This paper aims to be an example of the critical-public sociology that is produced at CES - Centre for Social Studies of the University of Coimbra. Focusing one specific research area (sociology of work and trade unionism), the critical perspective is assumed, both in theoretical and reflective terms, as well as political praxis of the social scientist. Considering this framework, the current crisis is taken as the starting point to discuss the portuguese case on the labour issue, stressing some structural lines of the country as a European semi-periphery and showing that some of its current problems have ancient roots.
public sociology; crisis; labour; trade unionism; Portugal