The main purpose of this project is to investigate the effects of the 2007-2008 financial crisis on the Portuguese social security system. Bearing in mind that the Portuguese Constitution (article 63) enshrines social security as a fundamental and universal right we will assess the effects of austerity, which meant, during the 'adjustment' period, the reduction of social benefits' degree of generosity and scope, either directly due to the cuts that were made in the respective amounts, or indirectly, notably through the labour markets reform (e.g. flexibility, job insecurity and the decrease of wage incomes) and also through the degradation of public services that implied a loss of adequacy and effectiveness in the benefits provided. We also wish to analyse to what extent the crisis has been a pretext to engage by stealth into a systemic reform of the Portuguese social security system that by jeopardizing those main constitutional rules might lead to a permanent violation of social rights and ultimately to the reconfiguration of the Portuguese Welfare State. This means to assess in which way the crisis exceptional context, the moment of 'financial state of exception' that, according to the constitutional court, justified a temporary suspension and restriction of social security rights (maxime in the case of old age pensions), might have implied after all a new state of normality (due to the alleged structural financial fragility of the system) - the normality of the financial state of exception.

EmployALL aims to study the relationship of mutual dependence between employment and social protection. In the context of the Great Recession and the ensuing 'adjustment program' in Portugal, this interdependence manifested itself as an articulation of a crisis of employment with a crisis of social protection. The employment crisis involved an unprecedented rise of unemployment, wage decline and precarious work, which increased the burden on social protection. The outcome, aggravated by cuts directly affecting social protection, was a shortfall in the responsiveness of the system to new social vulnerabilities - a crisis of social protection. The two concomitant crises widened inequalities in diverse territorial contexts. EmployALL addresses the following research questions: 1) Which mechanisms connect employment (unemployment, precarious work and wage decline) to social protection (its capacity to respond to increasing demands), and to what extent the increased pressure on, and the social protection system shortfalls have contributed to augment risks in employment and unemployment? 2) To what extent is the articulation of the employment and social protection crises converging in the production and cumulative reproduction of inequalities, and how is this process to be reversed through public policies? The project will draw on an interdisciplinary methodological framework and will use quantitative and qualitative methodologies at different territorial scales. A structure of 6 work packages (WP) will be adopted. WP1 will be devoted to the theoretical mapping of the relations of mutual dependence between employment and social protection. WP2 will characterize the employment and social protection crises in Portugal, in the context of the EU, at various national territorial scales. WP3 aims to characterize the reciprocal impacts between the employment and social protection crises in the frame of the evolving financialized accumulation regime, with particular focus on how ...

Through this research project, of a qualitative nature, we will seek to build knowledge on the integration of the population cohort between 18 and 34 years of age in poorly qualified and low paid employment. The specific circumstances of this position in the labour market will be studied in articulation with variables such as educational qualifications, occupational skills, labour regime and types of household. Fieldwork will be carried out in four municipalities with distinct features: Lisbon, Oporto, Setúbal and Guimarães.