Sociability and collective action in a working-class neighbourhood: the social representations of Alcântara in the early twentieth century

In the second half of the nineteenth century, the peripheral area of Alcântara became one of Portugal's most important industrial centres. The development of its economic activity was accompanied by a massive growth in the population. As it became urbanised and industrialised, the representations of the neighbourhood also changed. In a few decades, Alcântara ceased to be associated with the image of a remote suburb, a place that had no clearly defined boundaries or a space defined solely in terms of its industrial function. In this article, Alcântara neighbourhood is a case study that helps us understand how collective practices shape new representations of the city and urban life. The purpose of this article is to analyse the specific role of the Sociedade Promotora de Educação Popular in the transformation of the representations associated with the Alcântara neighbourhood in the early twentieth century. During this period, this association contributed to shape different levels of “collective representations” of Alcântara. It also contributed to the formation of an authentic style of urban life at the scale of the neighbourhood, drawing attention to people that represented the local community and speaking on their behalf.

This article aims at analysing how sociability and community life in the city shape social representations of urban spaces. I explore this issue considering social representations of Alcântara, a Lisbon neighbourhood, in the early twentieth century. At that time, this territory was connected to three interweaved processes that affected images and representations on it: its industrialization, urbanization and republicanisation 1 . However, I argue that transformation of images associated with Alcântara was not merely the result of functional, morphological or sociological developments. The spread of new forms of social interactions and sociabilityboth formal and informalplayed a significant and proactive part in this process in which the truly urban nature of the Alcântara neighbourhood was recognised.
Alcântara case study helps situate Lisbon via the global process of the industrialization of big European cities (Hohenberg and Lees, 1995). In the second half of the nineteenth century, Alcântara was a space clearly organized around industrial production. At that time, the peripheral area of Alcântara became one of Portugal's most important industrial centres, with some of the country's biggest textile, mechanic or chemical companies and factories. The development of its economic activity was accompanied by a massive growth in the population, particularly in the late nineteenth and early twentieth centuries when it went from 8 000 residents in 1864, to 20 000 in 1900, and over 30 000 in 1930 (Vidal, 2006). The image of Alcântara was then one of an industrial space, outside the city, where the workers of the textile or metallurgical factories piled up.
Until the late nineteenth centuries, Lisbon press used to describe Alcântara as a working-class suburb that formed itself at the margin of the city and urban society. The social evolution of this neighbourhood and its cultural transformation are then reminiscent of that of countless workingclass suburbs of the great European cities (Merriman, 1991;Faure, 2006). As it became more urbanised and integrated to the city frame, descriptions and social perceptions of this neighbourhood also changed. At the beginning of the twentieth century, Alcântara was still predominantly inhabited by a working-class population, but it was no longer perceived as a working space in the sense that this kind of space was described for example by Michel Verret (1995. p. 119): "a specific urban matrix" but which rarely integrated "the values of the classic urbanity". The image of Alcântara was shaped by references linked to industrialized production or even to a working class culture or a more specifically working class lifestyle, but without being clearly associated with a feeling of belonging to a working class. During the first half of the twentieth century, this social space became more diversified and the identity of Alcântara became more complex and integrated the presence of a more composite population in the everyday life of the neighborhood. In a few decades, Alcântara ceased to be associated with the image of a remote suburb, a place that had no clearly defined boundaries or a space defined solely in terms of its industrial function. Little by little, Alcântara became a traditional urban place, seen as an integral part of the city. Alcântara was finally recognised as a part of Lisbon imaginary, one that aspired to integration into the dominant social and cultural framework, which would contribute to the construction of the Lisbon identity.
To analyse the role of sociability in these transformations, I will focus specifically on the action of the Sociedade Promotora de Educação Popularor just Promotorathat was one of the most important voluntary associations of Lisbon, during the first half of the twentieth century. Promotora was soon playing an important role in the everyday life of Alcântara, transforming the neighbourhood's social space. It conducted a great variety of actions in the field of education, culture and social care. In its first years, Promotora occupied a floor in a building on Rua de Alcântara. From 1912, its imposing new headquarters on Largo do Calvário, in the heart of the neighbourhood, became the meeting point for all Republican sympathisers, but also a place for social get-togethers where cultural evenings, parties and other leisure activities were organised. Promotora contributed to the formation of an authentic style of urban life (Velho, 1995) at the scale of the neighbourhood, drawing attention to people that represented the local community and speaking on their behalf, notably in the Lisbon press. Promotora acted also as a mediator in local life and sought to defend the interests of a population that was gradually being recognised and described as one that was forming a community.
Social interactions of Promotora with the Alcântara neighbourhood occurred then through a process of local appropriation and elaboration of diverse cultural forms and references. In this article, I will analyse how these different practices and collective actions carried out specific cultural references that altogether contributed to the making of Alcântara identity. First of all, I will explore the relation between the effort to educate the people of Alcântara and the image of the republican bastion. I will then analyse how the neighbourhood community was celebrated thank to the cultural and leisure activities. Lastly, I will discuss how the connections between Alcântara and a working-class past lays in the valorisation of a heritage linked to an industrial tradition that gained legitimacy and strengthened the identity of the neighbourhood community.

The republican bastion: educating the people of Alcântara
Portuguese Republicanism was defined politically and socially as an urban movement. It aimed at transforming the form of government, removing the monarchy, but it was also the political expression of a "cultural revolution" under the guidance of Neo-Enlightenment (Catroga, 2010).
Lisbon provided the Republicans with their most stable social base through a diversified network of newspapers, local associations and clubs (Alves, 2002;Catroga, 1991). The Republican Movement was a particularly active agent on this front as it was the instigator of political actions in Lisbon's neighbourhoods and developed an associative movement that was in direct contact with the residents of the city; in other words, it occupied the public space five of these were in Alcântara, including the one with the most students: the Sociedade Promotora de Educação Popular (O Século, 1910).
The political context at the start of the twentieth century undoubtedly contributed to the rapid recognition of Promotara's influence. Following the end of the Monarchy, the influence of the Republican Movement gradually won over most of the districts in Lisbon. Nevertheless, even in a city that was in the grips of Republicanism, Alcântara was often cited as an exemplary neighbourhood due to its fervour and commitment to the cause. The electoral records from the start of the twentieth century illustrate the rapid progress made by the Republican Party in this working class neighbourhood. In the general elections, the Republicans obtained nearly 40 per cent of the votes in Alcântara in 1905, 61 per cent in 1908, and 76 per cent in 1910 (Almeida, 1985). At a time that was generally favourable to the Republicans, their results in Alcântara were well above the Lisbon average although they did not register the extraordinary landslides of the Socorro and São Cristóvão neighbourhoods. Nevertheless, Promotora's sights were not set on political action and much less on electoral battles. The founders of Promotara had far more ambitious objectives and the principal field of action was education. Its primary mission was to instruct and educate the "people of Alcântara", an expression that was used time and again in the minutes of the General Assembly and in the pages of the association newspaper, A Educação Popular. According to the by-laws approved at the General Assembly of October 12 th 1904, the goals of this institution were "the physical, intellectual, moral and civic education of all classes in general" (Sociedade Promotora de Educação Popular, 1904). The implementation of this programme included widely diversified and more or less formalised initiatives. In addition to education and training courses, there was also the decision to create a reading lounge, to offer conferences on the most varied subjects in the fields of sciences and arts, and to organise industrial fairs, trade shows or artistic performances. The new by-laws, updated in 1921, further specified the goals of this association, while placing greater focus on school activities: the aim was no longer merely to educate but, above all, to teach. Thus, Article 3 established that Promotora would undertake to "defend popular instruction and education through primary teaching, lessons, lectures, presentations, reading lounges, educational exhibits" (Sociedade Promotora de Educação Popular, 1921).
Article 5 clearly stated the political philosophy framing the association's activities: "Sociedade Promotora de Educação Popular refrains from any partisan politics. However, it was founded by the Republicans of Alcântara, and, therefore, it was their principles that it sought to defend, through education and instruction" (Sociedade Promotora de Educação Popular, 1921). The aim was to transform minds and unify consciences through education, thus ensuring the dissemination of republican ideas, following the traditional pattern in European reform movements 2 .
The primary goals of Promotora, constantly reaffirmed in the discourse of its directors or in the articles of the Educação Popular newspaper, also needed to meet the immediate needs of the population. The general context of education in Portugal at that time largely explains this position. In 1899, 82.9 per cent of schools in Lisbon were private. The consequences of the gaps in the Portuguese education system were twofold: high illiteracy rates, which were hard and slow to decrease, and the emergence of an alternative network of associations that tried to overcome the State's powerlessness (Ramos, 1988 According to the national census, while distinguishing individuals able to read and those who were illiterateunable to read or writethe average educational level of Alcântara's population was poor but, during the first half of the twentieth century, it improved more rapidly than in the other parts of the city (Table 1). Was this the result of an action by Promotora? It is difficult to say, as it can be complex to assess changes in the level of literacy of a population based on surveys that established their own criteria. However, Promotora seems particularly well suited to the conditions and lifestyles of a working-class population. It understood, in particular, that education should be a part of life. Men and womenbut in fact more men than womencould continue to improve their literacy and knowledge as adults. Thus, Promotora's schools quickly strengthened social ties across the neighbourhood.

The traditional neighbourhood: the pleasure of being together
In Lisbon, associations and clubs had a significant role in the construction and the permanence of an original urban identity, based on the valorisation of the small communities of the old neighbourhoods. This recurrence of traditional visions of the city was rooted on the particularity of urban places which history and cultural traditions were folklorized and performed during traditional festivities (Cordeiro, 1997). In Alcântara, the political context of the First Republic gave another perspective on the diversity of this urban identity making. It was the Republican press that best reported the transformation of Alcântara images, valorising local proximities and neighbourhood relationships.
Promotora project stemmed from a national, even universal vision, which was ill-adjusted to local specificities, or that, at least, was not prepared to take them into account. The Republican Movement helped make Alcântara a recognised urban space. But, from the republican point of view, this space mostly existed as part of a collective and national project. According to the Republicans, Alcântara was first and foremost a community of Portuguese citizens. This "bastion of Republicanism" had to share the same symbols and memories as the surrounding communities. In other words, the exclusive link between Promotora and the Alcântara residents was not a given or an obvious fact. Its geographic and even physical presencethe imposing headquarters overlooking the main square of Alcântarawere not enough to ensure the association an 'a priori' positive relationship with its immediate surroundings. It should be noted that neither the name of the Sociedade Promotora de Educação Popular, nor the goals established in its by-laws make any explicit reference to the quarter or the borough [freguesia].
According to its by-laws, the association was open to all, without any requirement of residence it was not exclusive to the people of Alcântara.
However, a curious lexical contrast between the first and second version of the by-laws corroborates the strengthening of the links between Promotora and Alcântara during the first two decades of the twentieth century. In 1904, Article 1 reads as follows: "An association First of all, it's necessary to stress that Promotora community actually corresponded to that of the neighbourhood. In other words, the different schools of Promotora were primarily attended by people actually residing in Alcântara (Vidal, 2006). There was no exponential growth in the number of Promotora's members or students. Promotora never reached the size of A Voz do Operário, an older school association in Lisbon that, at this same time, had extended its influence in all the eastern part of the city and beyond. Thus, during the first half of the twentieth century, Promotora was undoubtedly a place where ties were created between individuals who, besides being members of the same association, shared the same residential space. The fact that Promotora's action remained at a small scale, circumscribed to a fairly large urban space but never that of the city, undoubtedly contributed to deepen these ties, at least symbolically, between the association and its neighbourhood. But specific forms of interaction were also implemented during the first decades of the twentieth century. These ties were knotted at school events but also during holidays and leisure time, which took on an increasingly important role in the life of the association.
In these circumstances, Promotara and Alcântara communities were intermingled. For example, Promotora managed to give some impact to its efforts towards the literacy of the Alcântara population. During the first years of its existence, Promotora regularly published, in periodicals or in its own newspaper, the names and grades of its studentschildren, women and adultswho had passed the tests, thus certifying the completion of a course. Each year, in October, on the occasion of the anniversary of the association, merit prizes were awarded to the most talented young students. All these small events received praise in the Republican press 4 . The newspaper A Vanguarda, whose director, Magalhães Lima, was the honorary president of The way in which the residents of Alcântara received this ideological and symbolic corpus was probably very varied and inconstant. Politicisation at the local level is a complex process that combines different levels of interpretations and exchanges between the customs, traditions and cultural references in these communities (Hastings, 1991). In the case of Promotora, as so often with this type of association, it is difficult to distinguish the political or militant activities (even education) from the social practices that were more geared to leisure and entertainment. During the Republican period, Promotora helped implement a neighbourhood lifestyle into everyday life, peppered with parties, dances, musical evenings, theatre, New Year and Carnival celebrations, sporting events with Promotora football club and, from 1915, the first sessions of cinema productions. All these initiatives increased in number after 1912. The spacious headquarters in Largo de Calvário provided new opportunities and, above all, could be used to raise money. In fact, the justification given for these activitiesat least in the early yearswas to raise money for the association and to help its more needy members buy books, for example, or to set up a school canteen. But these activities contributed also to promote Alcântara beyond the boundary of the neighbourhood. At the end of the 1910s, the performances of the amateur theatre company made Promotora famous with shows that were comprised of comic turns, poetry recitals and fado sessions. From the 1920s, the cinema sessions became increasingly successful and attracted residents from other neighbourhoods of the city. This was in turn the source of some problems and disturbances: the "dubious" audience of sessions attended by too many "foreigners" raised some concerns among the association's directors (Minutes of the General Assembly, 25 February 1921, ASPEP).
On these occasions, breaking away from the ideological framework corresponded to a change in the way the association worked. The normally all-powerful board of directors was no longer in total control of the activities. Initiatives by individuals or small groups enjoyed unexpected success. This change in the association's everyday life and momentary abandoning of explicit ideological references did not mean the social life in Promotora was impoverished or had lost significance. The sociologist Michel Verret gave a perfect description of the kind of workingclass sociability that must have been found in Promotora: "The working class style in the association is none other than the own style of the working class culture. Controllable levels of camaraderie: "small collectives", having a "small glass of something", a "party", or a "something to eat". Little formality: working on the basis of "goodwill". Minimal hierarchies: few bosses. Or otherwise, so many that nobody can give anyone orders: two presidents, seven vice-presidents and lastly an honorary president. Collectivity based on "affiliation" more than on "compliance" and on "expression" more than on "pressure", where people go to "see each other" rather than "to be seen", and not because of the lessons being given or the complex exercises but more because of the simple pleasure of being together" (Verret, 1996, p. 192, our translation). If we are to understand the everyday life of this association and its connection with the life of Alcântara residents in all its complexity, we must take into account the ordinary invention of new practices and symbolic orders.

The working-class area: representing the community
Promotora's action was all the more effective as it was also part of the history of an urban space, marked by industrial tradition. The connections between Alcântara and a working-class tradition laid then in more formalised actions in which Promotora assumed a proactive approach to defend local interests and the specificity of the community history. In fact, Promotora has quickly acquired a role as representative of the neighbourhood's residents. Since the early years of the Republic (1910Republic ( -1926, it has held a significant role in the relationships among the city's different levels of government. Promotora's closest partner was not the city council, but the Alcântara borough assembly (Junta de Freguesia) 5 . This assembly contributed to the life of the association by distributing books for schools or providing clothing for children.
Likewise, both institutions were often side by side in the events that punctuated the life of the neighbourhood, namely when interests and wellbeing of the local community were threatened by external authorities or power. For example, in January 1911, the Junta organised a demonstration against the city's plans to build a barracks for the Guarda Republicana on the Necessidades Park, one of the few recreational areas of Alcântara. On this occasion, the assembly received the support of Promotora, which called all residents of the neighbourhood out to the street to protest 6 . But the most prominent joint action at the time was probably the creation of the Alcântara School Canteen in July 1909 with the purpose to provide workingclass children attending local schools with meals at low prices, but also with clothes and books, as well as free medical care. This canteen was largely funded with donations from commercial and industrial establishments in the neighbourhood.
Around   Século, 26 May 1914). But the classification of exhibitors also reflected the image of Alcântara in that summer of 1914. The organising committee had planned to group exhibitors into twenty classes, corresponding to groups of consumer goods. Emphasis was, therefore, more on finished products than on techniques: more on the screws than on threading techniques, more on the different grades of olive oil than on refining methods. Alcântara was presented as an area of diversified production at the service of Lisbon and not actually as a specialised industrial centre. It was the Alcântara contribution to the urban economy that should have been highlighted.

Conclusions
This article aimed at analyzing the role of the Sociedade Promotora de Educação Popular in a process of identity transformation that affected Alcântara at the early twentieth century. To conclude, we can stress the originality of Alcântara case study from the point of view of the social and cultural history of Lisbon. At the turn of the twentieth century, Republican press described Alcântara as a model territory in which political progress and strategies for social policy were highly the most successful. However, the past of this outlying territory, highly connected to the industrialised process, could yet be perceived as an impediment to its fully integration into the urban fabric. During the first decade of the twentieth century, Promotora managed to achieve a significance influence because this voluntary association promoted a large and diversify range of actions, formal and informal, that exceeded its primary goal: the education of the people of Alcântara. This study aimed then at connecting the Promotora actions to the everyday life of the neighbourhood. During this period, Alcântara inhabitants could frequent Promotora to improve their education level but also, and mainly, to share leisure and social times. The action of this voluntary association was clearly connected to Alcântara images, namely in the Lisbon press. But this study showed also how Promotora has contributed to shape different levels of collective representations of Alcântara: the cultural and intellectual configurations of these representations, the ways in which identity discourses were exhibited, as well as the more institutionalised representations of the resident community (Chartier, 1989).
Therefore, this case study helps to better understand how urban representations are produced and transformed by collective practices.