Waiting for International Political Sociology: A Field Guide to Living In-Between

This paper explores the in-between positionality of International Political Sociology (IPS) and offers a field guide to help scholars, students and thinkers embrace this disposition more energetically. It makes the case for a more balanced transdisciplinarity that attends to the international, the political and the social at the same time and in equal measure. The power of this in-between approach is that it forces thinkers in IPS to constantly look at the horrors of our contemporary world without turning away. Through the ambivalent position of the ‘happy wreck’, the paper explores the need to do something about these horrors (e.g. diagnose, act, intervene) while fully acknowledging that such actions always produce new forms of violence and exclusion. To help thinkers in IPS inhabit this challenging space of inquiry more confidently, the paper makes four suggestions: (i) broadening our emotional responses to the horrors of the world; (ii) resisting resolution through non-cathartic dispositions; (iii) pursuing slow research to contest dominant rhetorics of crisis and emergency; and (iv) re-imagining shared conditions of vulnerability.

The analysis of political will and its role in leadership: a study of portuguese mayors

This thesis analyses the concept of Political Will, suggests its operationalization and establishes a typological theory that provides the necessary support for the diverse strategies of action of a leader. It claims that political leadership styles articulate a choice of action that results from the Political Will of a leader, which is determined by his intention and his discerned possibilities to act. One main research question guided our research: How does a political leader select and change his leadership style? The most illustrative literature on political leadership is reviewed and the characteristics of democratic governance are analyzed. This is followed by an overview of the most noteworthy theories on the theme and a claim for the need of concept coherence, given the multiplicity of the existent standpoints. After that, we concentrate on leadership styles, with a focus on the local governance context. Human action and intentionality are addressed with particular attention, as well as the motivational drivers for action, in order to advance a conceptualization of Political Will through two dimensions: intention and possibility. This analysis led to a number of relevant propositions: (1) Political Will ‘exists’ when the agent has the intent and the possibility to act; (2) these two dimensions ‘translate’ simultaneously what the agent believes he must do and can do; (3) Intention and possibility reflect diverse but limited worldviews; (4) political leadership styles result from the agent’s Political Will; (5) different combinations of the expected and actual worldviews result in different leadership styles; and (6) political leadership styles can change accordingly to several strategies which allow conformity or reflect reaction to worldviews. We suggested the operationalization of the two dimensions of Political Will through the analytical tool of Grid-group Theory, which provided the identification of the heuristic devices that allowed further comprehension on the subjectivity of the agent’s choice. Four standard property spaces – representing four types of leadership styles – result from a preliminary approach to this process. Afterwards, and because these dimensions operate simultaneously, we advance on the analysis and suggest some plausible heuristical conflicts to happen and describe which consequences, strategies and type migrations are conceivable. An inclusive and more complete set of resulting property spaces renders fourteen different types of leadership styles and sixty different predictable causal paths that result from the expected migration strategies. Case-studies were conducted as plausibility probes designed to provide improvements to our theoretical claims and addressed the cases we selected for research purposes: Portuguese Mayors. The findings from five case studies are discussed and the probable impact and congruence of each with the theoretical claims are assessed. The communalities of the causal mechanisms related to the function of intention and possibility as the dimensions of Political Will and their role in explaining different leadership styles are, finally, addressed. To conclude, we advance some repercussions, mainly in the public policies field of research, and suggest a number of different and necessary paths for further work.

Sources, signification and genre stability in American Film Noir

O conceito film noir é manifestamente complexo de ser definido. Atendendo a que não existe um estudo verdadeiramente completo sobre a estilística do film noir, esta tese, inserida no âmbito dos Estudos Cinematográficos, pretende ser uma tentativa de exploração do conceito film noir e do género cinematográfico sob vários aspectos. Trata-se, no fundo, de uma forma de restabelecer este conceito descritivo americano, desde o início dos anos quarenta até finais dos cinquenta, através de um processo de análise iconográfica. Este projecto focaliza-se na seguinte questão de investigação: pode o film noir americano ser considerado um género cinematográfico enquanto tal? Numa primeira fase, analisam-se os contextos cinematográfico e social preexistentes no cinema noir de modo a compreender este fenómeno cinematográfico, enquanto uma extensão do movimento hard-boiled, uma cosmovisão subversiva que descaradamente se opõe aos mitos americanos da auto-promoção americana, que marcaram muitos filmes de Hollywood durante a época da Depressão. Depois, descrevem-se os movimentos culturais específicos, bem como os acontecimentos sociopolíticos da época, a psicanálise, o estruturalismo e a teoria de autor, que ajudaram a contextualizar os padrões do film noir e a forma como o conceito acabou por gradualmente penetrar na cultura americana. As películas a analisar concentrar-se-ão sobre símbolos visuais específicos e elementos cinematográficos (tais como os das técnicas de iluminação e fotografia), adoptando uma perspectiva semiótica. Através dos conceitos saussuriano de “signo” e de “ícone” perceiano, procuro demonstrar de que forma os símbolos em filmes noir constituem significados que são enfaticamente indexicais, isto é, de que maneira eles são transversais, passando de um símbolo para outro (ou evento), direccionando e coagindo a atenção do espectador. A tese conclui então que o filme noir não pode ser considerado e entendido como um género fílmico e que o seu estilo visual (o aspecto dominante do cinema noir) tem como propósito acentuar o desencanto sentido no rescaldo da guerra, representar os meandros da vida urbana americana e, principalmente, enfatizar a incerteza, a ansiedade e o lado obscuro da existência humana.

O regresso dos emigrantes portugueses e o desenvolvimento do turismo em Portugal

Atendendo ao protagonismo que o Turismo Residencial tem vindo a assumir, no âmbito académico e político, a análise conceptual dos termos Turismo, Turismo Residencial e “Segunda Residência” revelou-se crucial nesta tese para se avaliar o seu impacte no desenvolvimento “rural”. A sua relação com as migrações (internas e internacionais) permitiu identificar o potencial que o regresso e fixação dos emigrantes portugueses apresentam para impulsionar o desenvolvimento do turismo em Portugal. As implicações da ambiguidade conceptual associada com o termo “rural” manifestam-se igualmente na falta de consenso quanto à natureza específica do processo de desenvolvimento “rural” e na dificuldade de identificação de políticas mais adequadas aos problemas prioritários destes territórios. Neste âmbito, o índice de centralidade dos centros urbanos, baseado nas áreas de influência e na marginalidade funcional, permite identificar as áreas com menor capacidade de polarização, que são as áreas mais carenciadas. Reconhecendo que muitas delas albergam atrativos capazes de motivar a deslocação de pessoas, por motivos de recreio ou de lazer, o desenvolvimento sustentável do setor do turismo, sob certas condições, apresenta-se capaz de constituir-se como um motor da atividade económica em geral, ajudando à redução das assimetrias de desenvolvimento existentes, e uma oportunidade para melhorar a qualidade de vida das suas populações. Os resultados da aplicação de 5157 questionários aos emigrantes portugueses suportam esta argumentação, uma vez que são sobretudo os que possuem residência própria num concelho com menor índice de centralidade que mais podem contribuir para o desenvolvimento do turismo em Portugal.

Bush and Lula's political identity constructions: are they so different? A critical discourse analysis of presidential speeches of North and South America

Dissertação de mest., Linguística, Faculdade de Ciências Humanas e Sociais, Universidade do Algarve, 2007

Reseña : José Del Valle (ed.) (2013), A Political History of Spanish: The Making of a Language, Cambridge/New York, Cambridge University Press. [ISBN: 978-1-107-00573-0]

Résumé non disponible

Country school movements and ideals in South Carolina

The bulletin is a report of the State Supervisor of Elementary Rural Schools. It includes field work, rural school progress, and recommendations.

Quando todos os caminhos levavam a Portugal:impacto da guerra dos cem anos na vida económica e política de Portugal (séculos XIV-XV)

Tese de doutoramento, História (História Medieval), Universidade de Lisboa, Faculdade de Letras, 2014

Joaquim Rodrigo:a contínua reinvenção da pintura

Tese de doutoramento, História (História da Arte), Universidade de Lisboa, Faculdade de Letras, 2014

Mouzinho da Silveira and the Political Culture of Portuguese Liberalism, 1820–1832

Liberalism as an identity and as a political ideology was non-existent in Portugal, as in most of the countries of Ibero-America, before the beginning of the nineteenth century. But the semantic development of the term ‘liberal’ in Portuguese underwent a clear and rapid mutation in the following decades. It became associated with specific meanings in relation to constitutional issues and civil law matters. While the former prevailed between 1820 and 1823, the latter were dominant in the writings of Mouzinho da Silveira and his Civil War legislation of 1832 to 1834.

Comportamento de consumo, elites sociais e moda : contributo para a consolidação disciplinar dos estudos de tendências

Tese de doutoramento, Estudos de Literatura e de Cultura (Cultura e Comunicação), Universidade de Lisboa, Faculdade de Letras, 2015

From the Government to the Streets: Why the U.S. is a Policy Innovator in Disability Rights

Thesis (Ph.D.)--University of Washington, 2012

Late twentieth century congressional leaders as shapers of and hostages to political context: Gingrich, Hastert, and Lott

Most contemporary explanations of congressional leadership postulate a version of contextual theory that typically places greatest emphasis on the strength of party and downplays the personal skills of individual leaders. By analyzing the leadership of just three recent individuals—Gingrich, Hastert, and Lott—this essay demonstrates the extent to which these leaders' different styles, skills, and characteristics interacted with changing political contexts and strategic environments to impact political and policy outcomes. Context matters, but so does leadership skill. Most graphically, Gingrich—a rare transforming leader in Burns' typology—demonstrates the importance of the right person and the right conditions being in place at the same time and the ability of an individual imaginative leader to intervene exogenously to have a significant effect on policy outcomes. Yet the essay also demonstrates that even where leaders adopt more conventional transactional styles, as Hastert and Lott did, the skill and success with which they juggle political pressures emanating from different, often conflicting, contexts—skills in context—also matters.

The Glasgow 2014 XX Commonwealth Games and Scottish Independence: “Political Truce” or Political Truth(s)?

This paper explores the political reaction to Lord McConnell’s appeal for a political ‘truce’ in the form of a temporary halt to campaigning by all political parties and organisations involved in the debate regarding the Scottish independence referendum during the Glasgow 2014 Commonwealth Games (BBC, 2014; McConnell, 2014). Urging both sides of the debate to cease campaigning for the two-week period of the Glasgow 2014 games, the current Labour peer and past First Minister of the Scottish Parliament cited concerns that there are “genuine concerns that the Games, and the image of Scotland, could be damaged by attempts by either side – for and against – to use the Games to promote their cause, or to use the venues for campaigning” (McConnell, 2014). Drawing upon the principles of both a critical discourse and a narrative analysis methodological approach, this paper will scrutinise the nature of the political reactions to McConnell’s proposal from a variety of perspectives on both sides of the independence referendum debate. In particular, the emphasis in the responses from both sides of the debate regarding the apolitical nature of the 2014 Games will be critiqued, drawing upon the arguments of past analyses of sporting mega-events which highlight the potential for political exploitation of such events by the host nations (e.g. Horne, 2007; Grix, 2012; Houlihan and Giulianotti, 2012; Roche, 2006). Furthermore, the findings of academic research on the political implications of hosting the Commonwealth Games will be considered (e.g. Majumdar and Mehta, 2010; Van Der Westhuizen, 2004; Macintosh and Greenhorn, 1992; Majumdar, 2011; Lockstone and Baum, 2010; Macfarlane and Herd, 1986), highlighting a number of precedents which demonstrate the numerous challenges faced in any attempts to the keep the 2014 Games free from political influence.