L. Gomes

Time, Science and the Critique of Technological Reason: Essays in Honour of Hermínio Martins

This festschrift commemorates the legacy of UK-based Portuguese sociologist Herminio Martins (1934-2015). It introduces Martins’ wide-ranging contributions to the social sciences, encompassing seminal works in the fields of philosophy and social theory, historical and political sociology, studies of science and technology, and Luso-Brazilian studies, among others. The book features an in-depth interview with Martins, short memoirs, and twelve chapters addressing topics that were central to his intellectual and political interests. Among those that stand out are his critique of Thomas Kuhn’s theory of scientific revolutions, his work on the significance of time in social theory and the interweaving of techno-scientific developments and socio-cultural transformations, including the impact of communication and digital technologies, and of market-led eugenics. Other themes covered are Martins’ work on patrimonialism and social development in Portugal and Brazil, and his analysis of the state of the social sciences in Portugal, which reflects his highly critical appraisal of the ongoing marketization andneoliberalization of academic life and institutions worldwide.

Cultural Identity of the Non-Spain: A Case Study of the Cultural Policies of the Portuguese Estado Novo (‘New State’)

This chapter explores the critical reception of Vasco Mouzinho de Quevedo Castelo Branco’s poetic work in a Portuguese patrimonial context, examined against a patriotic reading of Luis de Camoes. The Estado Novo (New State) dictatorship regime’s cultural policies sought to affirm a clear sense of a Lusitan nation (and, importantly, race), reaching its zenith in the Exposicao do Mundo Portugues (Portuguese World Exhibition) of 1940. This affirmation rests largely on a historical discourse of Portugal as insistently distinct from Spain (a ‘non-Spain’), with an emphasis on the regime’s ahistorical interpretation of the 1640 Restoration from the Iberian Dual Monarchy (1580–1640). Quevedo’s work is both vilified and exalted by the regime’s critical reception of his choice of subject, language and style. Ultimately, the promotion of an ideological propaganda impacted on the merit of the poet, who was judged by questions of patriotism, rather than by literary critical appreciation.