Project List

More people are living longer than ever before. Portugal is an outstanding example of this global trend, ranking as the fourth country in the world with the highest percentage of people aged 65 and older in its population. Ageism – how we think (stereotypes), feel (prejudice), and act (discrimination) towards others based on their age – is a significant barrier to healthier and longer lives and a growing concern in ageing societies. The first comprehensive international assessment of ageism – the Experiences and Expressions of Ageism module of the European Social Survey (2008-2009) – revealed that ageism was the most prevalent form of discrimination, experienced by more people than racism or sexism. Fifteen years later, the chAnGEISM project aims to reassess the current experiences and expressions of ageism in Portugal by replicating and extending the European Social Survey module.

Teacher burnout is a significant psychosocial, educational, organizational & economic challenge worldwide that has been aggravated by the COVID-19 pandemic. Impacts have been reported on teachers’ occupational health/wellbeing, job satisfaction, and performance, as well as on the quality of the learning environments. Hence, contributions to prevent teacher burnout have been receiving more attention by policy makers globally, as investing in occupational health can have a return on investment of 5 times the investment, and teaching is becoming unattractive with many OECD countries facing a shortage of new teachers and high turnover rates. Yet, an emphasis has been placed on some individual-level variables (as optimism), leaving the impact of other individual (e.g., self-care) & contextual variables (as job resources, e.g., leadership practices) overlooked. This project intends to investigate teachers’ needs regarding personal & job resources and whether teachers’ and the leadership team’s perceptions of personal/job resources needs are concordant. It also investigates how personal and/or job resources relate with teachers’ occupational health/wellbeing. Lastly, it proposes to investigate how a digital platform based on a Social-Emotional Learning (SEL) approach for teachers and their leaders, can foster teacher wellbeing and performance. Study 1 employs a sequential explanatory design to assess the perceptions of teachers and leaders regarding personal and job resources. Participants will complete a survey, followed by focus group discussions with teachers and individual interviews with leaders to enrich the quantitative data. Study 2 adopts a quantitative design with teachers to examine the relationship between personal and job resources and teachers' occupational health and wellbeing. Study 3 involves developing and testing the #SELhub digital platform to promote a positive school culture and enhance teacher wellbeing and performance, through an experim...

The research examines the intersections of migration, labour, and housing struggles among migrant women in the Lisbon Metropolitan Area and women in the Province of Luanda who plan to emigrate, framed through the concept of displaced survival. Against the backdrop of rising evictions and homelessness in Europe, the study highlights housing exclusions linked to rural-urban migration, postcolonial migration, and the financialisation of housing in Portugal. It critiques the tendency to isolate housing from labour dynamics, masking the class, gender, and racial dimensions inherent in urban displacement. Focusing on Angolan migrant women, the study explores their migration and housing strategies as survival tactics and informal entrepreneurship, alongside the influence of public policies. It employs multi-sited ethnography, life histories, and policy analysis, spanning Portugal and Angola. The research aims to deepen understanding of low-wage, gendered, and racialised migration, and its implications for both origin and host countries. It also seeks to critically assess policies, offering insights to shape future labour migration frameworks while recognising the fluid nature of contemporary migration and its impact on families.

What role can architects play in defining the public space of the future digital world? Looking back to the Carnation Revolution, when poor living conditions in Portugal became a matter of urgent political discussion, several architects turned to Television (TV) to amplify their message and take immediate action in the emerging democratic public space. Becoming field broadcasters themselves, architects could be seen on screen giving visibility to major urban problems, interacting with the population and calling for political change, thus building a televised dimension of architectural action closely linked to societal challenges. An open, democratic and sustainable Europe fit for the digital age is one of the EU’s top priorities for 2030, especially reinforced after the outbreak of COVID-19, where digital technologies were crucial in bringing people together at a time of social distance, as a means of providing remote forms of socialization, education and work. The EU Declaration aims to put people at the centre of Europe’s digital transformation using technologies that contribute to a fair and inclusive society that encourages participation in the Digital Public Space (DPS). Based on these assumptions, this research (ARCH-TV) will explore the legacy of Portuguese Public TV (RTP) to identify future opportunities in digital transformation for distance learning and cultural consumption, while aiming to contribute to a larger conversation on how DPS can be actively constructed and defined through broadcasting of architectural knowledge, history and culture, connecting architects with society at large on current issues. ARCH-TV proposes a research development in 3 stages: 1) Historical analysis of the participation of Portuguese architects in RTP, in the course of its institutional evolution: From instrument of propaganda for the New State since its first broadcast in 1956, to laboratory of experimentation for the growing democracy after ’74, to object of ratings with T...

The main objective of the research is to analyse the impact of the recent legislative and policy changes in the recognition of trans people and in the promotion of their citizenship. The analysis will take into account the diversity of identities and gender expressions of trans people, as well as the period and context of the formation of (trans)gender identity, starting from three temporal milestones delimited in relation to the legal framework for gender identity in Portugal: 1) the absence of any mechanism or legal protection for gender identity (until March 2011); 2) recognition through a “medical-legal alliance”, based on the gatekeeping of rights and the “medical model of transsexuality” (until August 2018); and 3) recognition of gender identity based on self-determination. The research follows the protocols of qualitative research, with in-depth interviews with trans people being the main method of gathering information.