The society increasingly based on digital culture is already an unavoidable reality. This paper aims to contribute, in a preliminary way, to understand several of the implications in Sociology that this propagation of digital culture involves through a bibliographical review. We analyse several implications in dimensions such as the very purpose of Sociology (highlighting digital literacy and the level of democracy) and social research (addressing issues raised by the big date, the interdisciplinary dialogue between Sociology and other scientific areas, and new ethical dilemmas). We conclude that there are profound implications both in the research object and in the research processes of Sociology, which we will develop in later phases of the dissemination of this research. As a major implication, the reflective capacity of sociological knowledge is central to the preparation for this new reality, but, at the same time, also to a well-founded critical understanding of digital society.
Tese de doutoramento em Engenharia Mecânica, na especialidade de Ecologia Industrial, apresentada ao Departamento de Engenharia Mecânica da Faculdade de Ciências e Tecnologia da Universidade de Coimbra ; Despite of the increasing awareness to the environmental impact associated with munitions, the research efforts done in this area are mainly related to safety and performance improvements, while a holistic perspective of the environmental impacts of their production, use, and disposal are not covered. To utterly comprehend those impacts is necessary to quantify the potential environmental and toxicological impacts associated with the life-cycle of ammunition. The use of the Life-Cycle Assessment (LCA) methodology for that purpose will not only allow the quantification of the impacts, but also indicate the path to enhance the environmental profile of ammunition. Environmental legislation is a main driver to enforce industry, including military industry, to develop new approaches to mitigate the environmental impacts of their products. An example of legislation pressure is the REACH regulation that is restricting the use of substances of very high concern (SVHC) that are classified based on limits established for selected physicochemical properties. The interpretation drawn from this classification system is that the potential consequences to human health are essentially dependent on a restricted number of a substance's properties, and that the limits imposed are equivalent from that point of view. However, it is necessary to understand if those issues are verified in order to enhance the classification of hazardous substances. This thesis provides insights about two main goals associated with the life-cycle environmental impacts of ammunition. Firstly, LCA is presented to assess the environmental and toxicological impacts of ammunition in order to highlight the principal burdens associated with the production, use, and disposal of ammunition. The scarcity of life-cycle studies regarding this issue reflects its importance, novelty, and contribution to the scientific community to facilitate future studies about this issue. Secondly, this thesis aims to improve the hazard classification system of chemical substances, and to strength the reliability of the identification of SVHC. For that purpose, a conceptual framework was developed based on USEtox to calculate toxicological characterization factors (CFs) associated with virtual substances: hypothetical substances whose properties are based on the regulatory limits established by REACH. A hazard classification system based on the aforesaid toxicological CFs for virtual substances is proposed to assist in the evaluation of safer toxicological alternatives. ii The life-cycle inventories for energetic materials contributed to complete the gap and facilitate future studies associated with the environmental impact assessment of ammunition. Comprehensive LCA studies referent to the whole life-cycle of ammunition helped to assess and highlight the main hotspots for this product. In particular, LCA studies demonstrated the importance of a life-cycle approach to ammunition by illustrating that the information obtained from these studies outweighs the effort needed to overcome the difficulties stemming from data collection. The employment of a life-cycle perspective shed some light in some unexpected consequences or trade-offs related to "green" paths for ammunition. These findings will allow shooting range managers, ammunition producers or others, to become more aware of the main environmental impacts of ammunition as well as defining strategies to manage or mitigate ammunition burdens and carry out tailored modifications to decrease the impacts. The calculation and comparison of the toxicological CFs for the virtual substances allowed to conclude that: i) the different regulatory limits established by REACH are equivalent from the point of view of their ability to evaluate the human health impact; ii) the combinatory effect of the different physicochemical properties is not negligible when evaluating the hazard potential of a substance; iii) parameters such us water solubility or Henry´s law coefficient (not included in the SVHC classification) are as relevant as others presently included in REACH to evaluate hazard to human health; iv) the CFs of the virtual substances may be seen as a reference of what is an acceptable toxicological impact, and can be employed in a hazard classification of chemical substances. The aforesaid hazard classification system can be used to evaluate the significance of potential toxicological impacts and to provide additional information to screen the substances according to their toxicity hazard. This hazard classification system not only incorporates more properties than the ones considered in REACH regulation, but also takes in consideration the combinatory effect to calculate toxicological impacts on humans. This new framework intends to improve the toxicological assessment of substances, helping the industry to classify SVHC and understand the significance of the toxicological impacts related to conventional or new products. ; Apesar de uma maior perceção para os impactos ambientais associados a munições, os esforços de investigação feitos nesta área são sobretudo relacionados com a melhoria da segurança e performance, enquanto uma perspetiva holística aos impactos ambientais da sua produção, uso e eliminação não são abrangidos. Para compreender esses impactos é necessário quantificar os impactos ambientais e toxicológicos associados ao ciclo de vida de munições. A aplicação da metodológica de Avaliação de Ciclo de Vida (ACV) para esse propósito permitirá a quantificação dos impactos, e assinalar o caminho para melhorar o perfil ambiental das munições. A legislação ambiental é um precursor para forçar a indústria, incluindo a indústria militar, a desenvolver novas abordagens para mitigar os impactos ambientais dos seus produtos. Um exemplo da pressão da legislação é o regulamento REACH que tem restrito o uso de substâncias de integração progressiva (SIP) que são classificadas tendo em conta limites estabelecidos para certas propriedades físico-químicas. A interpretação a partir deste sistema de classificação é que as potenciais consequências para a saúde humana são basicamente dependentes de um número restrito de propriedades de uma substância, e que os limites impostos são equivalentes desse ponto de vista. No entanto, é necessário perceber se esses pressupostos verificam-se e desta forma melhorar a classificação de substâncias perigosas. Esta tese faculta uma maior clareza sobre dois objetivos associados ao impacto ambiental do ciclo de vida de munições. Primeiro, a ACV é apresentada para avaliar os impactos ambientais e toxicológicos de munições de forma a esclarecer os principais problemas associados à produção, uso e eliminação de munições. A escassez de estudos de ciclo de vida sobre este assunto reflete a importância, novidade e o contributo para a comunidade científica para facilitar futuro estudos sobre este assunto. Em segundo, com esta tese pretende-se melhorar o sistema de classificação de substâncias perigosas, e consolidar a identificação das SIP. Com esse propósito, foi desenvolvido um enquadramento conceitual baseado no método USEtox para calcular os fatores de caracterização (FCs) toxicológicos associados a substâncias virtuais: substâncias hipotéticas em que as propriedades baseiam-se nos limites regulatórios determinados pelo REACH. É proposto um sistema de classificação de perigo, baseado nos FCs toxicológicos para as substâncias virtuais, para auxiliar na avaliação de alternativas mais seguras. Os inventários de ciclo de vida de materiais energéticos contribuem para completar a lacuna e auxiliar futuros estudos referentes à avaliação dos impactos ambientais de munições. Estudos de iv ACV referentes ao ciclo de vida total de munições ajudam a avaliar e realçar os "hotspots" deste produto. Nomeadamente, os estudos de ACV indicam a importância de uma perspetiva de ciclo de vida para munições, ilustrando que a informação obtida destes estudos supera o esforço requerido para superar as dificuldades na obtenção de dados. A perspetiva de ciclo de vida indicou que algumas soluções amigas do ambiente podem originar consequências inesperadas. Estes resultados permitem que gestores de campo de tiro, produtores de munições ou outros, sejam mais cientes dos principais impactos ambientais de munições, além de ajudar a definirem estratégias para gerir ou mitigar os problemas ambientais de munições e realizar modificações para reduzir esses impactos. O cálculo e comparação dos FCs toxicológicos das substâncias virtuais permitiu concluir que i) os diferentes limites regulatórios estabelecidos pelo REACH são equivalentes nem relação à sua aptidão para avaliar os impactos na saúde humana; ii) o efeito combinatório das diferentes propriedade físico-químicas não pode ser negligenciado quando são avaliados os potenciais perigos de uma substância; iii) propriedades como solubilidade e coeficiente da lei de Henry (não incluídas na classificação de SIP) são igualmente relevantes que as outras propriedades atualmente incluídas no REACH para avaliar os perigos na saúde humana; iv) os FCs das substâncias virtuais podem ser vistas como uma referência de um nível aceitável de impacto toxicológico, podendo ser utilizados num sistema de classificação de substâncias químicas perigosas. O sistema de classificação de perigo pode ser utilizado para avaliar a magnitude do potencial impacto toxicológico e fornecer informação adicional para selecionar substâncias de acordo com o seu perigo tóxico. Este sistema de classificação de perigo incorpora mais propriedades que os considerados atualmente pelo regulamento REACH, além de considerar também o efeito combinatório no cálculo dos impactos toxicológicos. Com este enquadramento novo pretende-se melhorar a avaliação do impacto toxicológico de substâncias, ajudando a indústria a classificar as SIP e entender a significância dos impactos toxicológicos relacionados com produtos novos ou convencionais.
This study aims to apprehend the representations of science published in two local newspapers (O Faialense and O Telégrafo) published in the periphery of Portugal (Faial Island, the Azores), in the last quarter of the 19th and early 20th century. For this purpose, the authors carried out a thematic and qualitative analysis of the news collected in these two newspapers. Results allow concluding that, while Positivism is considered one of the main currents of thought justifying the rise of the republican logic, which culminated in the revolution that deposed the constitutional monarchy regime and implemented the republican regime in 1910 in Portugal, the research carried out shows a growing appreciation and visibility of the importance ascribed to both science and technology, without, however, any explicit association with political ideologies. This may be due to the type of search carried out and the editorial lines of the two newspapers, as well as – or also – to their peripheral geographical location concerning the propagation of these ideas.
Received: 31 October 2020 / Accepted: 9 December 2020 / Published: 17 January 2021
UIDB/04647/2020 UIDP/04647/2020 ; This study aims to apprehend the representations of science published in two local newspapers (O Faialense and O Telégrafo) published in the periphery of Portugal (Faial Island, the Azores), in the last quarter of the 19th and early 20th century. For this purpose, the authors carried out a thematic and qualitative analysis of the news collected in these two newspapers. Results allow concluding that, while Positivism is considered one of the main currents of thought justifying the rise of the republican logic, which culminated in the revolution that deposed the constitutional monarchy regime and implemented the republican regime in 1910 in Portugal, the research carried out shows a growing appreciation and visibility of the importance ascribed to both science and technology, without, however, any explicit association with political ideologies. This may be due to the type of search carried out and the editorial lines of the two newspapers, as well as - or also - to their peripheral geographical location concerning the propagation of these ideas. ; publishersversion ; published
This position paper is based on the assumption that there is an appreciation of Sociology as a justification for certain representations and practices of social and political intervention. In Sociology: Tension between science and militant activism?, the authors aim at justifying, on a reasoned basis, the relevance of Sociology as a specific form of scientific knowledge in current times, without, however, confusing the role of Sociology with the direct resolution of inequalities and injustices. At the methodological level, a bibliographic search on this subject has been carried out in scientific literature databases, such as Scopus, Web of Knowledge, SCILIT and institutional repositories, supplemented by the experience of the authors as sociologists, both in the teaching and research dimensions. Sociology focuses on sociological problems and not directly on social problems, and, as a science, it can contribute greatly to the understanding of the social world. Furthermore, the results from sociological research can potentially be applied in society in the most diverse political senses (in the broadest sense of this term). In conclusion, and as an implication, if this militant activist tendency is accentuated, Sociology may paradoxically lose recognition and scientific, academic and social legitimacy, contributing to its des-institutionalisation and consequent difficulty in having its knowledge applied to the resolution of social problems.
Visual communication is critical in contemporary societies. Research in social sciences increasingly tends to mobilize the image, for example, in the form of photography, in its processes (in the collection and interpretation of information) and products (in the communication of research results), which leads to the need to reflect critically on its specificities. This paper aims to add to the analysis of the potentialities, limitations and challenges of the use of photography in social sciences research. For this purpose, the paper presents and discusses empirically collected documentary expressions, selected from an organizational case study based on their heuristic capacity to illustrate the argumentation put forth herein. It is concluded that the potential of the use of photography in research in social sciences is high, but it is essential that the researcher considers, besides more technical aspects and ethical complexities, that photography is, in part, also the materialization of a certain socially constructed representation of reality.
The concept of sociological imagination, originally proposed by Charles Wright Mill, is a classic of Sociology. This paper aims to present and discuss the sociological imagination projecting its heuristic capacity in contemporary society, in which the digital is a novelty vis-a-vis the original social context that shaped this proposal. The results of this analysis allow concluding that there are some contemporary challenges to be considered in this crucial analytical proposal in Sociology.
The reading and understanding of the classical authors of sociology are informative of sociology as a science. However, is this centrality ascribed to social perspectives – which have been proposed in another social and historical context – the consolidation of a body of knowledge of sociology, in which there is a growing refinement of theory? What are the advantages, but also the limitations, of this valuation of the classics? In this position paper, mobilizing relevant literature to justify our argumentative stance, we seek to provide a contribution to answering these questions, as well as some implications.
Bearing in mind that the prospect of the future is always a sensitive dimension to be addressed, this paper, based on bibliographic collection and analysis, as well as on the authors' academic experience, aims to add to the (re)thinking of some of the future challenges Sociology will face, in a sociologically informed society. It is concluded that sustainability and the digital are two of the crucial challenges for Sociology given the influence they exert, both in society and in the very way of doing sociology. Furthermore, to be successfully faced, there is the need for a concomitant articulation of a Sociology that amplifies its heuristic capacity to apprehend and respond to these challenges and the practice of fruitful interdisciplinarity, in which the different sciences accept and mobilize the contributions of other sciences. The existence of first-rate sciences compared to second-rate sciences has never been, is not and will never be the solution to (co)address these challenges.
UIDB/04647/2020 UIDP/04647/2020 ; This article aims to understand the domains and uses of the various conceptual frameworks of contagion, its modalities and effects, in its different acceptations and historical contexts, as an expression of the process of interdependence between the stances and the different viewpoints of diverse actors involved with multiple scientific, moral, social and political challenges. Another objective focuses on understanding the process of collective management of contagion, disease and health, in which prevention is a critical element of its objectives and justifications, its discursive order and its practical activities. ; publishersversion ; published
UIDB/04647/2020 UIDP/04647/2020 ; This position paper is based on the assumption that there is an appreciation of Sociology as a justification for certain representations and practices of social and political intervention. In Sociology: Tension between science and militant activism?, the authors aim at justifying, on a reasoned basis, the relevance of Sociology as a specific form of scientific knowledge in current times, without, however, confusing the role of Sociology with the direct resolution of inequalities and injustices. At the methodological level, a bibliographic search on this subject has been carried out in scientific literature databases, such as Scopus, Web of Knowledge, SCILIT and institutional repositories, supplemented by the experience of the authors as sociologists, both in the teaching and research dimensions. Sociology focuses on sociological problems and not directly on social problems, and, as a science, it can contribute greatly to the understanding of the social world. Furthermore, the results from sociological research can potentially be applied in society in the most diverse political senses (in the broadest sense of this term). In conclusion, and as an implication, if this militant activist tendency is accentuated, Sociology may paradoxically lose recognition and scientific, academic and social legitimacy, contributing to its des-institutionalisation and consequent difficulty in having its knowledge applied to the resolution of social problems. ; publishersversion ; published
Abstract Sociology is a science with specificities and which can potentially offer a more rigorous knowledge about reality. The goal of this position paper is, by means of a thorough literature review, to contribute to demonstrating the urgency of using a sociological stance in a more complete understanding of the social, as well as of Sociology itself as a science. It is concluded that Sociology, a multi-paradigmatic science, seeks to articulate macro-social dynamics with local processes, allowing to connect the subjective significances with the practices, and which focus on the articulations between systems and actors, between structures and practices, between the reality of the social conditions of existence, and the social construction of reality. As an implication, Sociology as a scientific representation and practice of the social, can be cumbersome by helping to dismantle commonly shared preconceived ideas about the instituted social order.
Currently, COVID-19 is perceived as an epidemic, a new «plague», referring to the matrix metaphor of the pestis expressed in the series contagion – death – fear – isolation. This article aims to understand the multiple collective challenges posed by plague epidemics. The analysis of these challenges may contribute to the reflection on several dimensions that shape the COVID-19 pandemic threat. Individuals interpret the different pasts aiming to solve the problems they face in the present. The collective challenges that the political and medical «management» of the plague place are shaped by circumstantial coalitions of diverse interests, enabling the recognition, demarcation, and legitimisation of actions regarding its public management and control, materialised in concrete health policies, such as the development of several specific devices (isolation, health cordons, lazarettos, quarantine), thus intervening in the configuration of «collective management» of epidemics. ; info:eu-repo/semantics/publishedVersion
