Gegenworte 15 (2005)

Albert Einstein is everywhere – at least in Germany, which has proclaimed 2005 as the year of physics, and where the 100th anniversary of the "annus mirabilis", the year in which Einstein developed his theory of relativity, is celebrated excessively.

Gegenworte, the journal of the Berlin-Brandenburg Academy of Sciences, takes up this "Einsteinitis" and devotes its spring issue to the "eventization" of science and the humanities. In the lead article, Austrian philosopher of science Ulrike Felt investigates this yearning for great men and impressive events. She finds that a new culture has developed in science. Calls have been made for the sciences to be more participatory, and to take a more appropriate place in society.

Jürgen Trabant, Professor of Romance philology at the Free University of Berlin, draws attention to the fact that one of the tragic moments in intellectual history is connected to the person of Einstein: the passage of "mind" from one country to another – in this case, because of the expulsion of Jewish scientists from Nazi Germany. This leads him to consider the conditions a country should offer its scientists in order to keep them.

For Germany, the events around Einstein could become an "occasion" and bring a turnaround in the problematic Jewish-German relationships, writes Gegenworte-editor Hazel Rosenstrauch. With the celebration mania, Einstein, who wanted never to set foot on German ground again after leaving in 1932, is being made into a public hero for the Germans. For German identity and the construction of an acceptable past, this is, ironically enough, so much for the better.

Finally, Dieter Simon thinks about how to adequately end the "Einstein year", and Claus Koch writes an obituary to the "over-celebrated" anti-hero.

This Gegenworte issue is due to come out Thursday, 16 June, and will be presented with a panel discussion the same day at 7:30 pm at the Berlin-Brandenburg Academy of Sciences, Berlin.

The full table of contents of Gegenworte 15 (2005).


Multitudes 21 (2005)

The French journal Multitudes describes itself as a publication for "the internet and globalization age, turning politics upside-down". In the new issue, the editors live up to this motto and present a packed thematic section on new technologies' impact on the political practices of both individuals and groups: "The subjectivation of the net: post-media, networks, sharing".

The hypothesis of Multitudes is that the new technologies – above all mobile phones and the internet – have radically changed the way we form ourselves and are formed by society, and has thus opened up new possibilities to bypass or even change the hegemonic media system established in the last century. Emmanuel Videcoq, Bernard Prince, and Matteo Pasquinelli all try to show that the collective actors of a post-media society once imagined by the philosopher Felix Guattari are taking shape. Thanks to "radical machines", it is now possible to bring resistance to the very centre of the "Techno Empire".

Hypermedia theorist Jean Louis Weissberg spells out the implications of this development. In the article, "The financial crisis of mass media. 'I experiment, therefore I believe'", he interprets new models for direct production of information, and emerging forms of experimental media, as symptoms of the corrosion of the pyramidal model of media power. Weblogs and politically realistic video games are on the point of undermining the legitimacy of traditional media and entertainment. However, writes Weissberg, this new media landscape is not without its dangers. The negative extreme, represented by conspiracy theories and historical revisionism, are just as much part of the picture as the positive effects of a more diverse representation of competing points of view.

Art critic Brian Holmes is also ambivalent. He reminds us of the fact that the internet was a military invention, and claims that it remains a control technology, overwhelmed and subverted by the constituent powers.

However, it is the more enthusiastic tone that dominates among Multitudes' contributors. "Syndicate yourselves!" urges sociologist and activist Olivier Blondeau. Thanks to the syndication of contents – for example via RSS feeds used by many weblogs – it is now possible to create a common space without giving up the autonomy and individual character of any of the persons, groups, or sites involved, writes Blondeau. Political activism on the internet until now has been hampered by the solitude of cyberspace and the accompanying split between the digital world and the street. With the means of syndication, this gap can finally be bridged. "Media", Blondeau concludes, is the perfect name for this phenomenon, situated as it is between the intimacy of the individual weblog and the "extimacy" of the street.

In a second thematic section, Multitudes brings out a previously unpublished article by Louis Althusser, in which the Marxist philosopher pursues his aim to break from the tradition of "dialectic materialism" and instead proposes a new approach: "matérialisme aléatoire" (aleatory materialism) or "a Marxism of encounter". Alongside Althusser's text – written in 1986, four years before he died – are several commentaries dealing with his later philosophy.

Finally, in a more direct encounter with aesthetics, dance historian and theorist Myriam van Imschoot traces the debate on the ontology of performance art and dance back to Jacques Derrida's Archive Fever, and tries to see what implications it has for the practical question of how to archive dance choreographies. Imschoot's article is accompanied by a collection of dance scores that illustrate how complex this art form is. In order not to petrify the gesture of dance, a choreographic archive, rather than reproducing the past, must be directed towards the future, towards new encounters between body and movement.

The full table of contents of Multitudes 21 (2005).


Reset 89 (2005)

Issue 89 of the Rome-based journal Reset focuses on how to hold a "dialogue of civilizations". American political philosopher Fred Dallmayr explains the current divide between Christian Europe and Islam as the result of a long history of limitations – both geographic and academic – on the "dialogue" between these two civilizations. Dallmayr calls for a new version of these dialogues of the past, conducted on a global scale and based on democracy, which would also enable non-academics to join in. This, he says, would be the key to preventing terrorism and war, rather than trying to remedy these things once they have begun.

On the transition from Pope John Paul II to Pope Benedict XVI, Reset offers an article by Joseph Ratzinger about his experiences as a young professor at the Vatican Council and in Rome. Further interviews and articles about both popes sketch a possible future for Catholicism in relation to other religions and growing secularism.

In a section on poverty and global genocide, Nadia Urbinati, political theorist at Columbia University, looks at the role of citizenship in the lives of migrants and refugees. She uses Seyla Benhabib's new book, The Rights of Others: Aliens, Residents and Citizens, as her basis in arguing that migration is not simply a matter of choice, but for many people a matter of survival. The lack of refugee status for those trying to escape poverty and starvation leads to problems of political integration in supposedly democratic countries.

Also look out for: Religious and political reform in Islamic countries – interpreting the Koran, changes in Iran since the fall of Khatami, and nuclear risks.

The full table of contents of Reset 89 (2005).


Revista Critica de Ciências Sociais 70 (2004)

The most recent edition of Revista Critica de Ciências Sociais employs a wide lens that takes in Portuguese, European, and global perspectives in the social sciences.

Science and medicine has been at the centre of the Portuguese national debate of late: social and economic effectiveness are now the considerations in state funding policy. Among the articles to contribute to the discussion, Felismina R.P. Mendes' (Évora and Lisbon) discussion of the public representation of hereditary cancer will be of particular interest to a wider readership.

Thirty years after the democratic revolution in 1974, Portugal is a net investor abroad with a large domestic tertiary economy, caused by its new profile as a country of immigration. José Reis (Coimbra) discusses national forms of governance and the scope for collective action in an era of social and economic transformation. On the Union level, Filip Carreira da Silva (Coimbra and Cambridge), author of the forthcoming book, G. H. Mead: An Introduction (Polity), challenges the received wisdom that European integration is the response to the challenges of globalization. He suggests ways in which citizens of various European nationalities can participate in a European-wide democracy.

Turning to the cultural sector, José Manuel de Oliveira Mendes (Coimbra) proposes a system in which the media form a common, but non-consensual, global politics, while Paula Abreu (Coimbra) analyzes ways in which local markets for live music respond to social and political requirements.

The full table of contents of Revista Critica de Ciências Sociais 70 (2004).


Samtiden 2/2005

This year, Norway celebrates 100 years as an independent nation. In the centre of the celebrations is the widely popular royal family. However, Samtiden has bad news for King Harald and Queen Sonja, or rather for Crown Prince Haakon and his Princess Mette-Marit.

Following up last year's essay competition on the Norwegian monarchy, the Oslo-based journal publishes an article by political and economic scientists Carl-Erik Grimstad and Erik Dalen, showing that today's Republicans are more influential than ever. Once an introverted and nationalistic movement with its political base in rural areas, republicanism today is an urban, academic, and secular phenomenon whose advocates are the current and future opinion formers. Exit monarchy? Well, not quite yet. Even if Norwegian Republicans increase in number and influence, they are still not particularly energetic: "I am republican on principle... but I respect the royal family".

More in Norway's most influential cultural journal (founded in 1890, it is 15 years older than modern Norway): urbanist Erling Fossen asks why there are so few intellectuals in Norwegian politics; Ute Meta Bauer and Yvonne P. Doderer analyze the role of art in society; Stein Lillevolden criticizes harsh new policies aimed at "unreturnable" refugees; and a photo-essay by the internationally acclaimed artist Torbjørn Rødland: "Jesus, Beethoven, Einstein, and Snoop Dogg".

The full table of contents of Samtiden 2/2005.

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Published 2005-06-07

Original in English
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