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This article aims to explain the effects of the recent economic and financial crisis on housing conditions and the ability of Portuguese families to access housing. It also intends to discuss how the crisis is reconfiguring the housing patterns, in terms of access to housing and changes in public policies, questioning the predominant mode of access to housing based on homeownership. This article also discusses the role of social housing in the Portuguese housing system and the changes and challenges in this sector coming from the economic and financial constraints of families and the state. This article is structured in three parts. The first is an overview of the Portuguese housing system and social housing in particular, highlighting the conditions and reasons that led to a reduced social housing stock and to the predominance of homeownership. The second part discusses the impact of the crisis on families and the state, trying to demonstrate how the constraints on both are translated into (1) worsening housing conditions, (2) a diversification of groups struggling to access housing in the private market and (3) a reduction of affordable housing, pressing the social housing sector. Finally, the third part is a reflection on the changes that the crisis has had in the orientation of housing policies and their instruments, arguing that the patterns of the Portuguese housing system are changing with emphasis on the need to diversify the housing supply to increasingly diverse groups in housing need. info:eu-repo/semantics/publishedVersion

The chapter presents typologies of peri-urban areas of Lisbon Metropolitan Area (LMA) regarding social and economic dimensions. These typol- ogies are the outcome of a trans-disciplinary research developed by the project PERI-URBAN involving different Portuguese universities, crossing academic fields and integrating the knowledge of stakeholders from diverse institutional and territo- rial (local and regional) backgrounds. By bridging science and society, trans- disciplinarity allows the translation of knowledge acquired in research into useful and relevant information for planners and decision-makers. The analysis reveals diverse socioeconomic realities demanding different and specific political approaches envisaging sustainable peri-urban territories in a changing world. The socioeconomy of peri-urban areas considers identities and lifestyle issues (e.g., age, family patterns, living and working conditions) and economic characteristics (e.g., main economic activities, economic organisation and structuring, attractiveness). The influence of a metropolitan area is expressed by continuing investments in peripheral areas that offer sources of labour and natural resources such as land. The presence of industries, services, logistics and distribution platforms, enterprises, housing, big store chains, etc., constitutes manifestations of this realm. Plus, and in parallel, the coexistence of a rural-agriculture matrix establishes a hybrid territory where distinct activities co-exist defining distinct degrees of specialisation/diversity of the economic tissue. info:eu-repo/semantics/publishedVersion