2020 | Article of the year

Finisterra extends warm congratulations to the winners of the 2020 best Article Award.

Winners are determined by vote. Manuscripts published in Finisterra are evaluated and rated on clarity in writing and content, organization, graphics, contribution to knowledge, etc.

​On the 23st of november, after the Finisterra Annual Lecture (Jacques Lévy), members of the panel of Judges announce​d​ ​the winners.

The Article of the Year, aims to reward the best article published in 2020, was awarded by:

Nuno Travasso, Aitor Varea Oro, Mariana Ribeiro de Almeida, Luísa Sousa Ribeiro, Acesso ao mercado de arrendamento em Portugal. Um retrato a partir do Programa de Arrendamento Acessível, Finisterra – Revista Portuguesa de Geografia, LV(114), 105-126.

In response to the current housing crisis, the Portuguese government launched the Affordable Rental Program (ARP), which aims to respond to middle-income populations struggling to access housing under market conditions. The program is accompanied by a set of statistical data and criteria that enables the monitoring of the rental market and the calculation of maximum effort rates. This article uses these data and criteria to 1) quantify and territorialize the gap between the rental market and household income; and 2) assess the impact that a widespread adoption of the ARP would have in mitigating this gap. In addition to pointing out limitations of the adequacy of the program to the heterogeneity of the territories, the analysis shows that, in a large part of the territory, the ARP will be able to respond to a relatively delimited but significant section of the population (about 10%) with average incomes. In areas under greater urban pressure, this number is reduced by half, which corresponds to the percentage of higher income households. In general, a large portion of the population is identified which remains unanswered. It is concluded that the ARP can be a useful tool, but by itself it is not able to respond to the entire segment of the population for which it is intended. The article ends with a reflection on the need and possible paths for a more comprehensive housing policy capable of responding to current challenges.

 

Jury Honorable Mention:

Alcides Lopes, Júlia Carolino, Formas resilientes da tradição na diáspora africana em Lisboa: Kola San Jon e o Direito à Cidade, Finisterra – Revista Portuguesa de Geografia, LV(114), 173-188.

The contemporary urban sphere presents us with challenges of different (dis)orders and is itself one of the main issues to be addressed nowadays. This article deals with the public use of city space in neoliberal times and the modalities and consequences of its appropriation for social life, according to
Lefebvre. The essay focuses on the Bairro Cova da Moura and the inscription, in 2013, of the Cape Verdean Kola San Jon in the National Inventory of Intangible Cultural Heritage. The analysis is based on ethnographic research undertaken between 2011 and 2018 and deals with Kola San Jon both as a cultural practice that actualises social processes and as a strategical identity device that reclaims the visibility of the community. We focus on the yearly festival at Cova da Moura and the schedule of activities outside the neighbourhood, considering the struggle for the valorisation of the place in Lisbon Metropolitan Area, as well as the process of recognising Kola as heritage in Portugal. The reflection around a practice committed to strategies of action that generate forms of resistance and identity-based assertion, takes us to the question of the right to the city, both in relation to a place that capitalism pushes to the margins as well as a playful event capable of the generating citizens’ centralities. Kola San Jon calls to the fore the notion that we currently inhabit, with increasing intensity, webs in which tangled trajectories cross each other, in ways that are more important than frontiers.

 

The Best Article of the Thematic Number about Covid-19 was awarded by:

Teresa Sá Marques, Hélder Santos, Fernando Honório, Márcio Ferreira, Diogo Ribeiro, Marcelo Torres, O mosaico territorial do risco ao contágio e à mortalidade por Covid-19 em Portugal Continental, Finisterra – Revista Portuguesa de Geografia, LV(115), 19-26.

The spatial dimension of risks associated with Covid-19 has triggered the need to explore the socio-territorial structures that influence contagion and mortality vulnerability, in response to research shortcomings identified by the literature. This research thus seeks to identify the territorial mosaic of contagion and mortality risks by Covid-19, describing the different vulnerability profiles that arise across Mainland Portugal. The variability of vulnerability, at the local level, supports the decision to analyse them at the municipal scale. This also contributes to inform policies aimed at preventing and mitigating the risks of contagion and death, given the areas in which the situations identified as potentially enhancing these risks occur. As such, following the analysis of territorial contagion and mortality risk profiles, we develop a scenario that identifies three territorial vulnerability profiles that, in view of the risks, need differentiated policies.

 

Jury Honorable Mention:

Juliana Chatti Iorio, Adélia Verônica Silva, Maria Lucinda Fonseca, O impacto da Covid-19 nos e nas estudantes internacionais no ensino superior em Portugal, Finisterra – Revista Portuguesa de Geografia, LV(115), 153-161.

This essay presents the results of an exploratory analysis of the impacts of the COVID-19 pandemic on international students and foreign residents enrolled in a higher education institution in Portugal. The study is based on an online survey to these students, carried out between April 7 and May 7, 2020. The  respondents’ perspectives were analysed regarding the effects of this health crisis on the continuity of their studies in Portugal, as in teaching and learning strategies, employment, housing, health and well-being. Although the problems and challenges created by the new coronavirus and the restrictions on human mobility to cope with its spread, have affected the entire student community, its effects were not homogeneous highlighting differences according gender, age, geographic origin and funding sources for their studies in Portugal.

 

The Jury: Jennifer McGarrigle (Presidente) (CEG, IGOT, ULisboa, Portugal), João Cabral (Faculdade de Arquitetura, ULisboa, Portugal), Joseli Maria Silva (Universidade Estadual de Ponta Grossa, Brasil), José Carlos Teixeira (University of British Columbia, Canadá), Núria Benach (Universitat de Barcelona, Espanha), Maria Helena Esteves (CEG, IGOT, ULisboa, Portugal), Nuno Costa (CEG, IGOT, ULisboa, Portugal), e Sérgio Oliveira (CEG, IGOT, ULisboa, Portugal).

The Jury of the Best Article of the Thematic Number about Covid-19: Nuno Costa (Presidente) (CEG, IGOT, ULisboa, Portugal), Ana Louro (CEG, IGOT, ULisboa, Portugal) e Raquel Melo (CEG, IGOT, ULisboa, Portugal).