Reinventing Democracy
Grassroots Movements in Portugal
South European Society and Politics Series

The studies gathered in this volume focus on Portuguese society, from the creative social and political experimentation by citizen and popular movements during the revolution of 1974/75 to more recent episodes of alternative economic organisation, popular mobilization over the claim of local populations to self-government, local environmental conflicts, transformations in trade-unionism, transnational solidarity movements and citizen participation on territorial planning. They explicitly explore the relationships and tensions between difference and equality, citizenship and difference, state/society relationships and local identities and European integration as part of broader processes of globalisation and of the emergence of new experiences of active citizenship.

This volume was previously published as a special issue of the journal South European Society and Politics.

1. Introduction: Radical democracy, recognition and redistribution: reinventing democracy and social emancipation in contemporary Portugal 2. Reinventing Democracy3. Citizen Local Action as a Way of Resistance Against the New Wave of Worldwide Colonisation: The case of the 'In Loco Association' in Southern Portugal 4. "Decent Housing for the People": Urban movements and emancipation in Portugal5. The Territory as Space for Collective Action: Paradoxes and possibilities of the "strategic game of actors" in territorial planning in Portugal6. A Town in Protest: Memory, populism and democracy 7. "Don't Treat Us Like Dirt!": The fight against the co-incineration of hazardous industrial waste in the outskirts of Coimbra8. Sexual Orientation in Portugal: Towards emancipation 9. Who Saved East Timor?: New references for international solidarity 10. Portuguese Trade-unionism vis-à-vis the European Works Councils 11. The Reinvention of Labor Unionism and the New Challenges of Emancipation: From local despotism to global mobilization