Project List

The central concept behind this project is to analyze the emergence and consolidation of social entrepreneurship within the context of the changes undergone by Portuguese society over the last decades, taking on board the international debate and alternatives to the capitalist model. The core objectives of the project are: a) to analyze the structures and dynamics of social entrepreneurship in Portugal; b) to make policy recommendations for social entrepreneurship in the fields of employment and education/training, organizational and management models.Methodology: The aim is to meet these objectives through an approach based on three analytical axes, combining both extensive and intensive methodologies, the latter based on participatory action research. These events shall be included in a documentary about social entrepreneurship for informative and didactic purposes, in order to disseminate this concept to regional and local communities and to society in general. A platform of social entrepreneurship, that can be accessed free of charge, will be one of the innovative products of the project, which shall include the documentary, a bibliographic database, a repository of public policies, a database of teaching/training institutions, and pedagogical guidelines, among a wide array of products generated during 3 years of project and that come to be regarded as relevant for dissemination purposes.

Project goals: To continue the external evaluation of the Municipal Mediators project, in the municipalities that renewed the protocols. The pilot project started in September 2009. The methodology favoured a qualitative approach, complemented by a more extensive and quantitative approach, focusing on techniques for collecting information semi-directive interviews, the application of a questionnaire survey and a balance of competences. The treatment of the collected original information was done through analysis of content and statistical treatment, while all the documentation available was subject of documentary analysis.

Interactive Architecture is a processes-oriented guide to creating dynamic spaces and objects capable of performing a range of pragmatic and humanistic functions. These complex physical interactions are made possible by the creative fusion of embedded computation (intelligence) with a physical, tangible counterpart (kinetics). A uniquely twenty-first century toolbox and skill set-virtual and physical modeling, sensor technology, CNC fabrication, prototyping, and robotics-necessitates collaboration across many diverse scientific and art-based communities. Interactive Architecture includes contributions from the worlds of architecture, industrial design, computer programming, engineering, and physical computing. These remarkable projects run the gamut in size and complexity. Full-scale built examples include a house in Colorado that programs itself by observing the lifestyle of the inhabitants, and then learns to anticipate and accommodate their needs. Interactive Architecture examines this vanguard movement from all sides, including its sociological and psychological implications as well as its potentially beneficial environmental impact. Interactive Architecture by Michael Fox and Miles Kemp, 2009:20 “If living systems are machines, that they are physical auto poetic machines is trivially obvious: they transform matter into themselves in a manner such that the product of their operation is their own organization. However, we deem the converse as also true: A physical system if autopoetic is living. In other words, we claim that the notion of autopoiesis is necessary and sufficient to characterize the organization of living systems.” Autopoiesis and cognition: the realization of the living by Humberto R. Maturana and Francisco J. Varela, 1979:17. LS_01: Arduino +Grasshopper+Firefly and Prototyping (32 hours) 7th to 11th March 2012, D0.04 Laboratory (ISCTE-IUL, Building II) 7th and 8th March 2012 (Wednesday and Thursday) 18:30 -22:30 (4 hours) Trainers: Brimet Silva e...