ABSTRACT

This chapter examines how the Portuguese student movement helped create an arena of participation and experimentation in social relations and forms of organization which stood in clear contrast to the New State's vision of Portuguese civil society. They contributed to the development of some of the forms of organization and participation that distinguished the revolutionary period which followed the fall of the regime after the coup. The chapter discusses the protest, a direct forerunner of one of the first and broadest movements of the revolutionary period, the house occupations movement. It shows that the influence of social movements—in this specific case creating a series of fundamental conditions for the period of exceptional popular political and social participation known as the Processo Revolucionario em Curso. The chapter suggests that analysis could contribute to a new understanding of the concept of opportunity structure itself, involving a more dynamic interpretation that emphasizes the active role of social movements in influencing the political process.