EDITORIAL

 

Editorial

 

Walter RodriguesI

[I]ISCTE-IUL, Instituto Universitário de Lisboa, Portugal. e-mail: walter.rodrigues@iscte.pt.

 

We are currently witnessing times of crisis caused, among other factors, by the transition stage contemporary societies are going though, one that has been going on for decades. Our journal, CIDADES, Comunidades e Territórios is not exempt from the wider effects brought about by this era, on many levels.

On the academic level, there is strong competition between a fair amount and diversity of existing publications, contending for the best position in scientific production rankings, which turns editorial practice into an increasingly demanding challenge. For authors, in regards to their academic and scientific careers, there is an incessantly growing demand in terms of competitiveness, one that is proportional to national public disinvestment in those careers, implying an apparent counterincentive to national publication, in favour of international publication, following the trend towards the demand for internationalization of scientific production, but also the search for employability contexts deemed to be more rewarding.

On the social and political level, the current crisis also raises an arduous challenge to scientific production, particularly nationally but also internationally. On the one hand, these days come out as demotivating for national scientific production, resulting in decreasing figures for article submissions, which seems to be the trend cutting across main scientific journals, at least within social and human sciences. Aside from the economic crisis, the aforementioned national disinvestment in science is certainly not encouraging to scientific production and publication. On the other hand, profound worldwide changes also occurring at the moment seem to increase conditioning to the formulation of social studies over a period of exacerbated uncertainty in terms of pathways for societal transition.

The texts included in this issue of CIDADES seem to reflect the challenges induced by these times of crisis and political and social change, as well as their effects on urban and territorial contexts on the whole. The first article, by Teresa Costa Pinto and Isabel Guerra, reflects on structuring and emergent trends in social housing in Portugal, with a view to rethinking housing policies in times of crisis. The second article, by Luz Caceres, discusses the place of ethnic rights and contingencies in safeguarding black history in Brazilian quilombos. The third article offers an analysis by Nuno Dias of the architecture of post-colonial ethnicities in Portugal, addressing one of the most striking features of societal transition in the past decades, especially in some European societies such as Portugal. The fourth article is co-authored by Bruno Meneses, Maria José Vale, Rui Reis and Raquel Saraiva, who put forward a methodology for evaluation of soil use and occupation in Portugal, in the past three decades, which may constitute a useful tool for understanding the societal transition we are witnessing. Lastly, João Aldeia produces an essay, which entails an analysis of the relocation of homeless people in the public space. This is certainly an emblematic subject that portrays our times of crisis, urging us to meet them as major challenges we have to overcome, both from the society perspective and from the point of view of the affirmation of how relevant – especially during these dire straits – it is to promote scientific production and publication in social and human sciences.

 

Walter Rodrigues

Editor