Volume (10): Issue (1)

In this article, we compared and tried to explain deputies’ and voters’ perceptions about various dimensions of European integration. The general assertion that the political elite’s perceptions tend to be more pro-integration finds some support in our analysis, but the results indicate this difference − in the Portuguese case − is smaller than has been suggested in the mainstream literature. The data also showed citizens are more in favour of enlargement than their representatives are. We also observe these assertions hold true only for the deputies of the three parties with experience of government. Finally, we try to explain the divide between a voter and their deputy’s position on European integration, and we observed that the main explanatory variable for a narrow divide is political interest and information (which also explains the voters’ probability of having an opinion).

One of the consequences of the extension of access to higher education in Portugal, as in other countries, has been the diversification of students’ social background. This process has not led to the elimination of social inequalities in students’ access to and success in higher education, but those inequalities have not remained the same. In fact, there have been some highly significant and complex changes in this area. To study them, we carried out a comprehensive sociological investigation that covers the entire Portuguese higher education system – including universities and polytechnics – covering different areas of knowledge in different regions. The theoretic model included three levels of analysis: structural, institutional and biographical. The research design involved quantitative and qualitative methodological procedures. At the biographical level, in-depth interviews were conducted with 170 students. From these interviews we drew ‘sociological portraits’ and built analytical types both of these students’ structural and institutional positioning in their educational path and of how they actively shaped diverse types of personal trajectories. The identification of these types of student paths may help advance knowledge in this field, shedding considerably more light than the usual administrative categories of ‘success’, ‘failure’ and ‘dropout’.

This article discusses the implementation of ‘full-time schools’, a recent Portuguese public policy to extend primary education services from five to eight hours per day, including a set of optional new activities in all public schools that are free to parents. After a broad presentation of the national programme and in order to understand administration dominant conceptions, as well as to identify good practices and innovation projects in this field, our research has focused on five cases that the administration in different regions have considered to be successful. Each case studied included documental analysis, direct observation, interviews with leaders and supervisors, and focus groups with parents, students and activities monitors. Considering the empirical results, in this article we focus on four dimensions central to the success of these experiences: (1) the local network and project; (2) time and space management; (3) integration of the activities monitors; and (4) pedagogical practices.

This article summarises a research project in communication, culture and information technologies, the object of study being the construction of the image of immigrants and ethnic minorities in the Portuguese press. A comparative analysis between two newspapers – Pblico and Correio da Manh – was conducted, with each newspaper representing a different kind of journalism: one viewed as serious, the other as popular. We found that while immigration and ethnicity phenomena are important realities of Portuguese society, they are still perceived as threats by the popular press, while in the serious press we observed a greater interest in the social and political contextualisation of these phenomena and a more elaborate discourse.

Cárcere Público: Processos de Exotização entre Brasileiros no Porto, Igor José de Renó Machado, Lisbon: Imprensa de Ciências Sociais (2009) pp. 256, ISBN 9789726712442,€18.00