In Portugal, mechanisms aimed at debtors in a difficult economic situation or in imminent insolvency (namely, the special proceedings for revitalization and the special proceedings for a payment agreement) have a marginal use when compared to insolvency proceedings and since 2016 there has been a sharp and steady decline in the number of special proceedings for revitalization issued. Furthermore, the average length of insolvency proceedings largely exceeds 2 years. Given these elements, our research aims to address the following questions: (a) does the length of insolvency proceedings exceed what would be expected according to the law? (b) if so, what are the underlying causes? (c) how to explain the low use of pre-insolvency mechanisms? (d) what are the reasons for the steady decline in the number of special proceedings for revitalization issued in the last few years? The project combines multiple perspectives as it includes legal, economic and sociological methods of analysis. This cross-cutting approach is intended to provide an overview of the causes that affect the length of insolvency proceedings and the use of pre-insolvency mechanisms. Such an analysis will be a major contribution to the prescriptive dimension of the project: the development of proposals aimed at promoting the use of pre-insolvency mechanisms (thus contributing to the recovery of viable debtors) and at reducing the length of insolvency proceedings, thereby mitigating its serious detrimental effects. Team:  Mariana Machado França Gouveia Sande Nogueira (PI), CEDIS  João Pedro Ramos de Almeida Pinto-Ferreira (Co-PI), CEDIS  Guilherme Brandão Salazar Loureiro Gomes, CEDIS  Higina Maria Almeida Orvalho da Silva Castelo, CEDIS  Lua Ana Mota Santos, CEDIS and CIES-Iscte Patrícia Andrea Rodrigues André, CEDIS and Dinâmia'CET-Iscte Susana Alexandra Lopes da Costa Santos, CIES-Iscte Teresa Cristina Nunes Violante Ferreira Nascimento, CEDIS   

HumAct is a 3-year project funded by the Erasmus + Program Capacity Building for Higher Education and is coordinated by ISCTE – Instituto Universitário de Lisboa., with partners: the National and Kapodistriana University of Athens, the University of Cape Verde and the University of Santiago, Cape Verde and the Pedagogical University, University of Pungué and University of Rovuma, Mozambique. The main objective of the project is to increase the capacity of higher education institutions in the area of ​​Humanitarian Action (HA) in relation to climate change and displacement in partner countries, specifically in Cape Verde and Mozambique, in collaboration with institutions in program countries, such as Greece and Portugal. The specific objectives are: • Increase the response of higher education with regard to content relevant to HA • Promoting research by teachers and students regarding HA • Develop teachers' pedagogical strategies • Strengthen community involvement

The working plan continues the research line developed in the Post-doc Grant dedicated to the study of the professional integration of young lawyers in large law firms in Portugal. The research line is articulated around the transformations in the law profession and, on the new roles offered in the transnational context, crisscrossing the judicial, economic and political spheres. The complexity of studying the professional integration of young lawyers in large law firms in a global context comprises different institutions like Law schools, professional associations and law firms in both national and international context, allowing to go further on the observation of social practices and dynamics. The working plan is structured along three main goals in articulation with CIES-IUL’s strategic plan, mainly, the analysis of the transformations in the world of skilled work, on class and gender inequalities in access and permanence on the law profession and, on the roles performed by Law schools on teaching formal and informal competences. Goal 1: Studying professional socialization in large law firms. Goal 2: The role of the Portuguese Bar Association and the professional internship: transformations and continuities. Goal 3: Undergraduate and graduate education in Law.

Roughly until the 2008 international financial and economic crisis and the sovereign debt crisis and austerity policies that followed, scholars studying the Southern European democracies (Greece, Italy, Portugal and Spain) either focused on democratic consolidation or on the quality of democracy (see, for example, Morlino 1998; Gunter, Diamandouros and Phule 1995). However, the Southern European democracies have been experiencing profound changes since the emergence of the global economic and financial crises. As Matthijs (2014) noted, ‘there is already ample evidence that the strength of liberal democracy in Southern Europe has diminished since 2010, as seen in a weakening of civil and political rights, the rule of law and the functioning of government’. Clearly, there are significant changes in the functioning of contemporary democracies, especially those that haveendured painful austerity policies.The aim of this project is to examine these changes by analysing the case of Portugal, one of the countries affected most severely by the crisis, from both a longitudinal and a comparative perspective. Although it is still too early to definitely assess the impact of the economic crisis on the evolution of contemporary democracies, it is clear there are different responses to these external challenges and distinct trajectories of adaptation. Portugal can be considered a good example of one of the most important difficulties many contemporary democracies must face: the people’s loss of faith in the ability of democratic institutions — particularly legislatures, parties and the political elite — to solve problems and realise collective goals. We believe that by revisiting the concept of ‘democratic consolidation’ and by exploring aspects of a possible process of ‘democratic deconsolidation’ we can shed light on some of the changes recently experienced in European countries since the2008 crisis. The use of this concept here is not related to the consensus on the ‘rules of...

O presente estudo insere-se na linha de investigação da sociologia das profissões e dos estudos sobre as elites. O seu objecto de estudo são os advogados das áreas financeiras e as sociedades de advogados onde exercem a sua actividade. Pretende-se com o estudo compreender as estratégias de formação e reprodução social das elites jurídicas e as formas como as suas acções vão desenvolvendo uma cultura profissional de carácter transnacional. As mutações na profissão de advogado, em particular, dos advogados inseridos em grandes escritórios de carácter transnacional é um tema fundamental para compreender as transformações e as novas sobreposições entre as esferas económicas, financeiras, políticas e sociais. As grandes sociedades de advogados são um ponto nodal entre o sistema financeiro e o sistema político, local de encontro de membros das elites económicas e políticas onde se definem prioridades e se desenham políticas económicas à escala global.

This project will involve the new problems associated with political and social participation, such as the rising trend in electoral abstention, political disaffection, the new forms of participation and the broadening of the democratic deliberation process. It will involve empirical EXPERIMENTATION in Portugal but we shall try to contextualize these questions within the European sphere, giving special attention to a comparison with Spain (an agreement exists with the researchers in CAES at Complutense University). Let us examine the different research lines: 1. The rising trend of electoral abstention in Portugal and other European countries. The explanations provided by the literature on the subject indicate the disappearance of political anchors (party and ?left/right? identities), the lack of interest in politics, growing individualism and, on the other hand, narrowing social and political divergences. It is useful to examine these explanations in depth, particularly the lack of interest in politics, and to explore others: globalization and withdrawal of the state from intervention, which has a tendency to neutralize the play in politics; the political parties? difficulties in transposing social problems to the political arena; and the way the parties themselves operate on an internal level and in their relations with the citizens and the media. It is also of interest to consider the cases of female political participation and the youth. 2. An analysis of the involvement of the agents in the voluntary associations and its democratic effects. The hypothesis to be tested: to ascertain if the different effects of association involvement (civic virtues, participative capacities, social trust, political integration) depend on the type of association in question. 3. An analysis of the change in political values and the implications: for the political behaviour of individuals and, possibly, the orientation of the parties. Have new security threats affected attitudes to...

The objective of this project is to establish a research programme focused on two interrelated aspects:an analysis of the relationship between family and work, on the one hand, and the dynamics of transition in this relationship, on the other.

The research project is part of an action of COST A20 (http://cost-a20.iscte.pt) and being developed in 22 European countries. The main objective of the project is to increase knowlegde about the complex interplay between the Internet and Mass Media in different European countries.