Call for papers | Until 16 OCTOBER

The profound transformations experienced by Portuguese society over the last two decades pose today a set of relevant challenges for public decision, whether in the field of the economy and institutional integration in the European context, or in terms of the provision of welfare or the new challenges in the face of environmental and health risks. In truth, the multiple and differentiated impacts of the pandemic in Portuguese society, over the last two years, seem to have made more perceptible the imbrication between new and old vulnerabilities, which must be faced and urgently responded to.

In this sense, it becomes clear today the need to resume the discussion and reflection around the production processes of structuring and democratically sustained political choices, capable of designing a strategic development horizon in the face of these multiple challenges. To face them, planning issues gain a new urgency and centrality in democratic societies.

Thus, the Observatory on Crises and Alternatives of the Centre for Social Studies at the University of Coimbra intends to convene the Portuguese society to a debate on public and democratic planning as a participatory process of empowering public decision. The aim is to discuss and understand what planning means; what the relevant actors are; the scales involved; the nature of the process and the problems of each time; the results to be achieved; the costs of the absence of planning; the relationship between deliberations and their execution; the relationship with private dynamics and with public policies; how to deal with the great emergencies resulting from climate change and environmental unsustainability and the ways in which political cycles accommodate the medium and long-term logics and democratic participation inherent in planning.

This initiative takes the form of a Public and Democratic Planning Colloquium bringing together all those interested in this topic and will take place in Lisbon on 16 and 17 January 2023 at the Calouste Gulbenkian Foundation, in Lisbon.
All interested parties are invited to submit paper proposals that focus on the various dimensions called for by the debates and planning processes, and which relate to:

• Policies of economic development
• Environmental sustainability policies
• Welfare and public services provision
• Territory and infrastructures
• Capacity building of public administration
• Theoretical debates, historical or comparative approaches

Paper proposals should not exceed 500 words and should be sent by email to coloq.plan@ces.uc.pt by 16 October. Some of the papers may be selected to be developed into chapters and published in a book in 2023.

This event will be free of charge, subject to registration and will grant a certificate of participation.

Scientific Committee: Alexandre Abreu, Álvaro Garrido, Ana Costa, Ana Drago, João Cravinho, João Ferrão, João Ferreira do Amaral, João Rodrigues, José Reis, Manuel Carvalho da Silva, Paulo Pedroso, Ricardo Paes Mamede

Partners: ECPOL (Portuguese Political Economy Association); ISCTE-IUL; IPPS

Support: Calouste Gulbenkian Foundation