População e Sociedade no. 43

Judite Gonçalves de Freitas (editor)

Thematic Issue

Current Crises: Collapse or Resilience?

Coordinator

Judite Gonçalves de Freitas

The current issue of População e Sociedade is themed “Current Crises: Collapse or Resilience?”, offering a critical and well-founded reflection on the multiple contemporary challenges marked by the convergence of systemic environmental, economic, social, and political crises. This context gives rise to multifaceted dynamics of great vulnerability and instability, the understanding of which requires a rigorous and interdisciplinary analysis, essential for interpreting contemporary social and political phenomena on a global, regional, and local scale.

Judite Gonçalves de Freitas opens the edition with a diachronic explanation of the concept of “crisis,” tracing its clinical, philosophical, doctrinal, and political origins up to current systemic interpretations. She highlights the emergence of the “polycrisis” as a permanent structural condition and proposes “crisology” as an interpretative lens focused on analyzing present-day crises. Following this, Luísa Vasconcelos, Sandra Bernardo, and Fátima Rocha explore the limitations of neoliberal models in the face of the “polycrisis,” advocating for adaptive governance and enhanced international cooperation without reverting to classic interventionism. Abdon de Paula and Judite Gonçalves de Freitas examine the climate crisis as a complex and multifaceted scenario, emphasizing the importance of integrating forest, terrestrial, and marine ecosystems into mitigation policies. Attention to public health crisis surveillance in connection with climate-related disasters is highlighted by João Casqueira, Damaru Paneru, Ana Araújo, and Anusha Parajuli, who, drawing on the Eurasian project Risk-and-Scape, stress the importance of local-level cooperation and innovation in improving emergency response.

In studies on population displacement, Fernando da Cruz Bandeira and Joana Macedo Rocha explore the concept of “people on the move” and its various categories, using methods such as metadata analysis and text mining to shed light on theoretical frameworks and practical approaches concerning displaced populations. Kátia Lima analyzes the narrative constructed by the media around immigration in Portugal, identifying discrepancies between media discourse and official data, and advocating for evidence-based, pluralistic journalism. Ariane Medeiros da Costa and Joana Macedo Rocha, focusing on the Syrian case, emphasize the relevance of education and humanitarian aid in contexts of child vulnerability, highlighting the role of organizations such as Save the Children and Hurras Network in strengthening resilience to crisis situations. Finally, the issue closes with an analysis of the current international political crisis, with Fernando Campos examining the implications of Donald Trump’s 2024 election for European security and transatlantic relations.

The Varia section presents three articles: one on contemporary migration to Brazil; another analyzing the strategic role of the Central Plateau region of Angola - particularly the city of Huambo - within the context of the Portuguese Colonial Empire’s expansion in Angolan territory; and, lastly, a text discussing how the social changes observed at the end of the Ancien Régime influenced municipal power, specifically in the city and council of Elvas.