The aim of this study is to create a system of indicators for the minimum income scheme in Portugal (Rendimento Social de Inserção), serving as a basis for the creation of a model for evaluating the service provision of this policy by local authorities. The research question that will guide our work is to what extent does the decentralisation of competences to the local level contribute to alleviating the causes of poverty and improving the quality of the services provided? The decentralisation of competences has been seen as a mechanism for combating poverty. Several international organisations, such as the World Bank, the OECD and the European Union, refer to the potential of decentralisation to enable local authorities to develop sustainable development processes. Several authors such as Von Braun and Groot (2000) and Crawford and Hartmann (2008) argue in favour of decentralisation, pointing out that local governments are better informed about the needs of their populations than the central state. Proximity makes it easier to monitor the citizen-beneficiary and can also allow for easier and more effective evaluation of social workers. However, some questions arise, namely the fact that these positive impacts of decentralisation depend on two factors, namely the resources that are made available to local authorities (Jütting e Corsi, 2005 and Harris and Posner, 2022) and also how local authorities themselves implement programmes (Harris and Posner, 2022). In the Netherlands, for example, during the process of decentralisation of competences (2003 and 2015), the problem that emerged was related to the way social workers acted in the execution and monitoring of social assistance recipients, who adopted a welfare philosophy. And it was through the initiative of the municipalities that they were open to changing the paradigm of the social intervention model (Oliveira, 2024). In Portugal, there were those who opposed decentralisation on the grounds that local authoriti...

Contemporary capitalist societies have undergone important and significant transformations in recent decades, the last of which was marked by the aftermath of a financial, economic and social crisis, with different consequences for labour markets and the organisation of work in various countries worldwide, and in which the present has been cut across by a pandemic crisis, on a global level, with evident impacts on work, the scope of which still needs to be appraised. While theliterature on the labour market, especially on precariousness and flexibility is extensive (Kalleberg 2009; Castel 2009), literature focussing on models ofmanagement and organisation of work and labour relations is scarce (Lundin et al. 2015). Among these models, project work stands out. By project work we meana temporary structure for organising work which has specific impacts on work relationships and individual performances. In some economic sectors andprofessions, such as architecture and scientific research, it constitutes the main historical mode of organising work (Boutinet 1990; Greer, Samaluk and Umney2019), but in other areas it has been increasingly adopted as a mechanism for furthering more flexible work modalities, work relationships and worspaces (Eftaxiopoulos 2022). This research aims to analyse modes of projectification (Lundin et al. 2015; Kuura 2011; 2020) and the way in which they are part of renewed modalities for the organisation of contemporary capitalist societies and have spread to a wide range of sectors of economic activity and professions. The spread of projects as a means of organising work has been effective for a variety of reasons: the development and implementation of models of work organisation that link management rationales, leadership styles, procedures and structures of work relationships which have been specifically designed to make project work effective; the availability of digital and technological resources, enabling continuous online communication reg...