It is intended to deepen the sociological knowledge and its dissemination in the thematic of health policies and systems through an approach that crosses epistemology, public policies, and organizational and professional theories. The research focus is on the comprehensive and comparative analysis of policies, modes of organization and work processes, and of forms and use of knowledge in everyday life decisions. The analysis is ensured by the insertion of the researcher in several networks and ongoing national and international research projects. Research results are ensured by a broad set of production indicators that include publications and participation in scientific events, search for alternative sources of funding, academic extension and knowledge transfer activities, pedagogical enrichment in these subject areas and supervisions.

The project focuses on human resources for health in Portugal. Its aim is to advance with one possible operationalization of the analytical matrix Availability-Accessibility-Acceptability-Quality of health workforce and to make the first systematic literature review (both academic and grey documents) of the theme in Portugal. The project is commissioned by the OPSS (Portuguese Observatory of Health Systems) and will be included as a chapter in the 2018 Spring Report.

This project addresses questions on the complexity of new governance arrangements in healthcare. Building on existing studies, this broader discussion is drawn from Portugal by taking advantage of the context resulting from the 2011 bailout. The mandatory conditions accorded not only challenge the scientific debate on governance, but also provide one of the best environments in Europe to assess the range and limits for state-based forms of regulation over self-regulated spheres, as the medical profession and the profit-making sector. Another key-element is the in-depth insight into the defining principle of the profit-making sector, state and medical profession interests. Basically, how can we define the narrative that stands for professionalism, capitalism and state-oriented policies and how do they relate to each other? The analysis departs from the drug sector, the most expensive for public investment and the one that places in a closest position healthcare access, medical decision and for-profit interests.  

The project’s goal is to conduct research on the professional identities and discourses of school teachers in Portugal. It seeks to research how the identities and discourses of teachers and their associations are remolded as a result of changes in the context of public educational systems.

This is a proposal to study the forms of collaboration and resistence of civil servants and their unions to the organizational changes with the Reform of the Portuguese Public Administration. This involves measures with the goals of improving the productivity and efficiency of public employment. As in other European countries with excessive public deficits, the aim is to contain employment and wage costs in the civil service. Changes within employment relations and personnel management are being applied with the same goal as a basis of a strategy of ?debureaucratization?. It is necessary to research the role of workers and their unions in the Reform of Public Administration due to the paradox envolved with the goal of reducing state expenditure in the context of growing demand for public services: how to downsize and improve productivity and quality without discouraging human resources?