The Northwest Social Observatory (OSN) is a research infrastructure of the Institute of Sociology of the University of Porto, which aims to analyse and monitor social recompositions in the Portuguese Northwest, as a macro-region whose development is important not only to the population and entities existing there, but also to the surrounding regions and the country (Ribeiro and Ferrão, 2014).

SPECIFIC OBJECTIVES:

• To deepen knowledge about contemporary socioeconomic inequalities in the context of the Portuguese Northwest from a sociological perspective;
• To contribute to the scientific debate on the dynamics of social vulnerability underlying the (re)production of inequalities;
• To contribute to the definition of fair and sustainable local and regional development policies and practices.

LINES OF ACTION:

• Investigate and analyze the different dimensions of socioeconomic inequalities, social categories, and particularly vulnerable territories, based on primary data collection and secondary sources.
• Produce and disseminate up-to-date scientific knowledge on socioeconomic inequalities in northwestern Portugal by publishing reports, articles, and other scientific documents.
• Participate in and support the definition of local and regional development policies and strategies.
• Inform and make available accurate and up-to-date content in an open access and accessible format, bringing science closer to the public.

The Northwest Social Observatory emerges from a long tradition of sociological analysis regarding the Portuguese Northwest—developed at the Institute of Sociology—whose scientific output forms the basis of the ARCHIVE made available below. The Archive thus presents itself as a broad thematic space reflecting the work of various research groups and subgroups.