TWO CENTURIES OF LIBERALISM, 1820-2020: FORMS OF STATE, SOCIAL MOVEMENTS AND SUBJECTIVATION DEVICES

The thematic line aims to enhance the knowledge about Portuguese society within the long Liberal term, from the historical conditions which included Portugal in a European and worldwide context, focusing on the colonisation and decolonisation processes.

The definition of the thematic line results from the self-assessment of the implementation of Project 2011-2012 called: Portugal da crise de 1890 à Crise de 2008 enquanto semiperiferia da economia-mundo capitalista e parceiro dependente em sucessivos sistemas de relações internacionais.

We concluded it was necessary to extend the chronological framework in order to identify and know with precision the coordinates which determined the present day. Therefore, we defined two options:

1st, to adopt the Liberal reference as the leitmotif with its multiple, contradictory developments and wide scale. This perspective from which to know the inclusion of Portuguese society in the European and worldwide context appeals to the Group;

2nd This prospective dynamics implies the analysis of the possibilities and limitations of Liberalism in order to systematise Liberal thought.

The broad scale and the demanding nature of this challenge require great methodological discipline. The purpose is not, of course, to describe two centuries of Liberalism, but to adopt conceptual references with which to think its historical development. The choice of those references is at the centre of the methodological discipline. The thematic line complies with one of the aforementioned research programmes.

The date of the establishment of Liberalism in Portugal (1820) is the starting point for a general approach (firstly, a European approach) of the complexity of Liberalism as regime, thought and attitude, with a strong prospective element. Rather than unambiguous and unquestionable, the actual notion of Liberalism is, therefore, a polysemic theoretical and political field with historical configurations which require analysis. This analysis will be developed with the expertise of each member of CEIS20 and from previous research, and it will be the result of the collegial effort of researchers from the thematic lines defined for each group.

The essential coordinates in which the thematic line is organised are as follows:

1st – State Metamorphoses
It analyses the State as a heterogeneous, unique structure, the product of a dynamic link to society, and it refuses the propensity to study the State by sector and/or a structure outside society; State as the producer of a social role; education and citizenship, the desire to change humankind, asylum and prisons as fields for experimenting; the hygienist State, the hygiene issue and mistaking public and private levels; the State and the biopolitical perspective; the emergence of political, anti-liberal models for managing the relationship between the State and society: experiences of neo-corporate regulation;

2nd – Spaces, borders, identities, human rights
It focuses on the political organisation of space (national, European, insular, Atlantic, Iberian, Ibero-American), political and social fundamentals of transformations and the issue of border; the relation between the pace of territorial dynamics, identity and legacy issues (cultural, social) and the issue of human rights; causes and importance of war (world, civil or regional), focusing on the historical-cultural, political and social dimensions of the period between the Wars (1918-1939); the importance of history of education and heritage for the definition of cultural legacy and the relation between education, territory and sustainable development; the networks of sociability and power; the European space as the Europe of regions and trans-Atlantic relations.

3rd – Processes and subjectivation devices
To study the conditions of the genesis and sustainability of global citizenship – to be healthy, educated, informed, critical, creative. As for the category 'Modernity', often used to designate the relevant subjectivation processes and devices for the period in question, an unambiguous point of view is not envisaged. Therefore, and in the case of research carried out by CEIS20, Modernity occurs as a problem, category or the name of an unfinished process of emancipation. It thus promotes the convergence of research trajectories addressing issues such as: totalitarian regimes; corporatism, social hierarchies and economic nationalism; social Darwinism, racism and anti-Semitism; architecture, fascisms and alternative modernities; revisits the issue of environment in which, similarly to previous periods, the economic and social context brings back a less optimistic assessment of the solutions adopted up to this point and described as modernising, as well as regressive utopias; the concept of mass culture is linked to the analysis of multimedia journalism, within the typification of journalism models; it offers an important background for understanding the emergence and activity of intellectuals; under the category 'Modernity', we place the study of sciences, health and society: From WHO's definition of health in contemporary Portugal and intersecting science, health and society, we aim to study scientific and technological theories and practices within the international context, which have contributed to the improvement of individual and collective health and more adequate measures towards well-being; we also place the study of education under this category: educational policies, organisations and practices; personal development and education towards citizenship; personal education and adult learning; also under this category, although placed between Modernity (linked to the vanguard and post-Modernism) and a historical-cultural notion, we approach the arts from its various innovative angles: visual arts, theatre and drama, cinema.

This brief description outlines how the thematic lines of the Groups converge towards a structuring, robust and scientifically productive thematic line. It also shows the relevance of the thematic line regarding the complex inclusion of Portuguese society in a two-century time frame (i.e. contemporary Portugal).

1. Organizational structure

The thematic line is organised around a global strategy of initiatives, which includes the Groups and PhD students, as well as the publications of the Centre (journal, reports and collections), coordinated by the Researcher responsible for this line.
A bimonthly seminar is scheduled to be held from 2015-2020. This seminar will be a space for the convergence, harmonisation and establishment of the inputs provided by researchers directly involved in the development of the thematic line. The seminar will be closely linked to the 3rd cycle course (PhD) in Contemporary Studies, thus actively encouraging professors and PhD students to participate regularly and prolifically. Also, the seminar will be linked to equivalent initiatives from other national and international renowned centres which specialise in the area in question. The seminar receives external researchers who provide original outlooks into their own work. The seminar coordinator is responsible for developing the necessary procedures for the success of the initiatives and collaborative work.

The autonomous nature of the groups encourages productivity within the thematic line. Freedom, diversity and creativity in the groups is essential for specialised research, which is also part of the thematic line when required.
The publications 'Estudos do Século XX' and 'Cadernos do CEIS20' - the Centre's scientific production - will be regularly dedicated to this thematic line, thus encouraging reflection on this subject and combining the Group's various perspectives. A biannual meeting will be held to present some of the group's findings, and discuss the subject on a national and international level. The various publications coordinated by in-house CEIS20 researchers are also open to submissions on these topics.

2. Objetives

The specific objectives of this thematic line are as follows:

1st, to produce original work on: State metamorphoses and rationalisation processes and State secularisation; ways into State democratisation; the progress of public finance; regulation models between administration, political power and society; Nation-producing State; the emergence of anti-liberal political models for managing the relation between State and society: experiences of neo-corporate regulation, the utopian dimensions of the modern State; economic, social and moral regeneration models; the topic of hygiene; The State and the biopolitical outlook; from Social Assistance State to Welfare State; the debates around the right to work; social care as a modality of social regulation; the conceptions of social rights; Welfare State: construction and crisis.

2nd, to promote the convergence of research lines focusing on: the relation between States and civil society; military conflicts; economic, social and territorial policies; political and legal debates and discourses; economic and social crises; totalitarian regimes; corporatism, social hierarchies and economic nationalism; social Darwinism, racism and anti-Semitism; architecture, fascisms and alternative modernities.

3rd, to widen the scope of comparative studies and prioritise the international scope of research on Europeanism, Atlanticity and globalisation, focusing on the following axes: Identities, Spaces, Power Networks; Europe of Regions and Trans-Atlantic Relations; Governance and Sustainability (research on European governance strategies).

4th, to analyse the dimensions of the history of life sciences in Portugal (particularly how Darwinism was received) and the dimensions with greater impact on health sciences and technologies; to study the reception and mechanisms of international innovations in Portugal and the place occupied by Portuguese innovations and the dissemination of scientific knowledge; to analyse the social and professional repercussions of the said innovations and originality, and to assess their input to improving health and well-being, and social cohesion; to explain the importance of cultural legacy of classical knowledge in health.

5th, to develop the Study Programme: Modernity and mass culture in Portugal (in partnership with the Instituto de História Contemporânea da Universidade Nova de Lisboa - Contemporary History Institute of New University of Lisbon).

6th, to develop the relation between Arts and the State in contemporary Portugal, and seeking to develop new concepts and scientific outlooks.

7th, to think Education linked to sustainable development, by studying educational policies and the organisation of national education/training systems, and refer them to globalisation, trans-nationalisation and local development.

8th, to develop advanced research in Communication Sciences, creating a conceptual map for understanding the organisation of practices in journalism in contemporary Portugal.

9th, to conduct research on the relations between history and new media, and the impact of new technologies on communication of historical knowledge and cultural legacy contents. To study the use of computer methods in the analysis of the past.

10th, to create and ensure a programme for the repeat publication of elementary texts - (practically unknown, and others which have never been published), which have had an impact on Portuguese life since 1820: Constitutions, Catechisms and Citizenship manuals; Memoirs (e.g. 'Manual do Cidadão', by Trindade Coelho, de 1906); and facsimile re-publication of newspapers. Historical and cultural backgrounds of scientific nature will be provided and included in all volumes.