| Summary: |
The empirical object of this project is the study of social policy beneficiaries, in particular of the Rendimento Mínimo Garantido (Guaranteed Minimum Income) (RMG).
It is of the utmost importance to establish a systematic approach to the processes of construction and reconstruction of social identities (excluded or vulnerable), in a context involving the direct beneficiaries of a social policy, such as the RMG, where the existence of a multitude of cultures is significant. At this level, the Portuguese case presents a number of relevant specificities.
This project aims to carry out an in-depth study on the beneficiaries of the RMG, both in terms of profiling and analysing their ways of life and their specific symbolic and ideological practices. The project will seek to analyse the daily life of these social agents, including necessarily the consumer habits, how they occupy their time and their representation of that time (Bourdieu, 1993; Mingione, 1996; Egendorf, 1999), as well as their relationships with the "formal world" (school, work) and with the "informal world" (temporary work, marginality).
Thus, the study intends to contribute to a greater understanding of the processes of social exclusion, as well as provide further insights into the processes of social vulnerability, namely of social groups which reveal a growing number of handicaps. At the same time, an analytical model will be developed of the social representations of individuals in the process of "disaffiliation", which will further seek to capture the changes these social agents experience in terms of ideological and symbolic processes and practices. |