Box 1916

Maxcy Hall

112 George Street

Providence, RI 02912

Telephone: (401) 863-2367

Sociology@brown.edu

 

M.A. in Sociology, Brown University

Contact Information:
Brown University
Department of Sociology
Box 1916
Providence, RI 02912
Tel: (401) 575-1769
Fax: (401) 863-3213
Ana_Margarida_Esteves@brown.edu

Year of Entry: 2004

Previous Degrees:
M.A. in Sociology, Brown University , 2006
M.Sc. in European Studies, London School of Economics, 1998
B.A. in International Relations, Technical University of Lisbon, 1997

Areas of Interest:
Political Economy, Social Movements, Organizational Sociology, Sociology of Knowledge, Historical Sociology, Social Theory

My research revolves around the study of political economies as social constructions based on the interaction between material conditions, ideology diffusion and political opportunity.

Based on such research interests, I aim to explore the following questions: How are land rights and environmental social movements, the growing urban informal sector and recent developments in the labor movement impacting the formulation of discourses on alternatives to neo-liberalism? How do these discourses, as well as the academics, technicians and organic intellectuals who formulate them, impact the development of those same movements? In which conditions can an alliance be established between those kinds of experts and social movements? What are the limits of such alliances in terms of promoting grassroots mobilization and successfully engaging with the state?

I am exploring these questions through fieldwork among the participants in the coalition of social movements, civil society organizations and the transnational network of scholars that led to the emergence of the Brazilian Movement of Solidarity Socio-economy, as well as the creation of SENAES, a department of the Ministry of Labor aimed at formulating public policies to attend to the movement’s demands.