PhD project: "Popular social movements and political parties in Brazil: an analysis of the movement-party interaction based on the Homeless Workers' Movement (MTST)"
Reference: 2025.04377.BD
Scientific area: Sociology
Supervisor: José Virgílio Borges Pereira (IS-UP); Manuel Vicente de Sousa Lima Loff (FLUP) (co-supervisor)
Timeline: September 2025-August 2029
Abstract: The research proposal seeks to answer how the dynamics of interaction between the Homeless Workers’ Movement (MTST) and political parties in Brazil develop. It aims to reflect on social movements during a period of authoritarian transition and of retreat in popular struggles in the country, more specifically from 2018 onward. In addition to reconstructing the trajectory of rapprochement between the movement and political parties, the study will seek to analyze the mutual effects resulting from this dynamic of interaction and intersection, also undertaking a sociology of militant individuals based on an examination of their position in social space, their choices, and their political trajectories. The investigation intends to contribute to the debate on contentious politics and struggles through institutional channels, addressing the issue of autonomy versus institutionalization and seeking, from the perspective of the sociology of political activism, to provide input for articulating the sociology of social movements and the sociology of political parties.
