Sociologia, Problemas e Práticas

The symbolic politics of cultural heritage: a view from Portugal

2023-11-16T11:38:54+00:00

This paper highlights the centrality of the social representation of cultural heritage for the symbolic legitimization of a regime and the foundation of its social and cultural policies. The relevance attributed to history, its codification into heritage and the formation of a collective memory are indeed arenas of social practice, power and hegemony. The Portuguese example is a good one, because one can compare contrasting visions of the authoritarian regime of Salazar and those of the new and current democratic order. We examine how the Portuguese democracy has reconstructed a national consensus regarding the interpretation of national history and identity; we consider the role of the new interpretation in the redefining of the Portuguese placement in the world system; and some conclusions will be tentatively drawn from this case study.

The influence of private tutoring centers: the social system of non-higher education in Macau in times of pandemic crisis of Covid-19

2023-05-09T08:31:27+01:00

This paper seeks to contribute to studying the proliferation in Macau in recent years of the so-called “shadow education” in the non-higher education system, and its unique reaction to the pandemic crisis of Covid-19. This is an industry currently comprising 558 companies with a legal permit for 77 schools which only 10 of them, that are public, receive about 75,000 students, and 96% attend private institutions. The study aims to analyse the impact of non-regular education on the performance of the learners. Our research, supported by a survey among 90 permanent resident students of Macau who attended “tutorial centers”, highlights the significant expansion of “shadow education” as a social phenomenon linked, to the dysfunctions of the school and the structure of the labor market in the Macau Special Administrative Region (MSAR). This study also allows us to conclude that, despite its diffusion on a global scale, the increase of tutoring spaces is mainly a location process that does not benefit student’s learning. This conclusion is demonstrated in Macau by its remarkable ability to continue to prosper despite the devastating effects of the pandemic on the local economy, especially among small and medium-sized companies dependent on tourism and the sectors most exposed to globalization.

Indonesian sociography: analysis of themes and the implications for strengthening high school sociology learning in Indonesia

2023-08-18T08:55:28+01:00

This qualitative study aimed to assess the extent to which the 2013 Curriculum high school sociology coursebooks are informed by the results produced by the field of Indonesian sociography. In particular, the research is focused on which sociographic themes appear in coursebooks, their percentages and how they are presented. The data were drawn from 21 coursebooks, from seven publishers. Based on the results of content analysis, four main themes were found: social structure (S=395); social changes (S=58); social stratification (S=47); and social processes (S=44). In addition, 36 ethnic groups were identified, across seven major islands. This research also found that the study of Indonesian sociography presented in high school sociology coursebooks actually seeks to raise students’ ethnic awareness, given that Indonesia is a pluralistic and multicultural country; although in some cases it still requires strengthening for content aspects and learning instructions/guidelines for pedagogical aspects.

Young activists and political parties: convergences and divergences

2022-12-03T23:31:33+00:00

This article results from a qualitative research project (2019-22) around civic and activist intervention practices of young people. In this context, we analyzed their political biographies, which include, in some cases, formal and informal links, past and present, to political parties. The objective of this article is to detail the processes of connection and departure from these organizations, but also of complementarity with their forms of activism. We perceive in their discourses the relevance of parties in their processes of political socialization, in the family and peer context, decisively influencing their current activist trajectory.

Consolidation of the jazz art world in Portugal: contemporary context and conditions

2023-06-29T11:50:06+01:00

We analyse the recent consolidation of the jazz art world in Portugal. We examine the main changes in the art worlds and its agents on the basis of opinions gathered from comprehensive interviews with 45 musicians, in which they talked about their dynamics and vulnerabilities. We show that the consolidation of this world is an ambiguous, ambivalent process. This is due to uneven progression among the different agents, which results in the need for multitasking on the part of musicians and prevalence of inequality and competition for the available resources.

Pandemic and work-life balance: the case of the Cávado Intermunicipal Community

2023-06-30T16:01:48+01:00

Based on the results of a survey applied to 2375 workers from local public administration in the Cávado Intermunicipal Community, this article discusses the effects of the Covid-19 pandemic on work organisation and its relationship with work-life balance. Along with the changes experienced by a significant part of the workers, the results also show a pattern of permanence both in work arrangements and in the distribution of family responsibilities, which enables us to discuss the views of the pandemic as potentially transformative of the usual models of life and work.

Mothers and fathers with non-resident children: households and marital and parental trajectories

2023-06-29T12:47:25+01:00

Based on data from the Fertility Survey, 2019, we aimed to characterize and compare the parental and conjugal paths of fathers and mothers with non-resident children under the age of 18, as well as to understand whether the interrelationships between these elements of their biographies form different non-resident parenting profiles. The bivariate analysis showed the mothers’ and fathers’ family trajectories and nucleus are diverse, distinct and, at the same time, similar to each other. The multiple correspondence analysis revealed three profiles of non-resident parenting: that of cohabitants, that of those who did not live in conjugality, and that of married couples.