The fourth session of the Rede Tagus Research Cycle, entitled "Conversa #4 - Governança Urbana e Políticas Públicas" (Talk #4  - Urban Governance and Public Policies ), will take place on 24 February at 18:30, at the Nuno Teotónio Pereira Auditorium, at the Ordem dos Arquitectos headquarters, in Lisbon. The session, moderated by Joana Mourão (CIAUD), will feature a presentation by DINÂMIA’CET-Iscte researcher João Cardim Ribeiro , who will address " Housing and contemporary lifestyles: from research to design practice ", along with presentations by Filipa Ramalhete ( CEACT ), Sílvia Jorge ( CiTUA ), and Joana Sette Lima (CIAUD), as well as a commentary by Carlos Pina (CCDR LVT) and Nuno Lourenço ( Ateliê RISCO) . Founded in April 2024, the Rede Tagus is the result of a strategic partnership between the Ordem dos Arquitetos - Secção Regional de Lisboa e Vale do Tejo and six higher education research centres. The initiative’s mission is to develop joint efforts to bridge scientific research with the practice of architecture, urbanism, and design, fostering critical debate on territory and the city. The cycle began with a meeting on "Science, Society, Architecture and Territory", aiming to promote dialogue between research, professional practice, and public decision-making, with a special focus on the municipalities of the Lisbon and Tagus Valley region, reinforcing the link between academic knowledge and concrete territorial challenges. For further information: Ciclo de Investigação Rede Tagus | Conversa #4 | OA - Eventos

The third session of the Rede Tagus Research Cycle, entitled "Conversa #3 - Inclusão e Justiça Social" (Talk #3 - Inclusion and Spatial Justice), will take place on 10 February at 18:30, at the Nuno Teotónio Pereira Auditorium, at the Ordem dos Arquitectos headquarters, in Lisbon. The session, moderated by Daniel Jesus (CIAUD), will feature a presentation by DINÂMIA’CET-Iscte researcher Lia Ferreira , who will address "Universal accessibility and spatial justice", along with presentations by Rosa Arma (CIAUD), Gonçalo Folgado (CEACT), and Rita C. Branco (CiTUA), as well as a commentary by Francisco Costa (Lisbon City Council) and Atelier R/C. Founded in April 2024, the Rede Tagus is the result of a strategic partnership between the Ordem dos Arquitetos - Secção Regional de Lisboa e Vale do Tejo and six higher education research centres. The initiative’s mission is to develop joint efforts to bridge scientific research with the practice of architecture, urbanism, and design, fostering critical debate on territory and the city. The cycle began with a meeting on "Science, Society, Architecture and Territory", aiming to promote dialogue between research, professional practice, and public decision-making, with a special focus on the municipalities of the Lisbon and Tagus Valley region, reinforcing the link between academic knowledge and concrete territorial challenges. For further information: Ciclo de Investigação Rede Tagus | Conversa #3 | OA - Eventos

DINÂMIA'CET-Iscte is pleased to invite you to an Open Lecture of the Master's programme in Urban Studies, entitled "The Arrival Grid: Public Space as Migrant Social Infrastructure in Central Lisbon" The event will take place on 30 March at 18:00 at Iscte, Building 3, Room AA2.29 and will feature a presentation by Professor Duygu Cihanger Ribeiro, examining how central urban public spaces in Lisbon function as infrastructures of arrival that mediate migrant integration in everyday life and space. Drawing on ethnographic fieldwork conducted at Martim Moniz Square and Benformoso Street, this presentation introduces the concept of the 'arrival grid'—a socio-spatial framework comprising nodes, lines, and layers, theorizing how migrants shape the city beyond formal integration channels across multiple scales. The lecture speaks to wider debates on migration, public space, everyday life, and the right to the city.

Ana Vaz Milheiro , integrated researcher at DINÂMIA’CET-Iscte, was interviewed in the 19 March 2026 edition of Visão magazine regarding the research project ArchLabour: Architecture, Colonialism and Labour. The role and legacy of mass labour in the design, planning and construction of Public Works in former African territories under Portuguese colonial rule . In this interview, the researcher discusses the objectives and preliminary findings of the project, which received €2.5 million in funding from the European Research Council (ERC). ArchLabour seeks to understand the mass labour contribution in Portuguese Colonial Public Works, in order to shine a spotlight on these invisible workers, thus establishing a connection between historical subalternity and the inequality that still haunts communities inheriting this past. Through the study of the diverse colonial experiences of the African countries that have Portuguese as one of their official languages (Cape Verde, Guinea-Bissau, São Tomé and Principe, Angola and Mozambique), and covering a wide period from the modern colonization that begins after the Berlin Conference through the industrial capitalism’s exploitation praxis up to the years immediately following African independence, the project will cross the history of colonial architecture and the subject of Labour, with the history of Science applied to construction and post-colonial studies in architecture. We invite you to read the full article in the 19 March 2026 print edition of Visão magazine to learn more about the impact and discoveries of this significant scientific work.

Rita Calvário , researcher at DINÂMIA’CET-Iscte, produced the episode ‘Mujeres y Migraciones’ for the Soil Sisters  podcast series, developed within the framework of the SWIFT project – Supporting Women-led Innovation in Farming Territories. This episode asks several questions about the human rights of women migrant workers in agriculture and the ways in which agroecology and food sovereignty can help to transform oppressive power relations in European agriculture and rural areas. The discussion was organised by the SWIFT project during the Agroecological Congress in Viseu (Portugal) in September 2024 that brought together women migrant agricultural workers and representatives from peasant organisations and academia. The conversation includes the voices of Rima Rabeya from Bangladesh who is a former intercultural mediator and agricultural sector worker in Odemira, an agricultural export enclave in the south of Portugal; Mery Ann Garling, farmer and social worker from Chile, settled in Euskadi for 17 years and founder of the bicultural project Pewma and member of the peasant union EHNE-Bizkaia; and Conchi Mogo Alonso, activist from the Sindicato Labrego Galego-Comisións Labregas (SLG-CCLL) and member of the Migration and Rural Labour Working Group of the European Coordination Via Campesina since 2021. Each of these speakers shares their stories and struggles in different agricultural and rural contexts and discuss insights into agroecology and food sovereignty as pathways to justice and resistance. Listen to 'Mujeres y Migraciones' Podcast Episode here Soil Sisters  podcast series available here

DINÂMIA'CET-Iscte has published the working paper entitled: 'A rtificial Intelligence and the Economy' , authored by Ricardo Paes Mamede . This publication e xamines the economic implications of recent advances in artificial intelligence (AI), focusing on the mechanisms through which AI affects firms, markets and macroeconomic outcomes. Building on the view that modern AI primarily reduces the cost of prediction and pattern recognition, the paper analyses how lower prediction costs reshape organisational decisions within firms, including task allocation, business processes, human resource management, strategic decision-making and innovation activities. It then considers how these firm-level transformations influence market structure, highlighting the emergence of a vertically organised AI stack – from semiconductors and cloud infrastructure to foundation models and applications – and the economic forces that may lead to concentration and new forms of market power. The analysis subsequently examines the material and systemic foundations of AI, including semiconductors, energy systems, data centres and critical minerals, and discusses how these inputs interact with geopolitical competition and industrial policy. The paper also reviews the uncertain macroeconomic consequences of AI, assessing its potential effects on productivity, employment and income distribution, while emphasizing the importance of organisational complements, adoption patterns and institutional frameworks in shaping aggregate outcomes. Finally, it explores governance challenges, outlining the roles of competition policy, corporate accountability, industrial strategy and labour market institutions in shaping how AI-driven transformations affect economic efficiency, resilience and equity. The paper concludes by identifying key areas where further empirical research and policy experimentation are needed to better understand and manage the economic transition associated with AI. The Working Paper is available here.

DINÂMIA'CET-Iscte congratulates Nuno Grancho on his selection as Visiting Professor, to teach during the Spring Semester of 2027, in the Department of Portuguese and Brazilian Studies at Brown University. The researcher will additionally collaborate with the Department of History of Art and Architecture at the same institution. Established through a joint initiative between the Luso-American Development Foundation (FLAD) and Brown University, the Visiting Professor programme annually selects two professors, either of Portuguese nationality or residing in Portugal, for a semester-long teaching appointment. The selection took into account the quality of the curriculum vitae, teaching experience in English, and the relevance of the course programme proposed by the researcher. The selection committee comprised António Costa Pinto, Coordinating Researcher at the Institute of Social Sciences of the University of Lisbon; Onésimo Teotónio Almeida, Professor and Researcher at Brown University; João Cardoso Rosas, Professor at the University of Minho; Cristiana Bastos, Anthropologist and Researcher at the Institute of Social Sciences of the University of Lisbon; Patrícia Ferreira, Director of Graduate Studies and Assistant Professor at Brown University; and Michael Baum, FLAD Executive Board Member. Nuno Grancho will teach the course 'Espaços de Contacto: Arquitectura, Colonialismo e Descolonização no Mundo de Língua Portuguesa' (Spaces of Contact: Architecture, Colonialism, and Decolonization in the Portuguese-Speaking World). The curriculum is designed to analyse the history of architecture and urbanism across the Lusophone world utilizing postcolonial and decolonial theoretical frameworks. It examines the methodologies by which Portuguese colonialism influenced spatial practices, academic discourses, and historiographies from the late Enlightenment through to the 1960s. By employing specific case studies and comparative approaches, the course explores themes including colonial urbanism, Brazilian modernisms, Afro-Lusophone urban centres, and post-independence spatial transformations, thereby contributing to a critical and decentred reading of the global histories of architecture and the city. Nuno Grancho is an architect, professsor and integrated researcher at DINÂMIA’CET-iscte, whose work examines how spatial practices of power and resistance, through architecture and cities, shape modernity and coloniality in South Asia. His research centres on human and material agency within the epistemology and geopolitics of architecture and urbanism, paying particular attention to the relationships between the public and private spheres in spatial configurations. Between 2021 and 2024, he was a Marie Skłodowska-Curie Fellow at the Centre for Privacy Studies at the University of Copenhagen, leading the project Privacy on the Move , and a professor at the Royal Danish Academy. In 2024, he was a Visiting Researcher at the University of Massachusetts Amherst. He is currently an Affiliated Scholar at the University of Copenhagen and the Royal Danish Academy, and an Affiliated Member of the Indian Ocean World Centre at McGill University.

DINÂMIA'CET-Iscte has published the working paper entitled: 'Financialisation of workers and the erosion of trade union density in the European Union', authored by Ricardo Barradas. This publication examines the erosion of trade union density for the last five decades all over the world, which has been contributing to a strong deterioration of labour conditions, a dizzying loss of labour rights, a proliferation of exploitative labour practices and a persistence of high levels of income inequality. The author’s argument to explain this puzzling paradox of worsening labour conditions yet strong de-unionisation or non-unionisation emphasises that this is due to the financialisation of workers. On the one hand, workers’ financial wealth stimulates de-unionisation or non-unionisation because they are more financially secure, more aligned with the interests of capital, perceive less benefits from unionisation, adopt an owner-like mindset, occupy well-paid managerial positions and experience a greater alignment of interests with employers. On the other hand, workers’ financial indebtedness encourages de-unionisation or non-unionisation because they are more financially vulnerable and risk-averse, focus on job and income stability, concerned with avoiding the social stigma from financial default and are more inclined to individualism and self-interest rather than collective solidarity. The paper aims to address the relationship between the financialisation of workers and trade union density by employing a panel data econometric analysis focused on all the countries of the European Union from 1995 to 2023. According to the research, the financialisation of workers negatively impacts trade union density, especially via financial assets due to their being more widespread among workers than are financial liabilities, and more pronounced in those countries of the European Union with the highest levels of financialisation of workers. The study further confirms that the financialisation of workers has indeed been one of the main factors behind the erosion of trade union density in the European Union in the last three decades. The Working Paper is available here.

The sixth session of the Rede Tagus Research Cycle, entitled "Conversa #6 – Transição Climática e Sustentabilidade" (Talk #6 – Climate Transition and Sustainability), will take place on 24 March at 18:30, at the Nuno Teotónio Pereira Auditorium, at the Ordem dos Arquitectos headquarters, in Lisbon. The session, moderated by Nadir Bonaccorso ( Terr.A.ID , ECATI, Universidade Lusófona), will feature a presentation by DINÂMIA’CET-Iscte researcher Elisabete Tomaz , entitled " Is Proximity Enough? Implications for urban planning and governance " , along with presentations by Maria Matos Silva ( CIAUD – Faculdade de Arquitectura da Universidade de Lisboa ), Joana Mourão ( CiTUA – Instituto Superior Técnico, Universidade de Lisboa ) and Alberto Reaes Pinto (CITAD – Universidade Lusíada de Lisboa) as well as a commentary by Frederico Rosa (CIM Península de Setúbal)  and Pedro Trindade ( Bruno Soares Arquitectos) . Founded in April 2024, the Rede Tagus is the result of a strategic partnership between the Ordem dos Arquitetos - Secção Regional de Lisboa e Vale do Tejo and six higher education research centres. The initiative’s mission is to develop joint efforts to bridge scientific research with the practice of architecture, urbanism, and design, fostering critical debate on territory and the city. The cycle began with a meeting on "Science, Society, Architecture and Territory", aiming to promote dialogue between research, professional practice, and public decision-making, with a special focus on the municipalities of the Lisbon and Tagus Valley region, reinforcing the link between academic knowledge and concrete territorial challenges.   Programme available here.

The fifth session of the Rede Tagus Research Cycle, entitled "Conversa #5   - Paisagem e Ecologias Urbanas" (Talk #5 - Landscape and Urban Ecologies ) , will take place on 10 March at 18:30, at the Nuno Teotónio Pereira Auditorium, at the Ordem dos Arquitectos headquarters, in Lisbon. Founded in April 2024, the Rede Tagus is the result of a strategic partnership between the Ordem dos Arquitetos - Secção Regional de Lisboa e Vale do Tejo and six higher education research centres. The initiative’s mission is to develop joint efforts to bridge scientific research with the practice of architecture, urbanism, and design, fostering critical debate on territory and the city. The cycle began with a meeting on "Science, Society, Architecture and Territory", aiming to promote dialogue between research, professional practice, and public decision-making, with a special focus on the municipalities of the Lisbon and Tagus Valley region, reinforcing the link between academic knowledge and concrete territorial challenges. Programme available here.