PhD candidate in Global Studies (FCT scholarship) with a dissertation project about indirect rule and uneven degrees of electrification in the global periphery (PD/BD/106069/2015). Master in Political Science (FCSH-UNL) with a thesis about the Office of Political Affairs of the Portuguese Overseas Ministry. Research interests: historical sociology of empires; scientific autonomy under colonialism and dictatorship; economic development and path-dependency; forms of government and local public goods in Africa
This article contributes to the historical sociology of the Portuguese
imperial institutions of s... more This article contributes to the historical sociology of the Portuguese imperial institutions of social and political control. Through a genealogy of the category of “detribalization” and the correlated image of the “detribalized”, we question the so-called “reformist colonial policy” of the early 60s, namely, the creation of “regedorias” and the design of communitarian development projects. We try to lay the foundations for a different, more nuanced analytical perspective impermeable to the historical discourses of social actors. Recent scholarly works in the field of colonial and science studies have reproduced two distinct views already shared and debated within the Portuguese colonial regime: on one hand, the idea that “regedorias” served only military purposes of population control during warfare; on the other, the assumption which posits communitarian development programs as a more benign, social scientifically anchored alternative to violence and war. The study of the reception and circulation of ideas about “detribalization” shows that both arguments are but an oversimplification and reproduction of political sides and strategies of historical actors. Finally, we discuss Portuguese elites’ dependence on international discourses and the relative autonomy of social science vis-à-vis the administrative, political and military fields of the Empire-state.
Neste livro, estudamos as políticas do Estado colonial português em Angola, no momento em que as ... more Neste livro, estudamos as políticas do Estado colonial português em Angola, no momento em que as revoltas de libertação abriram as portas à descolonização. Os principais acontecimentos em análise são as revoltas de 1961, nas plantações de algodão da Baixa de Cassange, nas prisões de Luanda e nas regiões de produção de café do Uíge. Do estudo dos acontecimentos, passámos a investigar alguns processos capazes de nos ajudar a ir mais fundo na reconstituição dos modos de tomada de decisão. Foi assim que traçámos a longa história da destribalização, a do sistema carcerário e a da Casa dos Estudantes do Império, no confronto com o trabalho que veio a ser desenvolvido pelo Gabinete dos Negócios Políticos. Este último foi a principal organização da administração central que tratou as informações de todo o império e elaborou planos proto-totalitários, em tempo de revoltas.
It has become recurrent to talk about a change of paradigm in Portuguese colonial science, which ... more It has become recurrent to talk about a change of paradigm in Portuguese colonial science, which occurred at the beginning of the second half of the 20th century. Historical and sociological studies of science, having tried to advance new perspectives concerning the relationship between knowledge and power, social knowledge and state policies, confirmed the emergence of a demand for applied social sciences. This dissertation, focused on the study of the genesis and consolidation of a metropolitan state’s bureaucratic organization – the Office of Political Affairs within the Overseas Ministry – re-centres the relation between knowledge production and power. In order to do so, drawing on concepts from historical institutionalism and organizational sociology, I proceed by a systematic analysis of the Office’s archival material currently held by the Historical and Diplomatic Archives of the Portuguese Ministry of Foreign Affairs. I study the morphology and composition of this administrative agency (1958-1974) and its degree of appropriation by a particular elite coming from the academic and scientific fields. Once within the administration, this group calls upon the social sciences as pertaining to a distinct administrative ethos in relation to expertise and against “bureaucratic authoritarianism”. I find that the Office’s organizational constraints and a constant hindrance posed by colonial elites to the metropolitan gaze were at the origins of proto-totalitarian schemes designed in Lisbon, which in turn ascribed a greater role to social scientists. These plans are embedded in the development drive of colonial policy of the 1960s. I argue that it is not possible to understand the position takings of a state’s agency without considering, on one hand, the morphological pressures arriving from the metropolitan academic field, and, on the other, the African modernization process that tended to destabilize imperial status quo at the grassroots level.
In 1961, the beginning of the Colonial War in Angola was marked by the overture of “regedorias”, ... more In 1961, the beginning of the Colonial War in Angola was marked by the overture of “regedorias”, new camps designed to control population movements against a background of guerrilla warfare. In this paper, I map the geographical distribution of such sites, by exploring their pace of installation, their internal military and political organization, degrees of freedom of mobility and exchange granted to Africans and European personnel, and patterns of land redistribution. My aim is to present a visual cartography of colonial Angola as a whole, where one can find every camp in each colonial district. New legibility measures were being deployed by intelligence actors in the colonies, such as the Serviços de Centralização e Coordenação de Informações de Angola. Those methods allow us to compile, with a reasonable degree of certainty, not only the number and location of the camps, but also the moral qualities of “traditional” authorities, forged by Portuguese officials, that were in charge of the internal order of “regedorias”. I then proceed to identify and explain patterns of the use of this kind of dispositive in the terrain. In order to do so, I compare the new visual data to a set of district governors and central authorities’ reports, ranging from 1959 to 1974.
It’s commonly argued that during the mid-50s, Portuguese elites and political institutions underw... more It’s commonly argued that during the mid-50s, Portuguese elites and political institutions underwent a process of «ideological inculcation» due to the overall impact of Brazilian sociologist Gilberto Freyre’s thesis on luso-tropicalism. Despite some recent efforts on mapping the origins of such process, particularly within the academic field, its practical implications remain unknown. An historical sociological approach to the ways metropolitan bureaucratic elites categorized and perceived indigenous resistance in Portuguese colonies may shed some light on the degree to which red-tape procedures were entangled in this somewhat new ideological framework. Drawing on previous archival research in the Overseas Historical Archive (Lisbon), this communication will portray an economy of this symbolic capital among civil servants in the years immediately before and after the outbreak of the Colonial War in Angola (1961). This period corresponds to the opening of a legal colonial state of exception and consequently one of uttermost relevance for analysing the real adequacy of elites’ actions to publicly expressed categories of thought.
The post-1945 European integration was based on two political processes operating at the national... more The post-1945 European integration was based on two political processes operating at the national level. First, the deepening of democracy, with the reinforcement of liberal institutions, civic freedoms and mass based party-systems. Second, the institutional recognition of religious pluralism and the integration of unions in national bodies of social concertation. But under the combined challenges of the recent economic crisis, the populist resurgence, the migratory wave and the terrorist threat one sees signs of eroding democratic quality, as well as a growing tension between state and civil society. These developments have been less pronounced in Germany than in France and the United Kingdom, having their biggest expression in Spain, and are explained by the degree to which elites of the center-left and of the liberal and conservative right have moved since the 1980s to the center and the right in the ideological spectrum.
This article contributes to the historical sociology of the Portuguese
imperial institutions of s... more This article contributes to the historical sociology of the Portuguese imperial institutions of social and political control. Through a genealogy of the category of “detribalization” and the correlated image of the “detribalized”, we question the so-called “reformist colonial policy” of the early 60s, namely, the creation of “regedorias” and the design of communitarian development projects. We try to lay the foundations for a different, more nuanced analytical perspective impermeable to the historical discourses of social actors. Recent scholarly works in the field of colonial and science studies have reproduced two distinct views already shared and debated within the Portuguese colonial regime: on one hand, the idea that “regedorias” served only military purposes of population control during warfare; on the other, the assumption which posits communitarian development programs as a more benign, social scientifically anchored alternative to violence and war. The study of the reception and circulation of ideas about “detribalization” shows that both arguments are but an oversimplification and reproduction of political sides and strategies of historical actors. Finally, we discuss Portuguese elites’ dependence on international discourses and the relative autonomy of social science vis-à-vis the administrative, political and military fields of the Empire-state.
Neste livro, estudamos as políticas do Estado colonial português em Angola, no momento em que as ... more Neste livro, estudamos as políticas do Estado colonial português em Angola, no momento em que as revoltas de libertação abriram as portas à descolonização. Os principais acontecimentos em análise são as revoltas de 1961, nas plantações de algodão da Baixa de Cassange, nas prisões de Luanda e nas regiões de produção de café do Uíge. Do estudo dos acontecimentos, passámos a investigar alguns processos capazes de nos ajudar a ir mais fundo na reconstituição dos modos de tomada de decisão. Foi assim que traçámos a longa história da destribalização, a do sistema carcerário e a da Casa dos Estudantes do Império, no confronto com o trabalho que veio a ser desenvolvido pelo Gabinete dos Negócios Políticos. Este último foi a principal organização da administração central que tratou as informações de todo o império e elaborou planos proto-totalitários, em tempo de revoltas.
It has become recurrent to talk about a change of paradigm in Portuguese colonial science, which ... more It has become recurrent to talk about a change of paradigm in Portuguese colonial science, which occurred at the beginning of the second half of the 20th century. Historical and sociological studies of science, having tried to advance new perspectives concerning the relationship between knowledge and power, social knowledge and state policies, confirmed the emergence of a demand for applied social sciences. This dissertation, focused on the study of the genesis and consolidation of a metropolitan state’s bureaucratic organization – the Office of Political Affairs within the Overseas Ministry – re-centres the relation between knowledge production and power. In order to do so, drawing on concepts from historical institutionalism and organizational sociology, I proceed by a systematic analysis of the Office’s archival material currently held by the Historical and Diplomatic Archives of the Portuguese Ministry of Foreign Affairs. I study the morphology and composition of this administrative agency (1958-1974) and its degree of appropriation by a particular elite coming from the academic and scientific fields. Once within the administration, this group calls upon the social sciences as pertaining to a distinct administrative ethos in relation to expertise and against “bureaucratic authoritarianism”. I find that the Office’s organizational constraints and a constant hindrance posed by colonial elites to the metropolitan gaze were at the origins of proto-totalitarian schemes designed in Lisbon, which in turn ascribed a greater role to social scientists. These plans are embedded in the development drive of colonial policy of the 1960s. I argue that it is not possible to understand the position takings of a state’s agency without considering, on one hand, the morphological pressures arriving from the metropolitan academic field, and, on the other, the African modernization process that tended to destabilize imperial status quo at the grassroots level.
In 1961, the beginning of the Colonial War in Angola was marked by the overture of “regedorias”, ... more In 1961, the beginning of the Colonial War in Angola was marked by the overture of “regedorias”, new camps designed to control population movements against a background of guerrilla warfare. In this paper, I map the geographical distribution of such sites, by exploring their pace of installation, their internal military and political organization, degrees of freedom of mobility and exchange granted to Africans and European personnel, and patterns of land redistribution. My aim is to present a visual cartography of colonial Angola as a whole, where one can find every camp in each colonial district. New legibility measures were being deployed by intelligence actors in the colonies, such as the Serviços de Centralização e Coordenação de Informações de Angola. Those methods allow us to compile, with a reasonable degree of certainty, not only the number and location of the camps, but also the moral qualities of “traditional” authorities, forged by Portuguese officials, that were in charge of the internal order of “regedorias”. I then proceed to identify and explain patterns of the use of this kind of dispositive in the terrain. In order to do so, I compare the new visual data to a set of district governors and central authorities’ reports, ranging from 1959 to 1974.
It’s commonly argued that during the mid-50s, Portuguese elites and political institutions underw... more It’s commonly argued that during the mid-50s, Portuguese elites and political institutions underwent a process of «ideological inculcation» due to the overall impact of Brazilian sociologist Gilberto Freyre’s thesis on luso-tropicalism. Despite some recent efforts on mapping the origins of such process, particularly within the academic field, its practical implications remain unknown. An historical sociological approach to the ways metropolitan bureaucratic elites categorized and perceived indigenous resistance in Portuguese colonies may shed some light on the degree to which red-tape procedures were entangled in this somewhat new ideological framework. Drawing on previous archival research in the Overseas Historical Archive (Lisbon), this communication will portray an economy of this symbolic capital among civil servants in the years immediately before and after the outbreak of the Colonial War in Angola (1961). This period corresponds to the opening of a legal colonial state of exception and consequently one of uttermost relevance for analysing the real adequacy of elites’ actions to publicly expressed categories of thought.
The post-1945 European integration was based on two political processes operating at the national... more The post-1945 European integration was based on two political processes operating at the national level. First, the deepening of democracy, with the reinforcement of liberal institutions, civic freedoms and mass based party-systems. Second, the institutional recognition of religious pluralism and the integration of unions in national bodies of social concertation. But under the combined challenges of the recent economic crisis, the populist resurgence, the migratory wave and the terrorist threat one sees signs of eroding democratic quality, as well as a growing tension between state and civil society. These developments have been less pronounced in Germany than in France and the United Kingdom, having their biggest expression in Spain, and are explained by the degree to which elites of the center-left and of the liberal and conservative right have moved since the 1980s to the center and the right in the ideological spectrum.
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imperial institutions of social and political control.
Through a genealogy of the category of “detribalization” and
the correlated image of the “detribalized”, we question the so-called “reformist colonial policy” of the early 60s, namely, the creation of “regedorias” and the design of communitarian development projects. We try to lay the foundations for a different, more nuanced analytical perspective impermeable to the historical discourses of social actors. Recent scholarly works in the field of colonial and science studies have reproduced two distinct views already shared and debated within the Portuguese colonial regime: on one hand, the idea that “regedorias” served only military purposes of population control during warfare; on the other, the assumption which posits communitarian development programs as a more benign, social scientifically anchored alternative to violence and war. The study of the reception and circulation of ideas about “detribalization” shows that both arguments are but an oversimplification and reproduction of political sides and strategies of historical actors. Finally, we discuss Portuguese elites’ dependence on international discourses and the relative autonomy of social science vis-à-vis the administrative, political and military fields of the Empire-state.
imperial institutions of social and political control.
Through a genealogy of the category of “detribalization” and
the correlated image of the “detribalized”, we question the so-called “reformist colonial policy” of the early 60s, namely, the creation of “regedorias” and the design of communitarian development projects. We try to lay the foundations for a different, more nuanced analytical perspective impermeable to the historical discourses of social actors. Recent scholarly works in the field of colonial and science studies have reproduced two distinct views already shared and debated within the Portuguese colonial regime: on one hand, the idea that “regedorias” served only military purposes of population control during warfare; on the other, the assumption which posits communitarian development programs as a more benign, social scientifically anchored alternative to violence and war. The study of the reception and circulation of ideas about “detribalization” shows that both arguments are but an oversimplification and reproduction of political sides and strategies of historical actors. Finally, we discuss Portuguese elites’ dependence on international discourses and the relative autonomy of social science vis-à-vis the administrative, political and military fields of the Empire-state.