Abstract
The emergence and affirmation of Geography in Portugal was influenced by Latin-rooted cultures and languages, with a particular emphasis on the French tradition, with secondary school education assuming a central role in the recognition of the discipline. After a relevant transition in the 1970s, Human Geography became much more influenced by Anglo-Saxon authors and since the 1990s by a thematic specialization and a connection to spatial planning. This specialization goes hand in hand with the development of research in the various domains of Geography, which, in the twenty-first century, is clearly associated with increasing competition for funding and productivity measured by the number of papers in international high-impact-factor journals. This text addresses the presence of graduate and postgraduate Geography at universities. It then analyses recent research developments (based on PhD titles and articles published in the two main Portuguese scientific journals), confirming the specialization and fragmentation of topics as well as an increasing internationalization in which Brazil plays a key role. It also underlines the relevance of the work that is being done by geographers’ associations, as well as in other spaces where Portuguese geographers are stimulating change on policies and planning. Finally, some remarks are presented regarding present and future challenges, considering the social responsibility of geographers in an ever-increasingly complex world. In this respect, the Mediterranean region is a cultural space with a strong potential for cooperation, able to promote an innovative Geography based on Mediterranean lenses, and is the object of some final words.
The authors would like to express their public thanks to José António Tenedório for his collaboration and relevant contribution for this text.
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Notes
- 1.
- 2.
This is widely illustrated by the work of Jorge Gaspar “A Área de Influência de Évora – Sistema de Funções e Lugares Centrais” (The Area of Influence of Évora – Functions and Central Places System) (1972), the most emblematic work in Geography from this period.
- 3.
Within this area, the main domains were Electoral Geography (André 1988; Gaspar et al. 1984; Gaspar and Vitorino 1976), relating the elections results with local social structures; Industrial Geography (Ferrão 1987), based on a neo-Marxist approach; and Social Geography, focused on the regional distribution of social classes (Ferrão 1985).
- 4.
In the last 3 years of compulsory schooling, Geography courses are only offered to students in the broad area of human sciences, namely, in ‘socio-economic sciences’ or ‘languages and humanities’. In addition, geographical themes are also taught in some vocational courses where the territorial dimension is present, often being lectured by geography graduates.
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The information regarding doctoral theses and master’s dissertations in Portugal is available on the RENATES (National Register for Theses and Dissertations) platform.
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Please note that some graduates in Geography are not considered here, mainly those who obtained their doctorates outside Portugal or in institutions that have transdisciplinary doctorate courses (as is the case of the Institute of Social Sciences at the Universidade de Lisboa, for instance), or in thematic courses that group together professors from different institutions.
- 7.
Several of these PhD courses are organized in collaboration with other schools, mostly from the Universidade de Lisboa but also from other institutions.
- 8.
Until 2012/2013, these schools (Faculty of Architecture and Instituto Superior Técnico) were part of Universidade Técnica de Lisboa. In this school year, Universidade Técnica de Lisboa (UTL) and the ‘old’ Universidade de Lisboa (UL) merged into the present Universidade de Lisboa (ULisboa).
- 9.
Alcoforado et al. published the Biografia de Uma Revista de Geografia (1966–2015) in 2015, which is an article outlining the profile of the magazine created 50 years before by Orlando Ribeiro, Suzanne Daveau and Ilídio do Amaral. See also the article by Amaral (2001) about the first 35 years of the magazine.
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Visible in the relevance of the words cidade-ciudad-city and urbano-urbana-urban and also in the names of some cities, namely, Lisbon, Barcelona or Porto.
- 11.
Since its formation, the role of academics and professionals has been crucial. For instance, the leader of the Installation Committee that preceded and created the conditions for the settlement of the formal APGeo, was José Carlos Pinto, a respected and well-recognized planning professional, and the first elected president was Teresa Barata Salgueiro (1992), a professor at the Universidade de Lisboa.
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Fernandes, J.R., Ferrão, J., Malheiros, J., Chamusca, P. (2021). Geography as a Social Science in Portugal. In: Lois-González, R.C. (eds) Geographies of Mediterranean Europe. Springer Geography. Springer, Cham. https://doi.org/10.1007/978-3-030-49464-3_2
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