16/01/1951 - 24/05/2021

Fernando Ruivo, who passed away unexpectedly on May 25th 2021, will remain forever in the memory of all those who were close to him, for his human and intellectual qualities.

From an early age on, he revealed a restless and non-conformist spirit, following, at a distance, the cultural and intellectual movements that fostered May 68, cultivating an irreverent thinking that, later on, as a teacher, led him to stimulate the critical sense of students, leading them to question their own opinions and to seek heterodox rationalities for social phenomena. Be it in classes or in the convivial spaces that he held so dear, he was an outstanding reference for many, both as an intellectual and as a pedagogue.

CES has lost one of its founders and a researcher strongly committed to developing studies in less explored areas, particularly on the borderline of sociology with law and political science. His studies on local power and the localisation of public policies, combining theoretical sophistication with methodological diversity, systematic observation with international comparison, decisively influenced what is currently done in this field in Portugal.

A friend of his friend, Fernando Ruivo was a born conversationalist, a keen and sometimes caustic observer, fraternising with life in all its good aspects. As a special person who truly marked us, he will always have a place in our hearts.
Fernando Ruivo, sociologist, was a founding member of CES and of the journal Revista Crítica de Ciências Sociais and Professor at the Faculty of Economics of the University of Coimbra

With a PhD in Sociology of State, Law and Administration, he played a fundamental role at CES in the development of a critical and interdisciplinary thinking on the State and political systems, and in particular on local power. He was coordinator of the Master's Degree Programme "Local Policies and Decentralisation" and the Doctoral Programme "Democracy in the 21st Century" and is the author of a number of important works on Local Authorities and the Localisation of Public Policies. Among his most relevant works, stand out the essential Um Estado labiríntico: o poder relacional nas relações entre poderes central e local em Portugal (2000. Porto: Afrontamento) and the more recent Os Imigrantes e o Acesso Formal aos Espaços Políticos Locais (2012. Coimbra: Almedina).