Publications
For submission of articles or Working Papers to CEsA, please send an email to:
comunicacao@cesa.iseg.ulisboa.pt
Innovation Perspectives in International Development Cooperation: The case of organised civil society
Abstract:
Non-governmental organisations (NGOs) are still in the side-lines of the emerging literature on innovation in international development cooperation, although the topic has been gaining prominence since the 2000s, accompanying the wider transformation of the development cooperation field. Innovation perspectives in international development cooperation: the case of organised civil society presents the results of a mixed methods research that involved a broad geographic sample of 20 NGO national co-ordinating bodies through an online survey and semi-structured interviews. The goal was to map and analyse innovation perspectives, motivations, and practices in these organisations, understand their relationship with mainstream views of innovation in the field and uncover their potential to promote inclusive innovation. Results suggest that these actors have potential to promote inclusive innovation practices in the field, since they approach innovation with social change as an end goal, as opposed to having an overly solutionist and problem-solving view of social innovation. The paper also highlights the key role of information and communications technologies, as well as digital tools, as both a reason to innovate and enablers of innovation in these organisations. Finally, the conclusion leaves questions open for further research on innovation in development NGOs.
Quotation:
Silva, A. L. (2022). Innovation perspectives in international development cooperation: the case of organised civil society. Cambio. Rivista Sulle Trasformazioni Sociali. https://doi.org/10.36253/cambio-12283
NGOs and Innovation
Abstract:
Over the past twenty years, and against the backdrop of a profound transformation in the international development cooperation sector, innovation has resurged as a ‘hot’ topic in the field. In the same period, development non-governmental organisations (NGOs) face growing challenges of legitimacy, accountability, and dependence on government funding. Their role as precursors of alternative development models, natural social innovators, and catalysts of international solidarity movements is increasingly being questioned. These challenges have been further exacerbated by the Covid-19 pandemic. Existing research on development NGO innovation focuses, like most classic innovation research in other fields, on studying specific, usually successful, innovations; leaving many questions unanswered on topics like innovation failure, processes, culture, funding, motivations, as well as the role of NGOs in innovation for development. This chapter, NGOs and Innovation, by Ana Luísa Silva, gives an overview of the state of the art on development NGOs and innovation, identifying areas that are open for further research. This article is inserted in A Research Agenda for Civil Society, a book by Kees Biekart and Alan Fowler.
Quotation:
Silva, A. L. (2022). NGOs and Innovation. In K. Biekart & A. Fowler (Ed.), A Research Agenda for Civil Society (pp. 127-142). Elgar Research Agendas. Edward Elgar. ISBN: 978 1 80037 814 8
As (im) pertinências do método. Metodologia participativa e o estudo sobre a Afrodescendência em Portugal
Abstract:
The announcement of the Decade of African Descendants (2015-2024) by the UN, drew attention to the presence of African descendants in Europe, including in Portugal, as part of the contemporary social configuration of the continent. However, the focus on these people has been sustained, above all, in theories and representations of subalternity and exclusion that do not recognize them as new political subjects in a Europe that is no longer black and white. These politically hybrid subjects, in the historical and cultural sense, bring theoretical-epistemological and methodological challenges to the social sciences, since their visions, paradigms and ways of living escape the traditional lenses of the approaches that associate them with immigrants or refugees. We propose that in approaching the subject of Afrodescendence, method is central and determinant of the outcomes, ethical function and meaning of social research on emerging contemporary subjects. We argue in favour of participatory methodology, reflecting on its pertinence in a context where the people in the researched situation are critical subjects in their fields of intervention/action who reject being reduced to mere objects of study. We analyse the processes of negotiation in the field concluding on the contribution of this project to the dialogue between academics and the afrodescendant collectives. As (im)pertinências do método. Metodologia participativa e o estudo sobre a Afrodescendência em Portugal is inserted in the debate on the democratization of knowledge, sustained, in particular, by critical perspectives that are based on studies on emerging contemporary subjects.
Quotation:
Évora, Iolanda. “As (im)pertinências do método. Metodologia participativa e o estudo sobre a Afrodescendência em Portugal”, In: Yao, Jean-Arséne, Victorien Lavou Zoungbo et Luis Mancha San Esteban, eds. Forthcoming. Representations collectives croisées: Afriques, Amériques et Caraibes. Xix-xxi siècles. III GRELAT. Actas do Colóquio. Madrid: UAH Editora, 167-176. ISBN:978-84-18254-12-3.
The Routledge Handbook of EU-Africa Relations
Abstract:
This handbook provides a comprehensive overview of the changing dynamics in the relationship between the African continent and the EU, provided by leading experts in the field. Structured into five parts, the book provides an incisive look at the past, present and potential futures of EU-Africa relations. The cutting-edge chapters cover themes like multilateralism, development assistance, institutions, gender equality and science and technology, among others. Thoroughly researched, this book provides original reflections from a diversity of conceptual and theoretical perspectives, from experts in Africa, Europe and beyond. The handbook thus offers rich and comprehensive analyses of contemporary global politics as manifested in Africa and Europe. This handbook will be an essential reference for scholars, students, researchers, policy makers and practitioners interested and working in a range of fields within the (sub)disciplines of African and EU studies, European politics and international studies. The Routledge Handbook of EU-Africa Relations, by Luís Mah (researcher for the Centre for African and Development Studies), Nial Duggan and Toni Haastrup is part of the mini-series Europe in the World Handbooks examining EU-regional relations and established by Professor Wei Shen.
Quotation:
Mah, Luís, Duggan, Nial & Haastrup, Toni (2021). The Routledge Handbook of EU-Africa Relations. Routledge. ISBN 9781315170916.
Jovens, processos identitários e sociedades em movimento
Abstract:
The Republic of Cape Verde gained independence in 1975 and embraced liberal democracy in 1991, which was regarded as an example in Africa of democracy and good governance. Still, taking advantage of the post-2008 global winds of protest, various types of public protests began to emerge in the country’s capital, with urban youth as the main protagonists. These protests coincided with a set of situations denounced by various reports and academic studies: situations of strangulation of civil society resulting from the bi-partisanship of social life; perception of urban insecurity and a generalized wave of corruption; citizens’ distrust of public and political institutions; commercialization of the vote; ambiguous relationship between political party activists and armed youth groups during elections; accusations of funding of political parties by national drug trafficking factions, etc. Jovens, processos identitários e sociedades em movimento: um olhar alternativo sobre os movimentos sociais urbanos emergentes na cidade da Praia – Cabo Verde, based on a set of ethnographic works developed since 2008 in the urban youth context of Praia, intends to analyse the context of the emergence of these new types of social and political protests organized in youth groups who call themselves sons and grandsons of Amílcar Cabral, supported by counter-colonial discourses, calling for a second liberation and (re)Africanization of the spirit and minds.
Quotation:
Lima, R.W. (2020). “Jovens, processos identitários e sociedades em movimento: um olhar alternativo sobre os movimentos sociais urbanos emergentes na cidade da Praia – Cabo Verde”. In: Jesus, L.S.B.; Barros, M.; Filice, R.C.G. (Orgs.), Tecendo redes antirracistas II: contracolonização e soberania intelectual. Fortaleza: Imprensa Universitária, p. 116-136.
A Previdência Social
Abstract:
The 60’s corresponded to an unequivocal progress in the institutional evolution, material and personal coverage of the Social Welfare system, in which Law 2115, which instituted the 1962 Social Welfare Reform – which was in force as the Basic Law until 1984 – is absolutely central. Statistical data corroborate this statement, and even demonstrate the growth of social spending and the growing role of the State, also as a financer and not with a mere supplementary intervention. A Previdência Social analyses the evolution of Social Welfare in the 60’s, underlining the logic of continuity between Salazar’s and Marcelo Caetano’s government. Based on the Social Welfare Reform, initiated in 1962, progress in terms of personal and material coverage was unequivocal, with the inevitable consequence of a strong growth of social expenditure throughout the decade. To this end, the universalization of the system contributed a lot, with the widening of Welfare to rural areas, already under Marcelo Caetano, which had a significant impact on the system, but also on Portuguese society. The changes in the domain of social policy fulfilled a legitimizing function of the New State in its desired evolution towards a Social State and marked the beginning of convergence with the European Welfare States. We would like to thank Professors João Freire and Álvaro Garrido for reading the initial text of this article and for their relevant contributions to its final version.
Quotation:
“Rodrigues, Cristina & Carolo, Daniel (2020). “A Previdência Social”. In Brito, José Maria Brandão de Brito & Santos, Paula Borges (Coords.) Os Anos Sessenta em Portugal. Duas governações, diferentes políticas públicas. Porto: Afrontamento”
Manual de Introdução à Construção de Indicadores de Monitorização
Abstract:
Manual de Introdução a construção de indicadores de monitorização is a working and training tool for technicians from public and private, national or international institutions working in the area of development and public policies. Its objective is to enable technical experts to develop capacities to think about indicators that are appropriate for projects and policies in their area of intervention. The technical level is introductory to the subject and does not indicators on business management, for example, finance or macroeconomics, and no previous knowledge of mathematics or statistics is required beyond the basics and common sense. It contains chapters with a theoretical part and a practical part, through examples applicable to Guinea-Bissau, on simple and composite, quantitative and qualitative and composite, quantitative and qualitative indicators, short and long term sampling and descriptive statistics. Since this version is prepared for Guinea-Bissau, the last chapter seeks to reflect on the lessons from the lessons learned from the Manual on the construction of indicators which are included in the Political and Social Stability Pact (Pact), signed in 2018, as an example of a multidisciplinary area with fundamental interest for the country.
Quotation:
Sangreman, Carlos (2021). Manual de Introdução a construção de indicadores de monitorização, PNUD/UNIOGBIS, Delegação da Guiné-Bissau, 2020. Liga Guineense dos Direitos Humanos (LGDH) e Tiniguena.
Covid-19 and Human Rights in a fragile state : Guinea-Bissau
Abstract:
COVID-19 and Human Rights in a Fragile State: Guinea-Bissau aims to study the situation of Human Rights during the Covid-19 pandemic in Guinea-Bissau, between January 2020 and January 2022. The research organized an inquiry to families, another to companies and another to market/street sellers about the effects of the pandemic and the measures enacted by the Government and Presidency to contain it. A public hearing was also organized, with various entities from the High Commissioner to trade unions, journalists, students, women associations, and the Public Order Police, for information on how each institution saw its situation and action in this period. The conclusions of the analysis of all these qualitative and quantitative data allow us to affirm a) the social actors agreed with the main measures the authorities took to contain the disease; b) the must referred complaint was the lack of any support from the authorities to households, companies and sellers: c) the fragility of Guinea-Bissau has such a social weight that a disease that killed fewer people than malaria, diarrhea, or tuberculosis, did not overcome the problems of human rights stemming from poverty, institutional fragility, and low incomes in general.
Quotation:
Sangreman, C., Faria, R. T., & Turé, B. (2022). COVID-19 and Human Rights in a Fragile State: Guinea-Bissau. In P. Andrade, & M. Martins (Ed.), Handbook of Research on Urban Tourism, Viral Society, and the Impact of the COVID-19 Pandemic (pp. 341-360). IGI Global. https://doi.org/10.4018/978-1-6684-3369-0.ch018
The Value of Information: The Impact of European Union Bank Stress Tests on Stock Markets
Abstract:
In The Value of Information: The Impact of European Union Banks Stress Tests on Stock Markets we tested whether the 2010, 2011 and 2014 European Union bank stress tests produced useful and real information to the market. Using an augmented capital asset pricing model, we analyzed the impact of the information disclosures on each stress test (announcement, methodology and results events) on the stock market returns and risk of banks. Our approach allows an integrated analysis, as a sample of 41 banks that participated in all three stress tests was used. The most significant event was the methodology disclosure, in terms of its impact on risk and returns. In contrast, the results events did not have much impact in the stock market when considering the entire sample of banks. On the other hand, after dividing the sample of banks into two groups (those that passed the 2014 European Union stress test vs. those that failed), we observed a significant reaction of the stock markets in both groups. These findings are consistent with the hypothesis that stress tests provide real and valuable information to the markets about the banking system. A significant part of that information is conveyed by announcement and methodology events
Quotation:
“Borges, M. R., Mendes, J. Z. and Pereira, A. (2019). “The Value of Information: The Impact of European Union Banks Stress Tests on Stock Markets”. International Advances in Economic Research, 25, 429-444. https://doi.org/10.1007/s11294-019-09760-5“
Digital music and the “death of the long tail”
Abstract:
The new technology of digital distribution is changing the pop-rock music market. In the middle of the last decade Chris Anderson (Anderson, 2006) stated that the death of the CD and the dematerialization of music had created a long tail of marginal non-hits. The aggregate demand for these non-hits gave birth to important and valorized niches of pop-rock songs and memorabilia. This phenomenon has promoted the democratization of the access to cultural goods. But, growing evidence exists on the persistence of the so-called superstar effect. The impact of live music has renewed the relevance of highly extravagant outcomes for the privileged group of really great stars. The “winner takes all” effect dominates the music market, and streaming as a form of digital distribution fuels this effect. This new technology is posing several new issues to the development of the market and cultural policy. Our fundamental research questions then are: Is there empirical evidence of the long tail or superstar effect in the pop-rock music market? How did enterprises adapt their business strategies to this online technological revolution? Therefore, in Digital music and the “death of the long tail”, we examine different sources of data on the pop-rock market, such as the revenues from digital music sales and live music performances, to confirm the importance of the “winner takes all” effect and the persistence of important niches in alternative pop-rock music.
Quotation:
“Coelho, M., Mendes, Z. (2019). “Digital music and the “death of the long tail”. Journal of Business Research, 101, 454-460. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.jbusres.2019.01.015“
