Nº 56

February, 2000
Price: 8 €

Em Português 
Immanuel Wallerstein
The Racist Albatross: Social Science, Jörg Haider, and Resistance
The text opens with a brief perspective on the situation in Austria since the new coalition government with the participation of the populist extreme right took office. This situation, as much as the prompt reaction of the other member-states of the European Union, can only be understood within a wider framework, one in which the question of racism assumes an absolute centrality. Starting from this question, this article reflects on the incapacity shown by social science to provide adequate tools for the understanding of the devolopment of the world system since 1989; only a different social science will be able to uncover the deep roots of the racist privileges that permeate the world system, and that extend not only to all its institutions, but also to the structures of knowledge and the very forces of resistance.
João Filipe Marques
European Neo-Racism and the Responsibilities of Anthropology
The racism visible in Europe today seems to have contours and specificities which distance it from the colonial racism of the past. Its dominant motives are no longer heredity or blood, but rather differences between cultures or identity traits that lead to forms of rejection which, in the case of Europe, have as main targets the ethnic minorities created by immigration.
Paradoxically, the neo-racist political discourse draws arguments from a part of the anthropological thought which in the past instituted this discipline as a scientific weapon against biodeterministc racism: the theories of cultural determinism and the doctrines of cultural relativism. It is with the aim of raising (and not of solving) the question of the political appropriations of the anthropological discourse, as well as that of the social and political responsibility of the Anthropologist, that this article outlines the articulation between some acquisitions of Anthropology and the ideological metamorphoses of European neo-racism.
Manuel Carlos Silva
Racism and Inter-Ethnic Conflict: Elements for a Research Study
This article presents a brief review of the main contexts for xenophobic and racist manifestations, as well as of their pseudo-scientific biological and cultural justifications. Then, it discusses some theories about the phenomenon which can be essentially subsumed under four types: biological-genetic and social-Darwinist theories, ethological and socio-biological theories, some psychological theories, and some sociological theories. The article concludes that, in order to explain inter-ethnic conflict, it is important to keep in view forms of ethnocentrism and group closure, and above all the degree of control over resources and rewards within each ethnic group.
Sílvia Portugal
Governmental Rhetoric and Action in the Area of Family Policies since 1974
This article presents some exploratory ideas about the status of family policies within the context of social policies in Portugal. Starting from a survey of the political and juridical discourses about the "family question", the author seeks to discuss the profile of state intervention in this matter.
The analysis of governmental programs and legal texts produced since 1974 leads to the conclusion that there is a profound contradiction between the state's explicit political and ideological commitment to the "family question" and the subsidiary character of family policies within the context of social policies.
Paulo Peixoto
Strategic Management of the Images of Cities: An Analysis of Promotional Messages and Urban Marketing Strategies
Nowadays, cities are subject to a constant process of evaluation and hierarchization. The imposition of scenarios of global competition between places has made cities adopt enterpreneurial styles of governance; it has increased the pressure to publicize urban policies; and it has highlighted the tendency of marketing campaigns for ceasing to be limited to the profit sector.
In this context, cities are becoming objects whose image is being permanently worked on and promoted; accordingly, they seek to manage their images strategically in order to have an edge in the competitive game which discursive and representational strategies are converting into a symbolically dominant scenario.
The intensification of the process of strategic management of the images of cities is here analysed through promotional advertisements of places, taking into account their inherent targets, strategies, and producers.
Paula Abreu
The Practice and Consumption of Music: Illustrations about Some New Contexts for Cultural Practice
In our country, studies about cultural practices have approached a situation of relative redundancy which allows us to identify major trends and structural effects, as well as some deadlocks.
Starting with an analysis of this situation, this article identifies a set of paradoxes which offer suggestions for research, illustrated through a trajectory that takes music as an exemplary empirical object.