About
PhD project: “New Age, ambientalismo e novos protagonismos: o caso das ecovilas em Portugal"
Reference: 2022.13643.BD
Scientific area: Sociology
Supervisor: Helena Vilaça (FLUP, IS-UP), Co-supervisor: Mª João Oliveira (IS-UP)
Timeline: September 2022-August 2025
Abstract: This project aims to sociologically characterise ecovillages in Portugal through the lens of New Age spiritualities. For this purpose, through documentary analysis, interviews, photovoice and focus groups we aim to sociologically profile the ecovillage community and residents in the Portuguese territory by understanding their individual and collective beliefs, compositions and relations in the social field, and strategic models of ecological operation. This research will thus contribute to (ac)knowledge ecovillages as places that enhance new perceptions and practices of the religious and spiritual, associated with ecological, educational and economic dimensions. Through a roadmap that articulates various levels of social analysis (macro, meso and micro societal), this research falls under a broader scope in that it will reflect on two sociological domains little understood and explored: ecology and religion in contemporaneity.
