Housing policies, market and home ownership in Portugal: beyond the cultural model

This article takes up the context of literature production on the characteristics that are most commonly associated with housing systems in Southern European countries, namely, the low weight of public housing supply, the large share of home ownership and a considerable number of second homes and vacant dwellings. This theme, highly debated in the first decade of the 20th century, questioned the significance of the Southern European countries, with lower income households, those which had (and still have) the highest percentages of home ownership. The sociological reflection developed on the relationship between the specificity of the Portuguese development model (and housing policies) and the high rate of property ownership aims to go beyond comparative research on Southern European countries, generally based on typologies that emphasize the causal relationship between property rates and the type of welfare regime. One of the objectives is to understand the structural factors of this situation. Throughout the text we point out four phenomena that have shaped the Portuguese housing system, with an impact on the property regime. Through them one can recognize that access to home ownership is not only a public intention and an economic pressure from the market, but is also anchored in the expectations of families, for whom housing assumes a complex political, economic and symbolic role. We argue that the articulation between these phenomena represents a “happy joint venture” between Families, State and Market. For families, this form of access to housing seems to function not only as an attachment to property, part of a specific cultural model, as is usually a hallmark of Southern European countries, but also translates an economic rationale and a source of security, in a context of an unstable labour market, low income and weak social protection

Unfolding relations between land cover and farm management: high nature value assessment in complex silvo-pastoral systems

The high nature value (HNV) concept, proposed by the European Environment Agency, recognizes that specific farming systems support high biodiversity levels, mainly as a result of extensive management practices. The Portuguese montado is one of the most significant HNV systems in southern Europe. However, considering the great complexity characterizing these systems both in land management and in landscape structure, a specific context-oriented methodology to assess which montado areas are likely to be classified as HNV farmland is needed. In this sense, the aim of this study is to explore a methodological approach which makes it possible to assess land management pressures through land cover information on these complex silvo-pastoral systems. The proposed methodology was tested through a local case study in a montado area in southern Portugal, assessing the relation between management practices and a vegetation cover index. Results show that in similar montado areas different land management strategies varying in stocking density, but also in type of grazing animals and shrub control practices, configure different vegetation cycles. These results indicate there is a way to develop a straightforward methodology to assess the HNV value of Mediterranean silvo-pastoral systems based on land cover indicators. These would make it possible to assess the HNV of montado areas with direct and objective information and independent of farmer’s surveys or other farm-based data

"Ven.de.la.calle" : proyecto de integración social con jóvenes en centros de día

La sociedad invita a la juventud a vivir el día a día sin tener en cuenta el futuro, de esta forma, para este colectivo es más difícil confiar en el futuro y trabajar por él ya que formamos parte de una sociedad en la que se busca, casi exclusivamente, la satisfacción rápida y momentánea. Estas satisfacciones están fuertemente vinculadas a las sustancias tóxicas creando, entre los más jóvenes, el mejor caldo de cultivo para el consumo de drogas. Como parte de los recursos de los que dispone el programa de prevención que establece la Junta de Andalucía, se ponen en marcha los Centros de Día para atender, especialmente, a los jóvenes consumidores de drogas. Con la intención de ofrecer una respuesta a esta población, las autoras presentan el proyecto de creación de una Centro de Día en la ciudad de Huelva, en colaboración con Valdocco, denominado « Ven .de. la.Calle» que se interesa por facilitar la Integración Social plena mediante la formación personal, cultural y social de los jóvenes.________________________________ Society invites young people to live day-today routine without thinking of future. In this way, it is harder for this group to be confident in and to work for a future since we live in a society which looks for quick and momentary satisfactions. These satisfactions are deeply related to toxic substances, making among young people the best breeding ground for drug addiction. As part of the means able for the prevention plans of the Junta de Andalucia, Day Centres has been opened to specially attend to young people with drug addiction problems. Trying to offer a positive answer to society, the authors present a project on the creation of a Day Centre in Huelva with the support of Valdoco named "Come from de street" which helps to complete social integration by personal, social and cultural education of young people

Mapping and assessing soil protection through an integrative ecosystem service framework.

Recent studies show that introducing the ecosystem service concept into policy and decisionmaking requires spatially explicit information on the state and trends of ecosystems and their services (Maes et al., 2012). Current spatially explicit approaches are often based on land cover assessments (Burkhard et al., 2009; Nelson et al., 2009), assigning values of ecosystem service provision to each land cover class. This approach fails to make a distinction between the actual service provision and the underlying ecosystem potential to provide a specific service. By focusing on actual ecosystem service provision (e.g. tonnes of soil that are fixated by vegetation) the potential of a given ecosystem or community under alternative management options is ignored (e.g. afforestation on a marginal grassland will increase soil fixation when comparing a grassland to a mature forest). The full potential value that the ecosystem service can provide (in this example to mitigate soil erosion) is therefore not taken into account

Housing policies, market and home ownership in Portugal

This article takes up the context of literature production on the characteristics that are most commonly associated with housing systems in Southern European countries, namely, the low weight of public housing supply, the large share of home ownership and a considerable number of second homes and vacant dwellings. This theme, highly debated in the first decade of the 20th century, questioned the significance of the Southern European countries, with lower income households, those which had (and still have) the highest percentages of home ownership. The sociological reflection developed on the relationship between the specificity of the Portuguese development model (and housing policies) and the high rate of property ownership aims to go beyond comparative research on Southern European countries, generally based on typologies that emphasize the causal relationship between property rates and the type of welfare regime. One of the objectives is to understand the structural factors of this situation. Throughout the text we point out four phenomena that have shaped the Portuguese housing system, with an impact on the property regime. Through them one can recognize that access to home ownership is not only a public intention and an economic pressure from the market, but is also anchored in the expectations of families, for whom housing assumes a complex political, economic and symbolic role. We argue that the articulation between these phenomena represents a “happy joint venture” between Families, State and Market.For families, this form of access to housing seems to function not only as an attachment to property, part of a specific cultural model, as is usually a hallmark of Southern European countries, but also translates an economic rationale and a source of security, in a context of an unstable labour market, low income and weak social protection

Avaliação de serviços de ecossistema de conservação do solo associados a processos erosivos

Estudos recentes mostram a necessidade de incorporar os conceitos de serviços de ecossistema e de sistemas sócio-ecológicos nos processos de planeamento e gestão dos espaços naturais. Esta necessidade reflete não só a importância dos ecossistemas, e dos serviços que lhes estão associados, para o sucesso dos processos de planeamento, mas também a relevância da implementação de estudos interdisciplinares que acrescentem conhecimento na avaliação das interações entre Homem e Natureza. Neste contexto, foram desenvolvidos um conjunto de trabalhos que pretendem, em zonas bastante distintas em termos climáticos e de ocupação e gestão do solo (i.e. Alto‐Minho [NO de Portugal] e Portel [SE de Portugal]), mostrar a aplicação e a importância da avaliação de serviços de ecossistema para a condução dos processos de planeamento local, definição de estratégias de gestão da terra e definição de políticas de investimento e regulamentação das atividades em espaço rural. A utilização de técnicas de detecção remota, assim como de um modelo conceptual orientado à identificação e quantificação de serviços de ecossistema associados à proteção do solo,permitem-­‐nos inferir por um lado, quais as estratégias de gestão da terra mais adequadas à provisão deste serviço, identificando assim limiares de gestão adequados, e por outro, quais as necessidades de planeamento e regulamentação à escala regional. Sendo o solo o elemento central do desenvolvimento local e regional, os resultados obtidos evidenciam o valor dos serviços de ecossistema associados à proteção do solo e a necessidade de definir novos planos e estratégias de gestão da terra que contribuam para a mitigação dos riscos associados à erosão do solo não só à escala local, como à escala regional

A vulnerabilidade ao stress do doente cirúrgico no período pré-operatório

O bem-estar do doente deve constituir o principal objetivo dos profissionais que cuidam do doente cirúrgico, pois no período pré-operatório podem apresentar níveis de stress, bem como desenvolver sentimentos que podem atuar negativamente no seu estado emocional, tornando-os vulneráveis. Assim, este estudo intitulado” A Vulnerabilidade ao Stress do Doente Cirúrgico no Período Pré-operatório”, pretendeu especificamente avaliar o tipo de conhecimentos sobre o ato anestésico que os doentes possuem; verificar em que medida as variáveis sociodemográficas têm efeito significativo na vulnerabilidade ao stress dos doentes e analisar a relação entre as variáveis clínicas e a vulnerabilidade ao stress do doente no período pré-operatório. O estudo é de natureza quantitativa, transversal e descritivo A amostra é não probabilística, constituída por 180 doentes, admitidos nos serviços de Cirurgia 1 e Cirurgia 2 para cirurgia programada no Centro Hospitalar Tondela – Viseu, EPE (CHTV; EPE), Unidade de Viseu. A colheita de dados decorreu nos meses de Abril e Maio de 2011. O instrumento de colheita de dados é constituído por um questionário de caracterização sociodemográfica e clínica do doente, um questionário de avaliação dos conhecimentos sobre o ato anestésico e a Escala da Vulnerabilidade ao Stress 23 QVS (Vaz Serra, 2000). Na amostra, o sexo feminino é ligeiramente superior ao sexo masculino, respectivamente com 55.6% e 44.4%., com uma média de idades de 57.25 anos. A maioria dos doentes são “casados” ou vivem em “união de fato” 73.9%, residem maioritariamente em “zona rural” 62.2% e 48.9% possuem a “4ª classe”. Verificámos que 64.4% já teve experiências cirúrgicas anteriores e inferimos que 69.4% dos doentes têm conhecimentos sobre o ato anestésico, 25.0% possuem bons conhecimentos e foram adquiridos através dos profissionais de saúde (28.8%). Constatámos que 59.4% dos doentes teve visita pré-operatória de enfermagem. A vulnerabilidade ao stress do doente no período pré-operatório é influenciada pela idade, (quanto maior a idade maior a vulnerabilidade), estado civil (os divorciados/viúvos" apresentaram maior vulnerabilidade) e habilitações literárias (os doentes cirúrgicos que não sabem ler nem escrever são os mais vulneráveis). Os doentes que tiveram visita de enfermagem pré-operatória são os mais vulneráveis ao stress, no entanto sem relevância estatística. Inferimos que os doentes com bons conhecimentos têm maior vulnerabilidade ao stress, no entanto sem significância estatística. Palavras-chave: Vulnerabilidade ao Stress; Conhecimentos; Visita de Enfermagem Pré- Operatória.ABSTRACT The welfare of the patient should constitute the main goal of the professionals that take care of the surgical patient, because on the pre-operative period may present stress levels, as well as develop feelings that could negatively act on their emotional state, making them vulnerable. So, this untitled “Vulnerability to Stress of the Surgical Patient on the postoperative period”, pretended specifically evaluate the kind of knowledge about the anesthetic act that the patients own; check in what measurement the socio-demographic variables have significant effect on the stress vulnerability of the patients and analyze the relation between clinical variables and stress vulnerability of the patient on post-operative period. The study is quantitative, transverse and descriptive. The sample is non probabilistic, constituted by 180 patients, admitted on Surgery 1 and Surgery 2 services for programmed surgery on Hospital Centre Tondela-Viseu, EPE (CHTV, EPE), Viseu’s Unit. The data collection is constituted by a questionnaire of socio-demographic and clinical characterization of the patient, one evaluation questionnaire about the knowledge about the anesthetic act and the Stress Vulnerability Scale 23 QVS (Vaz Serra, 2000). On the sample, feminine gender is slightly superior in relation to masculine gender, respectively with 55.6% and 44.4%, with an age average of 57.25 years old. Most of the patients are “married” or “unmarried” 73.9% mostly live in “countryside” 62.2% and 48.9% has the “4th grade”. We checked that 64.4% already fad surgical experiences and we infer that 69.4% of the patients have knowledge about the anesthetic act, 25.0% have good knowledge and were acquired through de health professionals (28.8%). We found that 59.4% of the patients had nursing pre-operative visit. The Stress vulnerability on the patient during the pre-operative period is influenced by age, (the higher the age, higher the vulnerability), civil status (divorced/widowers show a higher vulnerability) and qualifications (surgical patients who can’t read or write are the most vulnerable). Patients who had nursing pre-operative visit are the most vulnerable to stress, however without statistic relevance. We infer that patients with good knowledge have less stress vulnerability. Keywords: Stress vulnerability; Knowledge; Visiting Nurse Preoperative

Políticas de Habitação: á procura de novas problemáticas

Este texto tem como objectivo discutir conceitos, hipóteses e tipologias ao nível da habitação, evidenciando uma grande diversidade de dimensões quantitativas e qualitativas em rápida mudança, seja na experiência portuguesa, seja, de forma diferenciada, no tempo, nos países da Europa. Trata-se de uma discussão emergente das novas problemáticas socio-urbanísticas, da coexistência da habitação privada e pública, das transformações demográficas e familiares, com reflexos ao nível das novas necessidades de habitação.FCT - Fundação para a Ciência e a TecnologiaDGOTDU - Direcção Geral do Ordenamento do Território e Desenvolvimento UrbanoREFER EPCâmara Municipal de Lisboa - Cultur

Mapping Soil Erosion Prevention Using an Ecosystem Service Modeling Framework for Integrated Land Management and Policy

Current spatially explicit approaches to map and assess ecosystem services are often grounded on unreliable proxy data based on land use/cover to derive ecosystem service indicators. These approaches fail to make a distinction between the actual service provision and the underlying eco-system capacity to provide the service. We present an integrative conceptual framework to estimate the provision of soil erosion prevention by combining the structural impact of soil erosion and the social–ecological processes that allow for its mitigation. The framework was tested and illustrated in the Portel municipality in Southern Portugal, a Mediterranean silvo-pastoral system that is prone to desertification and soil degradation. The results show a clear difference in the spatial and temporal distribution of the capacity for ecosystem service provision and the actual ecosystem service provision. It also shows that although the average actual ecosystem service provision in the region is sufficient to mitigate the existing structural impact, vulnerable areas can be identified where significant soil losses are not mitigated at present. This becomes more significant when comparing different land management intensities. Considering these results, we argue that the general assumption that there is an almost direct relation between the capacity for ecosystem service provision of a given area and the actual ecosystem service provision is wrong. We also discuss how the framework presented here could be used to support land management and policy, and how it can be adapted for other regulating service

Innovation for resilience

Last decade is characterized by different types of crises and shocs in the socioeconomic systems, creating a turbulent context and calling for a better understanding of what the dynamic perspective of change is. For countries, regions and cities a better understanding of governance urges and calls for action