Abstract: [ES]Esta investigación doctoral se organizó como un estudio comparativo entre Españay Portugal. El método comparativo, mientras sea un instrumento fundamental a la explicación sociológica, sobre las estrategias legales de la gobernación local en el ámbito social, permitiría, en el sentido weberiano, comprender el conjunto de las posibles causas, los patrones fijos y las trayectorias específicas entre los casos observados. Por lo tanto, el razonamiento comparativo se apoyó en una estrategia de metodología de investigación cualitativa, de análisis del discurso oficial y de naturaleza etnográfica
Abstract: [EN]Today, a new paradigm of governance is on the agenda that is more local, more collective, morenegotiated, and more integrated. In addition to issues related to the adoption of more horizontalinstitutional architectures, this paradigm incorporates the idea that key actors in public affairs shouldparticipate in ways that allow various dimensions of contemporary social problems to be addressedefficiently, in a manner that takes account of the local context and in an integrated fashion. Given theinterrelationship between social protection and local development, this new paradigm inevitably implies anew paradigm of socio-political intervention which foregrounds, both theoretically and empirically, theimportance of intersectoral intervention, foreknowledge of the context, the recontextualisation of officialdiscourse, and the promotion both in words and deeds of reflexive processes able to both generatelearning experiences and create room for manoeuvre for local actors in line with local conditions andneeds.The theoretical contributions of Beck (2000), Giddens (1997, 2001), Fukuyama (2006) andCastells (2007), among others, have provided the foundational elements of this new paradigm, and havesuggested that new mechanisms of collective action such as networks, partnerships and other forms ofassociative practices will constitute the most promising ways forward.In this thesis, in order to examine local collective governance practices in the social field, thework and perceptions of the teams operationally responsible within the corresponding organisationalstructures for the application of social protection policies, were comparatively analysed in twoadministrative territories: the Comarca de Sayago (in the Northwest Interior of Spain) and the Concelho ofMacedo de Cavaleiros (in the Northeast Interior of Portugal). In each, local collective governancestrategies are structured by forms of State and models of decentralisation that are quite distinct. Themainly qualitative approach adopted in the analysis embodied a concern with the need to gain a betterunderstanding of the philosophy and the procedural characteristics and processes that underpin theproduction of official discourse, along with the mechanisms by which local governance process arerecontextualised and reproduced in the social field.The fulcral point of the comparison could be readily observed in the socio-institutional contextsobserved in the field research: local governance models in the field of social protection are determined bythe State's form of institutional organisation and by the way in which it organises and distributesresponsibilities for policy implementation which, in turn, promote and/or constrain the relationships thatare established and operationalised between key actors in relation to local collective initiatives.In the two territories analysed, the factors that served to strengthen or weaken such practices wereidentified and on this basis, a model (or possibly, several alterative models) of governance in the socialfield were sketched out, in which collective action and democratic participation can combine tointegratively support local development and the combating of poverty. Clearly, if the identification ofweaknesses in the structures and forms of intervention is to assist in the attainment of participatory,developmental and anti-poverty objectives at the local level, it will be crucial to take into account thediversity of government practices and socio-institutional contexts when applying this model more widelyto other territorie
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