A paz, o pão e 50 anos de (sem) habitação

Abstract

This research, in collaboration with Movimento Porta a Porta, seeks a critical perspective on how communications and images produced in housing rights demonstrations can prove the transgenerationality of the Portuguese housing cause, between 1974 and 2024. Over these fifty years, Portugal has faced various housing crises. Or is it perhaps just one long, continuous crisis? Despite the progress made over the past five decades, there may be evidence that the housing issue is transgenerational and, as such, has structural roots, making it difficult to resolve. Through a visual ethnographic analysis and activist observation of images and communications produced during protests from 1974 to 1977 and 2019 to 2024, the research seeks to identify the persistence of discourses, symbols, and visual elements, understanding how graphic design and visual communication have been used as tools for social mobilization and political pressure to guarantee the right to housing. The comparative examination of the images clearly demonstrates the persistence of housing-related demands that, over the years, have not been adequately addressed. This finding is even more revealing when considering that the right to adequate housing has been explicitly guaranteed in Article 65 of the Portuguese Constitution since 1976 and, more recently, in 2015, became part of the United Nations' Sustainable Development Goals. By making the struggle for housing visible over the years, this investigation not only confirms the proposed hypothesis but also demonstrates its potential to drive social impact, contributing to the dialogue and strengthening of social justice and movements, equality, and the well-being of the population.