Participação como forma de exercer cidadania

: o caso do Bairro do Castelo em Lisboa

Abstract

In the Modern Period, two distinctive aspects defined the citizenship status: i) its scope was based on the nation-state and ii) it was a legal status, with rights and duties. This definition, national and legal, is still at the basis of contemporary citizenship. However, the way we see ourselves as citizens, and the practices of our own participation in society are no longer confined to these national limits, or to the repertoire of formal rights and obligations. Today, participation is performed in various ways reaching new political, social, cultural or economical outcomes, through political or non-political paths and tools (cf. Clark and Silva, 2009). These different forms of participation, mirror of new global relations, point to a new understanding of the world based on its cultural organization. It is a new paradigm: «the cultural paradigm», in Alain Touraine’s words (2005), where culture is a collective way of meaning, participating and negotiating the reality. To better understand these new processes of civic and cultural engagement in contemporary cities, this research project relies on a transdisciplinary approach that combines theoretical reflection together with the empirical experience in the Castle neighbourhood – a highly historical and touristic small district of Lisbon which has been trying, through several civic, communal, cultural and local initiatives, to preserve and recreate its own local identity and its «right to the city» (Lefebvre, 2012 [1968]): the right to participate and decide about the spaces where we live collectively.

Date of Award	15 Feb 2016
Original language	Portuguese
Awarding Institution	Universidade Católica Portuguesa
Supervisor	Peter Hanenberg (Supervisor)