The Group Social Recompositions, Culture and Territory (RSCT) focuses on two specific research challenges, one on the processes of social recomposition and structuring of territories, and another on artistic creation, and cultural practices and policies. Based on the frameworks of sociology of classes and stratification and sociology of culture, the Group integrates contributions from different sociological disciplines: studies on space, youth, migrations and ethnicity, religion and political practices are highly valued. This framework is completed with multidisciplinar research in the fields of economy of development, anthropology of consumption and interactional socio-linguistics, using the collective work on key authors of the social sciences as a matrix of activity.
The Group's activity on social recompositions and territories is organised according to four strategic objectives.
The first one aims to deepen the knowledge of the transformation of the Portuguese development model, focusing on the evolution of the technological underdevelopment, deindustrialization and changes in the traditional sectors.
The second one tries to understand the impact of the socio-economic crisis in different contexts, benefiting from a set of already ongoing researches, that entail the following projects: a) the study of how the dominant class in Porto was formed throughout the second half of the 20th century; b) the analysis of housing in Porto, focusing also on \"social mix\" and \"gentrification\" phenomena; c) the conclusive sociological study of a rural community in Northwest Portugal (1977-2013).
A third objective focuses on the study of literacy and the discourse interactions in its relationship with the processes of social recomposition. Research in this field will focus on: a) digital reading and literacy; b) linguistic practices in social housing contexts in Porto and in deindustrialised areas in the North.
The fourth objective aims to continue the study of the reconfiguration of the religious landscape in Portugal, a socially embedded transformation that is crossed with social and geographical mobility and with the emergence of market logics.
Regarding the analysis of the processes of artistic creation, of cultural practices and policies, the plan of the RSCT Group has four strategic objectives.
The first objective involves the project Cultural Policies: Sociological Analysis and Normative Theory and is developed as a platform coordinating the number of researches carried out in Portugal on cultural policies. The second objective examines how artistic creation and Portuguese contemporaneity interrelate, taking as reference how alternative musical expressions are developed, as part of urban youth cultures, and how the interpretations on the present and close future in different artistic languages communicate.
The third objective focuses on the creative and organisational processes in the art world, particularly the relationship between corporeality and performativity in the performing arts, and on the forms of work organisation and goods are provided and circulate in private, public or the so-called third sector organisations.
The fourth objective explores the interrelationships of cultural processes and social contexts, one of the significant examples being the study of the Orquestra Geração, i.e. the processes of social integration based on erudite musical expression. These activities include the critical analysis of the development (and ideology) of the so-called creative industries, as well as the questioning of the potential of public space for the affirmation of languages and creative events.