PhD project “The Incel community in Portugal: Belonging to and resistance to the manosphere by youth groups”
Reference: 2025.00715.BDANA
Scientific area: Sociology
Supervision: João Teixeira Lopes (IS-UP)
Timeline: January 2026-January 2029
Abstract: In recent years, with the polarization of public opinion, the fight for women's rights has been paradoxically accompanied by the intensification of hate speech, which gains momentum in the broader socio-political context of the rise of the far-right and conservative approaches, with a particular attraction to youth groups. On social media, with the spread of the incel movement, there is a growing trend of violence against women. In this project, we seek to understand how these social transformations have impacted the creation of social dispositions and imaginaries among young people and what mechanisms of reproduction or resistance are activated by them. A qualitative and participatory methodology is proposed, which contributes to a better understanding of current phenomena and to a preventive intervention with young Portuguese people, considering the need for public policies regulating cyberspace and platforms in respect for human rights.
