CES is, since 2022, organized under five Thematic Lines - major transdisciplinary and transversal thematic clusters, which bring together the research conducted at CES in open and dynamic ways, and foster collaboration between researchers with different disciplinary backgrounds, but whose work covers common themes or perspectives.

(Semi)peripheral Capitalism: Crises and Alternatives

Coordination: João Rodrigues, Hermes Augusto Costa and Licínia Simão

Brings together research on the main socio-economic transformations of capitalist societies over the last half century, on the position of vulnerability of the peripheries and semi-peripheries and on the unequal impacts that crises trigger.

Democracy, Justice and Human Rights

Coordination: Ana Cristina Santos, Daniela Nascimento and Silvia Rodríguez Maeso

Examines the socio-legal, cultural and political frameworks that define power relations in contemporary societies with special attention to the emancipatory potential of social struggles mobilized in the name of democracy, justice and human rights.

Europe and the Global South: heritages and dialogues

Coordination: Margarida Calafate Ribeiro, Maria Paula Meneses and Miguel Cardina

This line analyses the articulations between Europe and the Global South, at various scales, in the framework of an increasingly multipolar world, marked by persistent legacies and multiple forms of violence.

Risk(s), Ecologies, Health

Coordination: José Manuel Mendes, Madalena Alarcão and Susana Costa

Promotes an integrated approach to risks and threats and their impacts on the ecosystem and human and non-human well-being, building a dialogue with socially robust approaches and interventions drawn from responsible research and innovation tools and practices.

Urban Cultures, Sociabilities and Participation

Coordination: Nancy Duxbury, Gonçalo Canto Moniz and Claudino Ferreira

Analyses and acts upon urban cultures and the modes of organisation and regulation of social, cultural, political and economic life, taking the city as a privileged territory for active participation and for the construction of more socially just intervention strategies.