COORDINATION

André Freire

andre.freire@iscte-iul.pt

Guya Accornero

guya.accornero@iscte-iul.pt

The primary objective of the Politics and Citizenship Research Group is to understand the interrelationship between civil society, political institutions and political elites, and the influence of these interactions on public policies and governance.

This group engages in four principal areas of inquiry: political representation, social movements, public policy and administration, and social rights and social work. While each area of focus has its own particular emphasis, there is also a significant degree of interaction between them, which collectively pursue four main objectives:

• Conducting innovative research on the dynamics between civil society, social movements, and political institutions.
• Enhancing interactions through public discourse, science-based expertise on key topics, and collaboration with institutional and grassroots stakeholders.
• Strengthening scientific dialogue and internationalization through impactful publications, scientific networks, events, exchange programs, and attracting international students.

In addition to being involved in numerous national and international projects on these topics, the group's researchers are actively engaged in developing research-informed teaching at Iscte - Instituto Universitário de Lisboa. They coordinate courses, supervise students, and integrate students into research and internships.

The ‘Democracy Observatory and Political Representation’ (ODPR), which has the major aim of promoting collaboration between all researchers from the various scientific areas that are part of the group. In other words, the ODPR has pursued a long tradition in the study of political representation in CIES-Iscte.

STRUCTURES AND NETWORKS

SocioDigital Lab for Public Policy

Alliance of six Iscte research centers working in social sciences and digital technologies with relevance to public policy;

Democracy Observatory and Political Representation

Technical and research structure coordinated by CIES-Iscte that studies democratic political representation;

Monthly Seminar on Social Movements and Political Action

Event that promotes multidisciplinary reflection around the themes related to social movements and the different forms of political action, militancy, and activism;

The Comparative Candidates Survey (CCS)

Multinational project with the goal of collecting data on candidates running for national parliamentary elections in different countries;

Monitoring Electoral Democracy (MEDem)

Infrastructure that aims to understand voters, parties, media and elites.