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Nas últimas décadas, o sistema de ensino superior em Portugal tem passado por profundas mudanças, as quais se prendem em larga medida com a democratização do acesso à Universidade. Com a rápida expansão e a crescente força do mercado, o ensino superior revelou novas contradições e debate-se com novos desafios. Apoiando--nos num inquérito aplicado aos estudantes da Universidade de Coimbra procuramos analisar e questionar as mudanças em curso no plano das expectativas e representações estudantis e discutir as suas repercussões na redefinição da missão da Universidade.

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*This text centers on the demonstrations and protest movements that have emerged over the past three years, with a particular focus on Portugal and Brazil. The main argument is based on the hypothesis that they involve social dynamics and tensions that reflect a middle class drive in which youth and precarious employment play a key role. It presents data and empirical evidence on inequality in Portugal in order to reveal the nature of the main movements as protests mobilized against the suppression of rights and the undermining of working conditions. The situation in Brazil is examined in the light of the recomposition of working class conditions, taking into account the constraints and uncertainties of the Brazilian model of development. It also analyzes the social composition of the protesters, on the basis of street surveys carried out during this period.

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The present text focuses on the concept of middle class and its sociopolitical implications. Inasmuch as this is a topic that has been fuelling successive arguments in the academic field for some two hundred years, the author’s approach seeks to “deconstruct” some of the commonplaces that have involved this category over the years — particularly the connotation with political apathy, individualism and uncritical adherence to the “bourgeois” status quo. He takes examples from the recent cycle of social rebellions generated by the economic crisis and austerity policies — especially the protests that took place in Southern Europe and Brazil — to explore the hypothesis that the potential radicalism and transforming force of these movements are due not to a sense of “vanguardism” or “proletarian” identity, but rather to a “middle class initiative” derived precisely from the values and lifestyles incorporated — but not consolidated — by these segments. To put it another way, the discontent of the middle class (both the sectors that are moving upwards and those that are in decline) is a result of expectations, ambitions and desires to climb the social ladder, which the current economic system and governing class “promised”, but were unable to fulfil, with the middle class now threatened with impoverishment instead. The possible resurgence of conflict, be it either progressive or nationalist and conservative in nature, will certainly entail a prominent role on the part of these categories, marked as they are by instability, job precarity and the social model they once dreamed of.