Acção colectiva, protesto e cidadania.

The article focuses on citizens' participation in political activities and the new concept of citizenship. It also presents an overview of the papers related to changes in political participation that appear in the October 2005 issue of the "Revista Crítica de Ciências Sociais." Some authors call new social movements as protest movements or democracy of manifestation. The social movements, the protests and the new possibilities to produce citizenship must be regarded as revelation of democratization of the societies. The protests and the claims are not pathological forms of shared politics, but expressive forms of accomplishment of citizenship in a democratic context. One of the papers focuses on neoliberal governance as another form of laissez faire capitalism. Another paper analyzes the new protest movements in France. It discusses the danger of the entrance of these movements into institutional party politics, which would affect the performance and activities of the political left in the country. Another paper examines the protest movements of secondary school students in Portugal since 1990.