European integration, crisis, globalization, and socioeconomic dynamics in Portugal

Abstract

Portugal has much changed in recent decades. Understanding the recent socioeconomic transformations implies addressing the process of European integration from the outset. At the same time, the world has become increasingly complex. Changes (technological in nature), interdependencies and connectivity (globalization), demographic growth, and climate change and the loss of biodiversity (new challenges) occur in ever shorter and faster cycles, with profound and inequitable implications for individuals, institutions, and models of governance on a variety of scales, from the local to the global. An important issue to be examined is how a small country such as Portugal displays its capacity for adaptation in a world that is strongly dependent and interconnected.