Portuguese Journal of Social Science

Introduction

Magda Nico, Cláudia Casimiro, Vanessa Cunha — Sun, 06 Dec 2020 00:00:00 +0000

In sociology and social life, time plays a vital role and is of inescapable theoretical importance. On the one hand, in the sociology of the life course, time structures the analysis and research design, affecting the theoretical frameworks and contributing to the advance of knowledge. Time is likely to be the variable that responds with most efficacy to the ambitions of excellence and sociological comparability advocated since Durkheim. Time allows the organization of social reality into units, analysis during a particular observation window and anchoring these analyses in historical periods. Time allows a comparison of the individual across periods, the comparison of the same ‘life phase’ in different generations or generational units and the comparison of the impact of the ‘same’ event or historical moment on different singular lives. It also stimulates the sociological and methodological imagination by permanently leaving to untie the conceptual and empirical knot of age-generation-period effects sociologists not uncommonly find at the end – as much as at the beginning – of their investigations, in a kind of unexpected double serendipity. This irresolution of the age-generation-period effect moves and inspires much life course research.

Time-sharing in parental leave

Mafalda Leitão — Sun, 06 Dec 2020 00:00:00 +0000

With recent developments, parental leave policies may also be seen as gender equality policies, namely when fathers are given substantial and non-transferable well-paid home-alone time and encouraged by the policies take it (‘use it or lose it’/extra-time bonuses). Portugal is one of the countries where this type of time was introduced: parents are given an extra well-paid month of main leave after birth (‘initial parental leave’) if each one stays home alone at least 30 days after the other return to work . Given the way it challenges traditional gender roles in family life and in the labour market, a qualitative study was carried out in order to grasp the motives of 24 fathers (non-probability purposive sample) who took this home-alone sharing bonus. Findings reveal that fathers’ motives impact the amount of time they take. From the interactions between two major motivations – care and instrumental – and other social circumstances, such as family negotiation and labour contexts, several time-sharing profiles are identified. Each one making a difference in terms of the amount of time shared by fathers, with those where fathers exceed the one-month bonus-sharing being of particular interest.

Chauffeuring parenthood

Maria Johanna Schouten, Soledade Las Heras — Sun, 06 Dec 2020 00:00:00 +0000

The time parents dedicate to the routine transport of their children has increased significantly since the second half of the twentieth century. This change was triggered by various developments, including new forms of parenthood, the central place the car has come to occupy in society and the tendency to urban dispersion. The article addresses the coordination efforts made by families to provide transport for their children to and from schools, nurseries or extracurricular activities. It focuses on the meaning parents attribute to the time spent on this transport, and on gender differences in this type of time allocation. To illustrate this point, analyses have been made of qualitative and quantitative data obtained in the context of a research on the use of time and technology in families, in the Portuguese districts of Castelo Branco and Braga, during the period 2010–12. The principal revelations of this research are the diversities but also general trends in representations and practices regarding temporalities and transport shown in interviews and focus group discussions. It was found that parents interviewed considered time devoted to routine transport of their children a care task; and, linked to this, mothers bore the brunt of this fragmented and time-consuming activity.

Reassessing (de)standardization

Sofia Aboim, Pedro Vasconcelos — Sun, 06 Dec 2020 00:00:00 +0000

A central problem of life course analysis concerns the changes brought about by the pluralization and differentiation of biographies in western societies. Lives would be increasingly dissimilar from each other and marked by a broader range of transitions and stages. Under the lens of life course theorization, the heterogenization of biographies is typically understood as destandardization. However, if the destandardization hypothesis gained momentum, there is still little information about its explanatory power outside the wealthiest centres of Europe and North America. Following recent trends in research, the article critically examines the applicability of the destandardization hypothesis to the Portuguese case. Through an analysis of the lives of three generations of Portuguese men and women, we reconstruct the life trajectories of each generation starting from the 1930s until the early 2000s. Through the reconstitution of both family and work trajectories, we see if there is a standard biography from which to derive subsequent patterns of heterogenization. From this perspective, we reassess the extent to which the destandardization model is suitable for explaining life course transformations in Portuguese society.

Precarious living

Mariana Lucas Casanova, Isabel Menezes, Rebecca Lawthom, Joaquim Luís Coimbra — Sun, 06 Dec 2020 00:00:00 +0000

This article argues that understanding uncertainty in contemporary societies and its psychosocial consequences is possible through a transdisciplinary perspective. This integrates sociological, psychological, economic and political dimensions. To address this, we offer a critical theoretical reflection that draws on diverse conceptual perspectives within the social sciences. In recent years, in psychological research, uncertainty has been mainly analysed as an intrapsychic phenomenon and as a psychological trait through the concept of (in)tolerance of uncertainty. In contrast, we argue for a psychosocial analysis of uncertainty, considering its socio-economic and political origins, thereby challenging its trait-like analysis. For example, we highlight the inputs of attachment theory for the understanding of uncertainty, connecting it to Marris’s thesis of an unequal distribution of uncertainty and of the power to cope with it (1996). This analysis of uncertainty integrates psychological dimensions with social ones within contemporary Western societies, proposing the use of this concept of psychosocial uncertainty. The consequences of uncertainties impact upon employment, relationships and communities, where we can locate the social origins of depression, anxiety, distrust, victim-blaming or lack of cohesion in communities. Besides precarity at work, we now face precarious forms of living, endangering the fundamental processes of psychic and social individuation. Finally, we locate the social origins of uncertainty and its psychological consequences within the responsibilities of social sciences. Drawing on psychology, from social and community psychology to clinical and organizational psychology, we query the relationship between theory and practice. Underpinning this argument is an appreciation of Marris’s contribution to the construction of ‘politics of collaboration/association and reciprocity, as opposed to politics of disempowering uncertainty/dissociation’.

Social work, human rights and conceptions of human dignity

Moema Bragança Bittencourt, Maria Inês Amaro — Sun, 06 Dec 2020 00:00:00 +0000

This article seeks to explore the conception of human dignity prevailing among social workers in Lisbon through a qualitative-type study. This departs from analysis of the concepts of humanity and the rule of law as guarantees for exercising social work in order to locate the concept of human dignity as a historical, social and cultural construct. The qualitative analysis of the data collected by interviews demonstrates that social workers, while not having a deep-reaching conceptual understanding of this theme, prioritize a Kantian conception of human dignity, perceiving this as an absolute value.

The European Union’s global strategy

Sun, 06 Dec 2020 00:00:00 +0000

As a Grand Strategy, European Union Global Strategy (EUGS) is a roadmap to convert the European Union (EU) in a key strategic actor. The evidence of some conceptual vulnerabilities, particularly the EU lack of classical means and strategic autonomy, limits its implementation. Thus, this article aims to find some relevant actions that the EU needs to put in place to enhance her global image as a credible and specialized actor where the power of her strategic partners, as NATO and United Sates, need to be complemented. To that effect, first, the EU must demonstrate leadership and mobilize the support of member states to carry out its strategy. Second, it must leverage its strategic autonomy by intervening in crises and conflicts where the military means are not the most important. Third, it must focus on preventing or solving the problems in the EU’s neighbourhood as it will suffer direct repercussions if it fails to do so. Implementing the EUGS will require a generic but encompassing grand strategy concept; to communicate its achievements through annual reviews, laying a foundation upon which the EU can build its internal and external credibility, providing it with the strategic autonomy it so direly needs. Finally, the EU must invest on Europeanization processes by ‘transforming’ societies through the ‘global’ application of EU instruments.