We are extremely proud to announce that t he project, ‘A bomba-relógio da abstenção’ (The Abstention Time Bomb), won the Data Journalism Award 2024 from the Sociedade Portuguesa de Estatística . ‘The Abstention Time Bomb’ is a data research project by ‘Divergente’, in partnership with the European Data Journalism Network (EDJNet) and the research centre DINÂMIA'CET-Iscte. The study involved the data analysis from 27 European countries over 50 years, mapping the electoral behaviour of over 350 million voters, identifying patterns and trends by cross-referencing electoral data with demographic and socioeconomic variables. In Portugal, the reporting conducted by DIVERGENTE in ten civil parishes with the highest levels of abstention brought to the surface the stories and challenges faced by local communities, allowing to understand the phenomenom beyond the sphere of statistics. The collaboration from DINÂMIA'CET-Iscte was led by researchers Margarida Perestrelo and Sebastião Ferreira de Almeida , who contributed methodological support and data analysis applied to the European territory.

Fotografia de Tiago Miranda In today's edition of Expresso  (December 12, 2025), DINÂMIA'CET-Iscte researcher Sandra Marques Pereira , authors a feature essay in the Ideias  supplement, critically analysing the build-to-rent model. Sandra Marques Pereira issues a clear warning regarding the need for caution in drafting new housing policies: "Now that all doors are opening to institutional investors and build-to-rent, some reflection would be advisable: anticipating the risks already being felt internationally, guarding against them in the policies under construction. The biggest risk is ending up worse off than we already are." Read the full essay here

We invite you to the   Final Presentation of the Care(4)Housing project –  A care through design approach to address housing precarity  (“Cuidar d(a) Habitação”), funded by FCT (PTDC/ART-DAQ/0181/2021). The presentation will be held on 15 December at 16:30, at Iscte – Instituto Universitário de Lisboa, Building 4, Avenida das Forças Armadas, 40 Floor 3, Auditorium A302. [ Link to Map ] Since 2022, Care(4)Housing has combined interdisciplinary research with in-depth fieldwork to analyse how housing precarity shapes everyday life and to map spatial care practices in vulnerable neighbourhoods across the Lisbon Metropolitan Area. This work was developed in close dialogue with communities, technical teams, researchers, and institutions. At a time when housing is central to public and political debate—and when greater attention to the real living conditions of vulnerable populations is urgently needed—we believe it is essential to share these results, which aim to support better diagnoses, better policies, and better practices in housing and urban development. The session will include a presentation of the project’s main outputs, followed by a collective discussion introduced by  anthropologist Ana Rita Alves , whose extensive experience in housing has been crucial for deepening these debates. We look forward to your presence.

The DINÂMIA'CET-Iscte Catalyst project team has launched a comprehensive suite of eight new training courses within CATALYST network. Designed to foster professional development across varying stages of expertise, the new portfolio offers curriculum options at beginner, intermediate, and advanced levels. The initiative aims to address key contemporary challenges in the workplace, from data analysis to sustainable management. The beginner-level selection provides a solid foundation with courses including 'Introduction to Social Economy', 'Quantitative Data Analysis with SPSS', 'Digital Transformation and Sustainability', and an insightful look into 'Learning Organizations and Happiness at Work'. For professionals seeking to deepen their strategic capabilities, the intermediate tier offers 'Integrating Sustainability into the Strategy and Business Model' alongside 'Knowledge Management and Organizational Innovation'. Finally, the advanced programme features a specialized course on 'Intellectual Capital and Change Management for Digital Transformation and Sustainability'. Further details regarding specific course content and enrollment procedures are expected to be released shortly. In the meantime, interested parties can visit the   CoVE Fábrica de Competências do Futuro  for more information.

Iscte – University Institute of Lisbon has been honored with the European Commission’s  HR Excellence in Research  award, a testament to its commitment to the professional development and well-being of its researchers. With this distinction, Iscte becomes the first Portuguese university to receive this prestigious recognition, which had previously only been awarded to one faculty and nine research laboratories in Portugal. This award underscores Iscte’s pioneering role in elevating scientific standards within higher education and acknowledging the pivotal contribution of researchers to its academic objectives.

Mass Higher Education and the Changing Labour Market Graduates: Between Employability and Employment , organized by Fátima Suleman , Pedro Videira , and Pedro N. Teixeira, has been chosen as the Iscte Library’s Book of the Month for December. This work is based on a comparative study regarding the massification of higher education and its consequences for graduate employment and employability. For an overview of the book, please watch this video  or consult the accompanying brochure .

Andrea Pavoni’s chapter ‘Un-mastering Life: Law, Value and Locality in Natural Wine Ontology’ has been published by Springer in the book Uncorked: Negotiating Science and Belief in the Natural Wine Movement . Appearing in the first major scholarly collection on Natural Wine, this chapter probes how this growing phenomenon unsettles what is taken for granted about agency, control, trust, and responsibility in the contemporary wine world, teasing out the ethical possibilities that flow from natural wine’s insistence on minimal intervention, fermentation risk, and entanglement with soil, contingency, and microorganisms.​ The argument unfolds through a conversation between critical legal theory, geography, and political ecology, showing how natural wine reconfigures relations among law, land, and more-than-human life. By following these intersecting perspectives, the chapter casts natural wine as a possible laboratory for reimagining ecological futures and the norms that govern them.   The publication is available here.

DINÂMIA’CET-Iscte marks the passing of architect Frank Gehry (1929-2025) on December 5. Gehry was awarded the Pritzker Prize in 1989. He was the author of major projects such as the Vitra Design Museum in Weil am Rhein, the Guggenheim Museum in Bilbao, the Walt Disney Concert Hall in Los Angeles, and the Foundation Louis Vuitton in Paris. For Lisbon, in 2003 he designed the rehabilitation of Parque Mayer, a project that was never built. His architecture left a strong mark on the last quarter of the 20th century. In 2019, the International Congress “Grand Projects – Urban Legacies of the Late 20th Century” , organized by DINÂMIA’CET under the coordination of Paulo Tormenta Pinto , dedicated its final session to Frank Gehry. Jean-Louis Cohen (1949–2023), one of the most respected historians of modern architecture, was invited as keynote speaker, presenting the lecture “Frank Urbanism: Gehry Takes up Cities,” moderated by Marta Sequeira . The session’s video is now shared in full here

The article ‘Legislar a orgânica das entidades sob a tutela central da Cultura: evolução do panorama legislativo no período democrático em Portugal’ (Legislating the organics of entities under the central oversight of Culture: Evolution of the legislative landscape in the democratic period in Portugal), by DINÂMIA’CET-Iscte researchers Tiago Mendes and Pedro Costa , has been published in the Journal Análise Social . The authors mapped the evolution of the organic configuration of the organizations under the central tutelage of Culture in Portugal during the democratic period. Within the framework of its progressive autonomization as a distinct policy sector, the organic structure of entities under the central oversight of Culture in Portugal has been reconfigured by legislative reforms, impacting their formal autonomy. The compilation of the legal statutes that defined the organics of these organizations between 1974–2022 and their graphical conversion into chronologies permits the longitudinal analysis of this sector within the Central State Administration. This article identifies phenomena and trends (organic concentration and deconcentration, prevalence of legal statuses, flow of competence transfers, and legislative instability), considers the potential causes of their evolution, and discusses the implications for the autonomy of these entities. Read the full article here

Photography by Pedro Ferreira The Routlegde Handbook of Architecture and Anthropology has published the chapter 'Ways of Inhabiting and Perceiving an Álvaro Siza House', co-authored by DINÂMIA'CET-Iscte researchers Sandra Marques Pereira and Tânia Lemos , in collaboration with Idalina Machado and Leandro Arez. This study examines residents’ ways of inhabiting and their perceptions of the particularities of the Bouça Neighbourhood in Porto, designed by Álvaro Siza. It does so through a qualitative approach using methodological tools from both the social sciences and architecture – interviews and visual documentation of inhabited dwellings – to generate a complementary analysis of discourse and spatiality, practices and the symbolic.   This chapter begins by reflecting from an interdisciplinary perspective on the nature of Bouça focusing on three aspects: first, its history, originating during the dictatorship but emerging post-revolution (1974) within a housing programme that is still celebrated as the ideal meeting point of architecture and the people; second, today’s coexistence of heterogeneous social groups (working and middle class) that is the result of Bouça’s construction spanning across different time periods; and third, that the project is designed by an internationally renowned architect.   This chapter then discusses today’s residents’ perceptions of otherness and offers three portraits of ways of inhabiting, representing different social positions, trajectories, and life projects. We conclude with a brief reflection on the dialogue between the social sciences and architecture triggered by this research.  More info here.