Social Hub

The Centre for Social Studies of the University of Coimbra is a Portuguese scientific institution focused on research and advanced training within the Social Sciences, the Arts and the Humanities, through an inter and transdisciplinary approach. Since its foundation, in 1978, CES has been conducting research with and for an inclusive, innovative and reflexive society by promoting creative critical approaches in the face of some of the most urging challenges of contemporary societies. In 2002, the Ministry of Science of Portugal granted CES the status of Associated Laboratory, recognizing its contribution to public policies, advanced training and the dissemination and sharing of knowledge. CES scientific strategy aims to democratize knowledge, revitalize human rights and to contribute to the establishment of science as a public commodity. We pursue this mission by continuously reshaping our research fields in a response to the needs of the society. Our work covers a wide range of scientific activities and scope, at the national and international level, with particular focus on the North-South, South-South and South-North dialogues, contributing to the development, dissemination and application of cutting-edge science and to an advanced research and training of excellence. The transformation of democracy is one of our important fields of studies, and we take part in several networks (of researchers and academics, but also mixed/multifactorial network together with cities and professionals of participatory processes) as we believe that only through networking we can reach a critical mass that can transform and secure the quality of our democratic life. Particularly, at CES we are interested in studying participation and in promoting it (helping to conceive and conduct processes, but also monitoring and evaluating their quality).

Organisation

We expect that consolidating and expanding the network can reinforce the capacity of all members to cooperate and create a critical mass to improve our democracies in a moment of backlash, putting together different perspectives and standpoints on how to contribute to improve its quality and intensify its practices. We also hope that the network can be a space of debate on ourselves, our dreams and our struggles, where the members coming from the research world may help to leverage a collective self-reflection on which strategies (in terms of funding, membership, repertoires of struggle, inter-network collaboration, etc) can better help us to grow and impact the intensification of democratic practices worldwide.

Participatory and deliberative practices and their role in facing socio/technical and environmental transitions; democratic innovations and their relation with the digital field and AI; open government practices; impacts of multi-actoral networks on the intensification of democracy; evaluation of the quality of participatory practices. In the near future we would like to discuss with all the network about a BOOK that could reflect together on the contributions that multi-actoral networks of networks could give to intensify our demoicracy. For this reasons we repropose in attachment an old-article that could be a start of a reflection, and we will present at the net meeting of General Assembly in Brussels the preliminary evidence coming from a Social Network Analysis that was part of a survey distributed in the last month to all organisations participating to thje Network.