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- Volume 15, Issue 3, 2016
Portuguese Journal of Social Science - Volume 15, Issue 3, 2016
Volume 15, Issue 3, 2016
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Discourses supporting socio-economic inequality in Kenya, Mexico and the United Kingdom
By Anna BarfordAbstractSocio-economic inequalities are often studied at the country or local level, which offers insight into local dynamics and perceptions. This article considers discourses of inequality within and between countries, enabling a consideration of the web of connections between places and ideas. The three studied countries are spread along a continuum, with varying national wealth and diverse regional locations: Kenya, Mexico and the United Kingdom. This international comparative approach identifies some key discursive ways of supporting inequality that persist in diverse neo-liberal settings. Specific discursive devices include the focus on personal aspirations, opportunities, denial of problems, discrediting alternatives and framing inequality as being natural.
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Mobility and household forms as adaptive strategies of rural populations
Authors: Luis Camarero and Jesús OlivaAbstractSocial and territorial inequalities take on new dimensions in times of economic recession. The impact of the crisis on policies aimed at achieving equity in access to opportunities and the provision of public services has been particularly acute in rural areas of Southern Europe. This article analyses the role that mobility, household composition and family networks play in the strategies that social groups use when facing such periods of uncertainty. We first analyse the changes in the forms of rural governance and in policies aimed at rural territories and societies. Second, we look at the role that mobility and rural households have historically played in strategies of resistance in times of crisis. The plasticity that family and household forms offer in shaping relations of intergenerational solidarity – caring for dependents, material assistance, etc. – is an essential resource in these strategies. These issues are illustrated with examples from fieldwork carried out in the Pyrenees in the region of Navarre. In contrast to the traditional equivalence assumed between the family as a kinship group, the home as a domestic partnership and the household as a space of single residency, our analysis sees them as independent. Our research shows that, in the adaptive strategies of family groups, mobility, networks between homes and the advantages of territorial localization play an essential role.
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Trends in income inequality: Comparing the United States and Portugal
More LessAbstractThis article presents a comparative analysis of the United States and Portugal in terms of economic inequality from the early twentieth century to the present decade. We use different measures of inequality from several statistical sources. The article revolves around three complementary points. The first is a synchronic and diachronic analysis of economic inequalities Portugal and the United States, the second is the issue of redistribution of income and the final analysis addresses the evolution of top incomes in both countries.
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Who are you calling sub/urban? Socio-spatial inequality and mobility in the Lisbon Metropolitan Area
By Sofia SantosAbstractThis article addresses the socio-territorial heterogeneity of the Lisbon Metropolitan Area (LMA) and its relationship with different types of mobility. We first use the 2011 Census to interpret the socio-demographic diversity of the LMA. We employ multivariate analysis to identify differentiating dimensions that distinguish between metropolitan parishes and use them to define groups. We then describe the mobility patterns of employees and students by constructing another typology of parishes (cluster analysis). Finally, we cross-reference the two typologies – socio-territorial and mobility – to show how space and society interact in the production of mobility in the LMA. The different patterns of mobility in the LMA are considered both a result and a reproduction factor of inequality in access to the metropolitan space.
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Spaces of inequality: It’s not differentiation, it is inequality! A socio-spatial analysis of the City of Porto
By Sónia AlvesAbstractAs territorial magnets for people and activities, cities simultaneously concentrate opportunities (e.g. employment, consumption, entertainment) and problems (e.g. unemployment, lack of affordable housing, crime). As a result, they can be regarded as complex social systems, which to some extent are characterized by, and are a source of, inequalities. By analysing the issue of inequality from a socio-spatial perspective, this article aims to show that the post-industrial city is changing insofar as social and spatial disparities are increasing on the basis of income and political influence. The article consists of two parts. The first addresses the issue of inequality and the city, providing a review of the literature on the relationship between social and spatial inequalities. The second is empirical, focusing upon the city of Porto and exploring several intersecting ideas related to the selective processes of de-concentration (or suburbanization) of people and activities, and the way they shape the separation of classes across geographical space. The results confirm the initial hypotheses of increasing socio-spatial inequality in Porto, in a context in which public policies are not geared towards the goal of mitigating socio-economic disparities, but are shaped inversely by consolidated economic ones.
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New elements for an analysis on the dynamics of the classroom in secondary education
More LessAbstractThe importance of the impact of new information and communication technologies (ICTs) on society and the everyday life of social actors has allowed sociological analysis to extend its grasp far beyond the obvious features of the network society. Since the incidence of these phenomena intersects with ways of communicating and accessing information, it becomes increasingly reasonable to consider a series of changes and reconfigurations within teaching contexts and, essentially, the educational relationship. The analysis of the secondary classroom must take these emerging realities into account and combine them with existing models. This article proposes widening the sociological debate around school changes, contributing with new analytical features concerning classroom ethnography.
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The counter hegemonic discourse of human rights in the Bolivarian Revolution
More LessAbstractThis article analyses the human rights discourse of the Bolivarian government as a means of establishing a counter-hegemonic position in international politics. It seeks to explain how the politicization of human rights in the Bolivarian Revolution reveals a conflict regarding the moral legitimacy of the manifestation of power and a social model. This discourse adheres to the ideological paradigms of the revolution, which can only be understood through a knowledge of the history of Venezuelan society. On the basis of this analysis it is possible to understand the polarization caused by the Bolivarian political venture: on the one hand, the capitalist neo-liberal democracy; and on the other, the democratic radicalism of Venezuelan socialism. In view of this, the language of human rights has often become an ideological tool, that in each case is representative of two distinct ideological models.
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Book reviews
Authors: David Ferreira and Sabah MushtaqAbstractThe EU and the Non-Proliferation of Nuclear Weapons: Strategies, Policies, Actions, S. Blavoukos, D. Bourantonis and C. Portela (eds) (2015) London: Palgrave Macmillan, ISBN: 9781137378439, h/bk, 264 pp., £68
State of War: The Political Economy of American Warfare, 1945–2011, P. A. C. Koistinen (2012) Lawrence: University Press of Kansas ISBN: 9780700618743, h/bk, 320 pp., £38.95
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Volumes & issues
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Volume 20 (2021)
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Volume 19 (2020)
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Volume 18 (2019)
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Volume 17 (2018)
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Volume 16 (2017)
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Volume 15 (2016)
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Volume 14 (2015)
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Volume 13 (2014)
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Volume 12 (2012 - 2013)
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Volume 11 (2012)
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Volume 10 (2011)
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Volume 9 (2010)
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Volume 8 (2009)
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Volume 7 (2008)
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Volume 6 (2007 - 2008)
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Volume 5 (2006 - 2007)
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Volume 4 (2005)
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Volume 3 (2004)
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Volume 2 (2003 - 2004)
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Volume 1 (2002 - 2003)