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ABSTRACT
During the international financial crisis, Portugal found itself in a very difficult and vulnerable socioeconomic situation that has led to an increase in social inequalities. This article seeks to understand two things: firstly, how much the impacts of the crisis contributed to a general perception that people's social position has gone backwards, compared to their pre-crisis situations; secondly, whether it is possible to link this generalized perception that living conditions have gone downhill to an increase in and diversification of collective action practices. The authors analyse data from a 2014 survey of 1,500 residents of the Lisbon Metropolitan Area, which they use to measure how far the level of collective action practices has increased and varied in accordance with a set of social inequality indicators, such as resource and educational inequalities.
Disclosure Statement
No potential conflict of interest was reported by the authors.
Notes
1. We used data from the Labour Force Survey to characterize the employment and unemployment levels among the population between the ages of 15 and 64, and from the Survey on Income and Life Conditions (SILC) to analyse the poverty and inequality levels.
2. From a statistical point of view the poverty line is set at 60% of the median monetary income per equivalent adult. In 2009, 17.9% of the population were living below that threshold.
3. The income quintile share ratio S80/S20 is a ‘percentile ratio’ calculated on the basis of the difference between the net monetary income per equivalent adult (or family income) received by the 20% of the population with the highest income levels and that of the 20% with the lowest income levels. The income decile share ratio S90/S10 is calculated on the basis of the difference between the net monetary income received by the 10% of the population with the highest income levels (top decile) and that received by the 10% with the lowest income levels (base decile).
4. The ACM typology is a complementary alternative to the main proposals advanced in international sociology: the G (Goldthorpe) or EGP (Erikson-Goldthorpe-Portocarrero) typology (Erikson & Goldthorpe, Citation1993), of which ESeC is a new version (Rose & Harrison, Citation2007); the W typology (Wright, Citation1997); the E-A typology (Esping-Andersen, Citation1993); and the French CPS (catégories socioprofessionnelles) and subsequent PCS (professions et catégories socioprofessionnelles) typologies (Desrosières & Thévenot, Citation1988).
5. The parish is the smallest geographical unit in the Portuguese territorial-law system.
6. Cronbach's alpha is a measure of internal consistency. It makes it possible to determine how well a given set of variables is measuring a single unidimensional latent construct. Values range from 0.0 (no consistency) to 1.0 (absolute consistency).
7. Percentage distribution of each social class in the AML: Entrepreneurs and Executives (7.8%); Professionals and Managers (18.6%); Self-employed (7.1%); Routine Employees (44.1%); Industrial Workers (22.3%) (source: Localways survey 2014).
8. Index constructed from variables that measured how often people went to the following consumer-related locations: (i) hypermarkets; grocer's shops and mini- or supermarkets; (ii) cinemas, theatres, concerts and exhibitions; (iii) bars, discotheques, and dining (i.e. in the evening) out.
9. The correlation between education and the composite indicator of collective action practices is 0.246 (Cramer's V); that between social class and collective action practices is 0.168 (Cramer's V). Both correlations are statistically significant.
10. Omnibus Tests of Model Coefficients p < 0.001. The model correctly classifies 82.5% of the respondents and there are no multicollinearity problems with the variables (VIF <5 and Tolerance >0.2).