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...

 Therapeutic consumption among youths has been a topic of recent interest in various scientific fields, namely medical, social and political. This interest is focused on the consumption of products to enhance cognitive and body performance to which this generational group is most exposed. Our project falls within this domain and the object of analysis is the trajectories of performance enhancement consumption among youths in Portugal, more specifically on the consumption of the so-called smart drugs and lifestyle drugs. While the former are linked to investments in cognitive performance (enhancing intellectual performance or overcoming natural or neurophysiologic limits), the latter are linked to body performance (investment in growth, muscle development, etc). This spectrum of performance consumption encompasses both pharmaceutical and natural products. The key purpose of our project is to assess the specificity of the emerging youth therapeutic cultures, namely in terms of performance investments (pharmacological and natural), and how these display the blurring of the traditional boundaries between health and illness, between the normal and the pathological. The main analytical objective is to identify the cultural dispositions of youths vis-à-vis these consumptions as well as the role of information networks - notably the internet and everyday sociability contexts - in the production of these dispositions. More information - Final Report available here.        

The objective of this project is to identify and characterize the impact of the international partnership programs (IPS) on Portuguese universities. This program was created in 2006-2007 by inviting several American universities (MIT/CMU/UTA) to help develop selected universities. The lead universities were selected on the basis of their area of expertise (engineering, information technology and later medicine and business), the quality of their research, their degree of internationalization and their links with industry. Our research question is what impact did this have on 1) organizational change (including non-selected research teams) 2) curriculum innovation 3) staff development 4) student mobility 5) industry-university collaborations.

  The aim of the research project that we propose to carry out is to contribute to extending sociological knowledge of the logic(s) and rationalities that embrace the present-day therapeutic pluralism that has spread among the lay universes. In concrete terms, on the basis of actual daily experiences, it is intended to ascertain the criteria that determine the choice between pharmacological and non-pharmacological therapeutic options. In particular, it is to ascertain lay criteria for the credibility of information sources and the criteria for therapeutic effectiveness and risk assessment, which guide the therapeutic practices adopted. As a corollary, it is intended to confer visibility on the social content and constructed nature of the lay knowledges that underpin and "self"-legitimise therapeutic management options.