Politics and Distinction: An Ethnography of the Assembly of the Republic
João Mineiro (ISCTE)
Starting from a discussion on the polysemic nature of the concept and idea of politics, this conference aims to understand what particular understanding of politics underlies parliamentary life and how this is constructed, shared and reproduced. To this end, we draw on an ethnography carried out in the Assembly of the Republic and centred on the discourses, practices and interactions of MPs, advisors, staff, journalists and citizens. The main theoretical, methodological and ethical challenges of the research are highlighted and the way in which Parliament shapes an idea of politics based on the production of a distinction between those who make politics and those who are the object of it; between those who are inside and those who are outside; between actors and spectators of the production of the political phenomenon is analysed.
João Mineiro is an anthropologist, sociologist and researcher. He has a PhD in Anthropology and a Master's in Sociology from ISCTE and is currently a researcher at the Anthropology Research Network Centre. He has researched the themes of the state, political institutions and ideologies, parliamentarism and political representation, higher education policies, academic hazing, inequalities and social classes and the intersections between culture, art and politics. His current project is centred on analysing the sounds, poetics, images and politics of contemporary Afro-Portuguese music, and is funded under the CEEC Individual 5th Edition. He is the author of Fazer Política: uma Etnografia da Assembleia da República (Afrontamento, 2022) and Regime Jurídico das Instituições de Ensino Superior (2007-2022) - Contributos para uma revisão fundamentada (SNESup, 2022); co-editor of Novas e Velhas Extremas-Direitas (Parsifal, 2021) and ABC do Socialismo (Parsifal, 2019); and co-author of Caloiros e Doutores. Um Estudo Sociológico sobre a Praxe Académica em Portugal (Mundos Sociais, 2018), O Espectro dos Populismos (Tinta da China, 2018) and O Estado por Dentro (Francisco Manuel dos Santos Foundation, 2017).
