Revista Crítica de Ciências Sociais
Eurozine
Revista Crítica de Ciências Sociais
2010-03-17
Abstracts Revista Crítica 86 (2009)
João Freire
Military and political intervention: ideological trends and contemporary contexts
This article analyses the development of relationships between military bodies and political power in Portugal, from the time of the 19th century liberal monarchy until the end of the 20th century. In particular, it offers an interpretation of the impact on military culture of the diffusion of constitutionalist, republican, nationalist and socialist ideologies and the norms guiding the attitudes and actions of military elites within the political arena, in the light of their professional experience of war (the African campaigns, the First World War and the colonial war of 1961-74) and the observed behaviour of the working classes recruited for these missions, in comparison with the courses adopted by successive governments and political regimes. The international context is also established, both with regard to dominant ideologies and the framework of established strategic interests.
Marisa von Bülow
Civil society and trade negotiations: constructing a new field of action in the Americas
This article analyses the process by which different actors in civil society in the Americas have constructed a new field of collective action over the past twenty years. It focuses on attempts to create new organisations on a domestic and transnational level, and thus helps provide a greater understanding of the dilemmas involved in the creation of new organisations which cross national borders. In particular, it analyses the case of the Hemispheric Social Alliance, an alliance of organisations and movements created in the mid-1990s. It argues that it is not possible to think of civil society coalitions in terms of a strict division between domestic and international levels. In addition, a view focussing exclusively on the role of states and international organisations is inadequate in terms of understanding the increasingly complex dynamics of coalition building and the shaping of preferences.
Catarina Frade
Risk and the law
Emerging from the classic dichotomy between objectivist and constructivist concepts of risk, both quantitative approaches and social theories of risk offer interpretations of problems resulting from technological and scientific progress which challenge the safety of contemporary societies. The main goal of this article is to understand how risk is interpreted in different areas of knowledge and how we can envisage a legal reading of this phenomenon, given that legal science remains, to a certain extent, detached from these debates and controversies, neglecting its regulatory mission and its vocation to provide security.
Fernando Fontes
Social policies and the disabled in Portugal: from charity to social citizenship
Based on an analysis of legislation affecting the disabled in Portugal during the last three decades, this article considers policies for the disabled developed between 1974 and 2008. In order to situate the analysis, the first part of the article identifies the underlying theoretical presuppositions, briefly reviewing the main theoretical-analytical models in this area of research. This is followed by a critical review of policies for the disabled in Portugal, identifying characteristics, trends and underlying ideologies. The final aim is to outline the characteristics of state actions in this area through an analysis of the implementation of policies for the disabled in Portugal.
Tatiana Moura, Sílvia Roque, Sara Araújo, Mónica Rafael, Rita Santos
Invisibilities in war and peace: violence against women in Guinea-Bissau, Mozambique and Angola
The fact that it is men who kill and are killed most in times of war has led to the invisibility and neglect of other actors involved in these contexts. Women, in fact, have represented the prime social absence in analyses of armed conflicts and in post-conflict reconstruction policies. This wartime invisibility is prolonged into the post-war period. If during the armed conflict certain groups are not considered significant participants, being involved in, and suffering the impact of, wars in a different way -- as is the case with women and children -- in the post-war reconstruction period their needs remain marginalised. In addition, in order to turn the post-war period into a period of peace, violent practices must be silenced, and subsequently take on new characteristics.
Through an approach foregrounding the analysis of continuums of violence beyond what may be considered the official war scenarios, and on the basis of Angolan, Guinean and Mozambican contexts, the aim of this article is to demonstrate the proximity of war and peace zones, specifically with regard to insecurities not considered relevant to the planning and implementation of post-war policies. In particular, the intention is to analyse the forms of violence practised against women within these contexts.
Hermes Augusto Costa
Flexicurity in Portugal: the challenges and dilemmas of implementation
This text assesses some of the impacts on the Portuguese labour market resulting from the introduction of flexicurity. Taking the European Commission Green Paper as a reference, the contents and objectives of flexicurity are discussed and some of the features of the "Danish model", normally taken as the example to be followed, are tested. From an analysis of various examples revealing vulnerable situations within the labour market, it is concluded that there is more evidence of the unsuitability of flexicurity in the Portuguese context than of the potential of this deliberate political measure.
Filipe Almeida
Managers, personal values and social commitment: a study of social responsibility in companies in Brazil
This article addresses the influence of managers' personal value systems on their attitudes towards a corporate social responsibility (CSR), assuming it to be a predictor of management practice. The research hypotheses were tested in a study involving 252 Brazilian managers. The results show that a predisposition towards socially responsible management practices is favoured by a conservative value system which upholds stability and order, security and compliance with collective norms, as opposed to the negative influence of personal values centred on individual wellbeing and self-promotion. However, this relationship between value systems and managers' attitudes towards CSR is only found in managers under the age of 30, suggesting that, as professional experience is acquired, the adoption of socially responsible business practices becomes independent of the value systems of the decision-makers, and that strategic and contextual factors are superimposed onto personal belief systems.