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The provision of universal health care by the Portuguese NHS depends on the allocated government budget to health. Several reforms have been implemented over the last decades to improve access while ensuring the financial sustainability of the health care system. However, a practical and useable definition of public health sustainability is hard to find. We show that under two alternative definitions – both related to fiscal space and compliance with sound public finances – public health spending increase is limited. Our analysis indicates that public health spending growth levels below 3% can be financially sustainable.

Taking into account that financial sustainability is a function of economic growth and will depend on the level of control of other public spending, our forecast for long-run health spending growth is compatible with the financial sustainability targets defined.

This conceptual paper examines and evaluates patronage and clientage as a system of interrelated dyadic exchanges between unequals through which goods and services circulate, flowing both up and down through stratified societies. The parties involved may be in different places socially and geographically.

Data are presented for Brazil from the period of the Old Republic beginning in the 1890s, through the end of the Military Dictatorship in mid-1980s, and finally to the present, ending with today’s conditional cash transfer programs. The data are examined against the background of a 15th century book, O Livro da Virtuosa Bemfeituria (The Book of the Virtuous Benefits), written by a Portuguese Prince influential in the expansion and discoveries as a guide for princes and great lords that is used in the paper very much in the way that Adam Smith’s writings are used for most economic behavior today.

There are striking parallels over this long historical period in the behaviors referred to as patronage and clientage that may be conceptualized as an older (traditional) way of ordering the flow of goods and services (distributing them), alternative and parallel to market mechanisms that have, and continue to operate in Brazilian society.

Patronage and clientage are often-misunderstood behaviors, sometimes referred to as corrupt, that alternatively may be explained and understood as part of a still viable and operational socio-cultural system that goes back to a period before the colonization of Brazil.

The work of Henri Lefebvre Rhythmanalysis, Space, Time and Everyday Life (2004) is generally known as the original proposer of rhythmanalysis, inspired by the last chapter of Gaston Bachelard's book La dialectique de la durée (1963), entitled ‘Rhythmanalysis’. Nevertheless, it was the Portuguese philosopher Lúcio Pinheiro dos Santos who developed the notion of rhythmanalysis. In this chapter I address this episode of the genealogy of rhythmanalysis aiming to contribute to a broader understanding of its context of origin. I also present fragments of a rhythmanalysis exercise developed in Caminito, Buenos Aires, as part of my research in the field of art studies. Following a pre-Platonic notion of rhythm (Benveniste, 1966), I draw on those fragments as much as on the reflexive confrontation of rhythmanalysis with feminist and ch'ixi epistemologies (e.g., Haraway, 1988; Rivera, 2018) in order to propose what I come to call rhuthmanalysis.

We present a critical literature review debating Brazilian research on social and environmental accounting (SEA). The aim of this study is to understand the role of politics in the construction of hegemonies in SEA research in Brazil. In particular, we examine the role of hegemony in relation to the co-option of SEA literature and sustainability in the Brazilian context by the logic of development for economic growth in emerging economies. The methodological approach adopts a post-structural perspective that reflects Laclau and Mouffe’s discourse theory. The study employs a hermeneutical, rhetorical approach to understand and classify 352 Brazilian research articles on SEA. We employ Brown and Fraser’s (2006) categorizations of SEA literature to help in our analysis: the business case, the stakeholder–accountability approach, and the critical case. We argue that the business case is prominent in Brazilian studies. Second-stage analysis suggests that the major themes under discussion include measurement, consulting, and descriptive approach. We argue that these themes illustrate the degree of influence of the hegemonic politics relevant to emerging economics, as these themes predominantly concern economic growth and a capitalist context. This paper discusses trends and practices in the Brazilian literature on SEA and argues that the focus means that SEA avoids critical debates of the role of capitalist logics in an emerging economy concerning sustainability. We urge the Brazilian academy to understand the implications of its reifying agenda and engage, counter-hegemonically, in a social and political agenda beyond the hegemonic support of a particular set of capitalist interests.

This chapter examines the economics of alternative healing in Brazil.

Two narratives are selected from extensive observations and interviews over a period of years. The presentation chronicles the accounts of people experiencing physical symptoms who sought further advice from friends and relatives after visits to conventional medical providers failed to cure them.

In response to a recommendation from one of those consulted, one person went to a spirit “received” by a Kardecist/Spiritist healer-medium while the other obtained treatment from an otherworldly being at an Umbanda center. The respective “therapeutic” procedures are described and analyzed in terms of the beliefs and the worldviews of each of the traditions. If satisfied with the outcome, the patient fulfills an implicit bargain with the otherworldly being(s) and its religious group by adopting their beliefs and practices. This conversion is “payment” for the healing services rendered.

Since some treatments are successful and others are not, the implications of this exchange is that many Brazilians may change their religions several times during their lifespan. As a result of this behavior individuals circulate among the several religious groups that are always in competition with each other.

The analysis provides a distinctive insight into, and original way to understand, alternative health care in Brazil.

The second decade of the twenty-first century finds Brazil racked by a series of scandals that are extreme even by world standards. This chapter presents an explanation for one of the behaviors that have produced these scandals. Specifically, it is the offering of bribes to public officials by individuals or companies that stand to benefit from contracts to perform public services and, furthermore, the paying of kickbacks to the officials if the contract is awarded. I liken this behavior to the making of vows to the saints in the “popular” or “folk” form of Catholicism – and other popular religions that accept its basic premises – and the fulfillment of the promise if and when the otherworldly being provides what the petitioner requested. Part 1 of the chapter examines an election for mayor of the city of Fortaleza in 2012 in which the office was “bought” for what seemed to be an exorbitant amount of money. I hypothesize that this is to be explained by the anticipation of the city receiving government contracts to build a soccer stadium, a rail system, and other projects related to the 2014 World Cup. In Part 2, I examine Brazil’s religions beginning with popular Catholicism, to show that the normative way of gaining something desired from a supernatural – be it the restoration of health or the recovery of a lost item – is to offer it something it values and then fulfilling the promise if and when the petitioner receives what was requested. I contend that this important religious pattern continues to provide the template for the secular behavior that is being judged to be corrupt by standards other than those found in the religiously based worldview of many Brazilians.

Today’s young people were born and raised in a digitally dominated world, therefore they quickly and intuitively navigate the web, which brings them undeniable advantages in the search for health information, but at the same time posing some risks. The authors conducted a narrative review of Portuguese and international scientific publications using the MeSH terms [Health literacy], [digital], [young people], [education] and [social media]. Among the various solutions presented, and considering the ease and speed to which young people are accustomed to when accessing digital information, the paths to be taken towards safe and effective navigation are related to solutions that promote a greater health literacy (HL). To bet on the promotion of HL in the younger generations is to invest in the improvement of their health and well-being, considering the ACCESS Young people are more likely to search and have access to health information through the digital environment, therefore it is important to reach them by means of interactive and appealing online content (e.g. short videos); COMPREHENSION, it is essential to disseminate reliable information and to involve their close social networks, including parents/legal guardians, social workers, teachers, among other community members; USE ensuring a correct and responsible use of health resources requires involving young people in the process of creating HL programs since its early steps. Results show that the digital promotion of HL as a valuable tool to reach younger generations, who are avid consumers of social media and many other online platforms.

Creating memorable tourism experiences (MTE) is vital to obtain sustained tourism visits. In the digital era, infusions of various digital technologies in tourism services without admitting tourist emotions could jeopardize the experience. Drawing from a Service-Dominant Logic (S-DL) perspective, this study explains the complexity of digital tourism experience in the service system view, highlighting the importance of emotions as resources. It is composed of actors' orchestrations, connected by shared emotions, and enabled by sensory stimuli facilitated by the digital tourism ecosystem throughout the tourism journey. This study proposes a Memorable Digital Tourism Experience (MDTE) framework by identifying the focal actors, recognizing the emotions, and determining the moderating role of sensory stimuli enabled by various novel technologies. At last, several agenda and practical guidelines are proposed on how to operationalize the framework and different methodologies to explore Memorable Digital Tourism Experience.