemia e o confinamento trouxeram à própria investigação. Apesar desta diversidade de temas, os autores partilham entre si a abordagem etnográfica, o foco nas crianças como sujeitos sociais e políticos e produtores de conhecimento e um desejo de pensar a cidade e a pandemia com as crianças. Pensamos que este volume dos ‘Cadernos da Pandemia do ISUP’ pode interessar não apenas aos investigadores nesta área, mas a todos os que são pais, cuidadores, ou trabalham com crianças neste contexto de pandemia.