Global cities, (un)rooted lives: towards a trans-scalar conception of citizenship

The question of how human subjectivity responds to urban life was as central to the founding fathers of urban sociology as it is to us today. Simmel’s insight that urban life presents man with an unprecedented, and ever changing complexity, a cognitive and sensuous overload, which reflects back on individuals’ awareness of themselves as multiply holds true, if not truer, of our crowded and densely populated cities as of the fin-de-siècle Berlin which inspired it to be first written. In this paper, we revisit this Simmelian classical theme with a view to critically re-examine contemporary approaches to urban democratic politics

Political Culture

This is the author accepted manuscript. The final version is available from WileyThis article critically discusses the field of political culture research. It reviews the historical development of the concept of political culture since the 1950s. It examines some of the key authors and approaches in political science and political sociology. Special attention is paid to the conceptual and methodological innovations of the last few decades, including neo-Tocquevillian, multi-causal and neo-Durkheimian approaches to the study of the concept

Democracia deliberativa hoje: desafios e perspectivas

Resumo ResumoDesde meados da década de 1990, o ideal deliberativo tem vindo a assumir um papel central na teoria democrática contemporânea. Mais recentemente, outra tendência tem vindo a registrar-se: a democracia deliberativa está a deixar de ser uma proposta puramente teórica e a tornar-se num modelo regulador de soluções institucionais concretas. É por essa razão que os principais problemas com que a democracia deliberativa se confronta hoje em dia são, por um lado, o da sua “institucionalização” e, por outro, o da sua articulação com outros mecanismos democráticos de natureza não deliberativa. Quanto ao primeiro problema, o artigo lança um olhar crítico sobre a forma como a democracia deliberativa vem sendo institucionalizada, discutindo os perigos de despolitização e de dissolução do projeto democrático emancipatório que tal institucionalização potencialmente acarreta. No que se refere à relação entre deliberação e outros mecanismos democráticos como a negociação ou a agregação de preferências individuais, por oposição às quais havia sido tradicionalmente definida, defendemos que a democracia deliberativa depende hoje da renúncia a esse antagonismo de origem, e do seu envolvimento numa relação de complementaridade ”“ não de complementaridade passiva, mas antes transformadora ”“ com esses outros elementos essenciais à vida política democrática. Palavras-chave: democracia deliberativa, preferências, institucionalização, minipúblicos, representação política.   Abstract Since the 1990s the deliberative ideal has come to play a central role in contemporary democratic theory. More recently, however, another trend has emerged: deliberative democracy has ceased to be a purely theoretical approach to become the regulatory ideal of concrete institutional solutions. As a result of this shift, the main problems facing deliberative democracy today are, on the one hand, those of its institutionalisation, and, on the other hand, those of its articulation with other democratic mechanisms of a non-deliberative nature. As to the first of these problems, this article critically addresses the way in which deliberative democracy has been institutionalized, discussing the perils of depoliticization and of dissolution of the emancipatory potential of deliberative democracy that such an institutionalisation might entail. As to the relationship between deliberation and other democratic mechanisms such as negotiation or aggregation of individual preferences, in opposition to which deliberative democracy had originally been defined, we argue that the future of deliberative democracy depends on renouncing that original antagonism. Instead, deliberation should engage in a complementary relationship ”“ albeit not passive, but active ”“ with these other essential constitutive elements of democratic political life.   Key words: deliberative democracy, preferences, institutionalization, mini-publics, political representatio

Elementary Forms and the cultural Durkheim

Who reads Emile Durkheim’s Elementary Forms of Religious Life? In 1970, very few sociologists in America did. Today, Elementary Forms is Durkheim’s most influential book for sociologists in America and elsewhere. Elementary Forms became the central totem of culturalist readings of the French master, helping transform “Durkheim,” once the master analyst of modernization, into the “cultural Durkheim” celebrated in the pages of national newspapers for his sociology of moral life that helps us become more aware of the myths and beliefs that brings us together as a community. Paul Vogt is certainly right when he says that “knowledge of Durkheim and his books is a full part of the definition of what a sociologist is in America” (1993: 227), but this evades the more important question of why Elementary Forms became synonymous with Durkheim in the late twentieth century but not before

Quo vadis Europa? O Tortuoso Caminho da Construção Europeia

A 29 de Maio de 2005 os eleitores franceses passaram a certidão de óbito à Constituição Europeia. Dois meses antes, Manuel de Lucena antecipara esse desfecho, num artigo publicado no Diário de Notícias, sobre as vicissitudes da nossa própria Constituição. Referindo-se, concretamente, à «política por ora externa, na sua vertente europeia ou, mais exactamente, à expressão interna dela, que é o tão famoso quanto tormentoso referendo sobre o mais recente tratado constitucional da União», Lucena lamentava que entre nós as eleições legislativas não tivessem sido precedidas de um debate sério sobre o «sim», ou o «não», português ao im- pronunciável Tratado que Estabelece o Futuro da Europa (ou não fosse a intelligentsia europeia sempre tão generosa nos baptismos...). Dessa discussão, insistia Lucena, teria dependido a real representatividade do processo de ratificação do tratado constitucional por via parlamentar. Perdida a oportunidade, porém, ficávamos entregues ao acaso do referendo. Um referendo prometido à boca das urnas pelo primeiro-ministro, José Sócrates, mas cuja realização exigia nova revisão da Constituição de 1976

Justiça e Equidade

Este capítulo propõe-se discutir justiça e equidade da perspectiva do impacto da constitucionalização de direitos sociais sobre a percepção colectiva da equidade em Portugal. Para tanto, discutir-se-ão os direitos sociais em dois momentos diversos: por altura da sua constitucionalização, entre 1975 e 1976, e quarenta anos depois, no rescaldo da grande crise financeira de 2008 e do resgate financeiro de 2011

The Protestant Ethic. A Work in Translation

What would have American sociology been like without Talcott Parsons’s translation of Max Weber’s The Protestant Ethic and the Spirit of Capitalism? To try to answer such a question inevitable takes us to the domain of counter-factual thinking, so pervasive and profound was the impact of that work of translation. If we are to remain within the realm of social-scientific inquiry, however, one should pose a different question. Assuming that Parsons’s rendering of Weber’s words into American English created “world images” of Weber and his sociological significance that were to act “like switchmen” on a railroad, changing irrevocably the course of history (Weber, 1946: 280), how is this “cyclopean moment” (Foucault 1991: 77) to be explained? This is why this chapter is as much about Weber and his ideas as it is about Parsons’s mediation of those ideas through the translation of the “sacred text” (Scaff 2005) of Weberian scholarship

Extended-spectrum β-lactamases from the North of Portugal in the boundaries to Spain: emergence of high resistance to 4th generation cephalosporins

During the past 15 years, emergence and dissemination of third-generation cephalosporins resistance in nosocomial Enterobacteriaceae became a serious problem worldwide, due to the production of extended-spectrum-β-lactamases (ESBLs). The aim of this study was to investigate among the presence of ESBL-producing enterobacteria among Portuguese clinical isolates nearby Spain, to investigate the antimicrobial susceptibility patterns and to compare the two countries. The β-lactamases genes, blaTEM, blaSHV and blaCTX-M were detected by molecular methods. Among the ESBL-producing isolates it was found extraordinary levels (98.9%) of resistance to the fourth-generation cephalosporin Cefepime. These findings point to the need of reevaluate the definition of ESBL.Nos últimos 15 anos, a emergência e disseminação da resistência das enterobactérias nosocomiais às cefalosporinas de teceira geração devido à produção de β-lactamases de espectro ampliado (ESBL) tem-se tornado uma preocupação a nível mundial. O objectivo deste estudo é determinar a presença de ESBL em isolados clínicos de enterobactérias, o perfil de susceptibilidade aos antimicrobianos e comparar a situação portuguesa com a espanhola. Os genes blaTEM, blaSHV e blaCTX-M das β-lactamases foram detectados por métodos moleculares. Nas estirpes portuguesas produtoras de ESBL foram detectados níveis preocupantes de resistência à Cefepima (4ª geração), 98,9%, levando-nos a questionar sobre a necessidade de redefinir ESBL