Henrique Almeida de Castro is a postdoctoral researcher associated with the Department of History and Sociology and the Zukunftskolleg since May 2024. Previously, he studied law and political economy at the University of São Paulo (B.A., 2016; Ph.D., 2022) and was a postdoctoral researcher at the FGV São Paulo Law School. During his doctoral studies, he was a visiting fellow at the Harvard Kennedy School’s Ash Center for Democratic Governance and Innovation. His main research interests revolve around State-society relations, including participatory democracy, corporatism, and the co-production of enforcement. He is also interested in conceptual issues surrounding institutional theory.
Henrique’s book project, Keeping a Seat at the Table: Unions and Policymaking Rules in New Democracies, investigates whether and how labor unions have mobilized to remain included in policy formulation bodies in recently transitioned democracies. It argues that democratic transitions provide windows of opportunity for civil society actors who desire participation in policymaking but fear future exclusion to push for new legal rules they can later activate to protect and institutionalize their positions. The book includes comparative historical analyses of South Africa, Brazil, South Korea, and Slovenia cases.
During his stay in Konstanz, Henrique will conduct the original research project Curbing Labor Violations in Hard-to-Reach Places: Brazilian Rural Unions’ Strategic Repertoires. Brazil’s secluded rural workplaces present an extreme case of enforcement difficulty due to limited access and information for authorities, and it is known that their successes have depended on the cooperation of local rural unions. Yet, we understand little about these unions, including the conditions they face, the strategies available to them, and why they may behave in specific ways and not others. The research will draw on fieldwork and interviews to conceptualize and explain unions’ repertoires of organizational tactics in such hard-to-reach places.
Selected publications
Castro, Henrique A. “Institutions Are Not Rules: Realigning the Ontology Behind Theories of Change.” Political Studies, OnlineFirst (2023).
Castro, Henrique A. “The Legal Construction of Power in Deliberative Governance.” Law & Social Inquiry 45, no. 3 (2020): 728–54.
Coutinho, Diogo R., Beatriz Kira, Marília Rolemberg Lessa, and Henrique A. Castro. “Participatory Democracy and Law-Making in Contemporary Brazil.” Theory and Practice of Legislation 5, no. 3 (2017): 225–43.”