The doomsayers will err, again

"Wespennest" winces at a Europe poised between paralysis and renewal; "Mittelweg 36" applies the lessons of economic history; "Schweizer Monat" raises an eyebrow as John Gray ranks Keynes above Hayek; "Vikerkaar" homes in on the contribution of cultural journals to the European public sphere; "Akadeemia" scrutinizes the nature of (Kierkegaard's) writing and the writing of nature; "Lettera internazionale" mediates between history and memory; "Esprit" lists the perfect ingredients for an authoritarian drive á la Orbán; "Spilne" reveals the real reasons for the shortage of wives in the West; "Krytyka" brands Ukranian political science a pseudo-science; and "New Literary Observer" is bemused by Russian proposals to prohibit cats trampling. [more]

Reasons for the current upsurge in memory

Over the past quarter century, social structures have undergone a sea change in their traditional relationship to the past. Pierre Nora examines the roots and causes of "memorialism". [Italian version added] [more]

The role of the sceptic

A conversation with John Gray

The destination of intellectual journeys, remarks John Gray, is unknown at any one time. Utopianism, on the other hand, usually ends in disaster. Thus the radical anti-communist of the 1970s finds Marx's analysis of capitalism prescient today and rates Keynes above Hayek. [more]

Relocating the European debate

"Esprit" editor Marc-Olivier Padis outlines why a strong platform for European debate has yet to emerge and the role that cultural journals can play in establishing one. Among the most urgent issues for discussion: liquid modernity, cultural decentralization and the dilemmas of an open society. [more]

Circulating ideas

"Vikerkaar" editor Märt Väljataga braves the cross currents that accompany ideas and their communication in transnational contexts, with a view to assessing the contribution of cultural journals to the public sphere. He discovers an ongoing process in which persistence pays off. [more]

The will to succeed

A conversation with Pier Virgilio Dastoli

Pier Virgilio Dastoli advocates a federal future for the European Union if the current imbalance of power is to be redressed. A federal approach will also help seal success in the areas of energy, criminal law, industry, social questions, international security and economic governance. [more]

The failure of European intellectuals?

Intellectuals have been accused of failing to restore a European confidence undermined by crisis. Yet calls for legitimating European narratives reflect the logic of nineteenth-century nation building, argues Jan-Werner Müller. [French, German and Italian versions added] [more]

The transparency delusion

Disillusionment with democracy founded on mistrust of business and political elites has prompted a popular obsession with transparency. But the management of mistrust cannot remedy voters' loss of power and may spell the end for democratic reform. [Romanian version added] [more]

Trampling cats

The recent proliferation of new taboos in Russia seems to know no limit, according to philosopher Oxana Timofeeva. She shows how proposals for new legislation to curb noise pollution may reveal more about the animal inside us all than the authorities could dream. [more]

Solidarity: A word in search of flesh

Who will outsmart who, who will be kicked out first? This is the job market, and probably society at large, reduced to the level of reality TV, writes Bauman. However, though the spirit of solidarity is in exile, it would be premature to give up on the prospect of its return just yet. [more]

The middle class doesn't exist

"Arena" and "Fronesis" show class is back with a vengeance; "New Eastern Europe" fleshes out a definition of solidarity; "Dublin Review of Books" discovers that the German language is not so bad after all; "dérive" writes of rats with wings and other urban species; "Index on Censorship" watches free speech take a beating as economic crisis kicks in; "Il Mulino" berates Italy's hybrid and infertile brand of capitalism; "Revolver Revue" is concerned at the post-communist order of things; "Host" announces the arrival of David Foster Wallace in the Czech Republic; and "Magyar Lettre" warns against using the Velvet Divorce as a model for dismantling Europe. [more]

The roots of Italian economic decline

Reforms implemented without logic or consistency have cost Italy the economic dynamism it achieved in the 1980s. A hybrid and infertile capitalism is the outcome, writes Marco Simoni, leaving Italy with the highest number of young people in Europe who are neither studying nor employed. [more]

The merchants of Europe

The presidents and prime ministers of Balkan countries have convinced Europe that they represent the only guarantee that the Balkans will not descend back into war. It is through this kind of counterfeit politics that Croatia has arrived at the threshold of the European Union. [more]

Rats with wings

Doves are a symbol of peace, purity and fertility. They were once of practical use too: until science intervened, dove droppings were essential to the manufacture of fertiliser. So just how did they end up at the bottom of the urban symbolic order? Fahim Amir investigates. [more]

David Foster Wallace: Innocence and experience

He pointed a way for American fiction out of the doldrums of postmodernism, writes George Blecher. For a culture troubled by the corrosive commercial media and closed-end systems underpinned by technology, David Foster Wallace's influence remains a force to be reckoned with. [more]

After the velvet divorce

Differences between the Czech and Slovak national cultures begin with language and range from newspaper circulation to attitudes to corruption. Yet they don't justify seeing the Czecho-Slovak split as blueprint for dismantling the EU, writes Martin Simecka. [Hungarian version added] [more]

Farmers in fairy-tale land

Poland and the European crisis

Lack of political decision-making and the demise of objectivism have landed Europe where it is today, argues Marcin Król. A lesson could be learned from Poland, whose tradition of economic liberalism and rural pragmatism has enabled the country to weather the crisis. [Hungarian version added] [more]

Balancing the books

Sixty years and more since the end of WWII, eastern European experiences of subjugation are often glossed over. This creates misunderstandings that could be avoided by an awareness of a common European history. Then, solidarity rather than national prejudice would motivate public opinion on matters of European politics. [more]

In search of a usable past

Who were the ancestors of the Polish middle class?

As the new Polish middle class seeks to establish its own identity and to break with the traditional ethos of the central European intelligentsia, it may draw on the experience of merchants once based in the Polish sector of the Russian empire. [Hungarian version added] [more]

The beautiful German language

With German-bashing now firmly established as a European "Volkssport", "Dublin Review of Books" editor Enda O'Doherty turns to the semi-barbarous German language; and finds that in the right hands, or expressed through the right vocal cords, German is indeed a very beautiful language. [more]

On the side of democracy

Should Brussels intervene in EU member states?

Brussels is not empowered to be a policeman for liberal democracy in Europe. Not yet. But should it be? Following recent developments in Hungary and Romania, Jan-Werner Müller argues that it is legitimate for Brussels to interfere in individual member states as a democracy watchdog. [more]

One of many nodes

Interview with the queer theorist Jasbir K. Puar

Jasbir K. Puar reflects on the politics of posthumanism, especially as they relate to questions of health and disability in an age of neoliberalism. She argues for integrating intersectional analysis of race, gender, sexuality, nation and disability with assemblage theory. [more]

Innovative equipment

On the ideology and dogmatic of the "new"

As part of a special issue of "Springerin" on anti-humanism, Timothy Druckrey reflects on the role of apparatus in a system that incorporates and monetizes virtually every form of transaction via omnivorous detection algorithms that mine personal data. [more]

Deadline

A history of timeliness

The first printed newspaper appeared 150 years after Gutenberg, as the postal service replaced the messenger and news began to spread faster. Yet the format developed slowly, as Müller shows in a history of print media that concludes with the Internet age. [English version added] [more]

International conference: Bob Dylan and the Nobel Prize

Potsdam and Caputh, 13 May 2013

Did Bob Dylan really do for popular music what Einstein did for physics? Should Dylan win the Nobel Prize for Literature? And what of his place in literary scholarship? The Einstein Forum reflects on five decades of Dylan's song writing and performing. [more]

The return of political economy

The suggestion that the division of the social product is as urgent a problem as its overall growth has led to political economy returning to both history and current politics, argues Charles S. Maier. High time, then, to analyse deprivation, wealth and inequality on a world scale. [more]

The modern Mr Valiant-for-truth

"Transit" debates competing models of democracy, modernity and (non)belief; "openDemocracy" introduces the bankster; "Dilema veche" welcomes back the farmer as food producer; "Kulturos barai" and "Schweizer Monat" speak to novelists of the free market era; "Esprit" enters the suburbs of the suburbs; "Rigas Laiks" gets personal and political with Israeli writer Etgar Keret; "Letras Libres" attempts to redefine liberalism; "Prostory" dresses (un)healable wounds; "GAM" traverses spatial sequences; and "Host" screams Murder! [more]

Empires of liberty

Historian Patrick Iber argues that, while the age of liberal imperialism seems on the wane, a liberal order remains, as do the lessons of the last two centuries: exchange and contract between free nations works best when power between them is close to equal. [more]

Branding the fallout

The trauma of Chernobyl is being transformed into a commodity, or even a brand, writes Stas Menzelevskyi. This follows the release of films like "Chernobyl Diaries" and "Nuclear Waste", and, to an extent, the instrumentalization of the day of remembrance on 26 April. [more]

Stranger than fiction?

As part of a special issue of Czech literary magazine "Host" on attitudes to murder in real life and literature, the American writer David Nemec reveals a sub-plot to a notorious unsolved murder case in which reality remains stubbornly resistant to fiction. [more]

Urban sprawl

The origins and growth of the périurbain

More French residents can now afford to own a detached house than ever before, thanks in part to the tendency of government to favour this form of social ascendancy. As a result, urban and rural spaces are changing beyond recognition, writes geographer Michel Lussault. [more]

New Eurozine partner: Prostory

"Prostory", the Ukrainian magazine for culture and social critique, has joined the Eurozine network. Its young editors are dedicated to "rethinking the Ukranian public sphere" by connecting local analysis of current social issues with the cultural translation of foreign narratives. [more]

The euro crisis: Central European lessons

Differing national situations in eastern central Europe explain lack of solidarity and varying perceptions of the crisis' risks and remedies, writes Jacques Rupnik, and can be seen in terms of political lessons learned. [German version added] [more]

Religion and violence

Critiquing the "new atheism"

Sociologist of religion David Martin calls proponents of an aggressive "new atheism" to task for collapsing arguments over the relation between religion and violence into ahistorical conjecture. This poses a threat to both scholarly standards and public debate in general. [more]

The sale of London

A conversation with author and journalist John Lanchester

John Lanchester, author of the 2012 London novel "Capital", describes how the whole of London has become a department store in which the streets are shelves and the houses goods for sale. It is here that his characters' lives play out, between the poles of homeliness and displacement. [more]

Defining the precariat

A class in the making

Class has not disappeared. Instead, a more fragmented global class structure has emerged alongside a more flexible open labour market. This prompts Guy Standing to forge a new vocabulary capable of describing class relations in the global market system of the twenty-first century. [more]

High register, low register

A conversation with the writer Etgar Keret

Etgar Keret compares his role as an author of short stories and essays to that of a "court jester in the land of the convinced": a standpoint that opens up new and surprising angles on reality and, above all, generates great stories -- as this interview conducted in Riga, Latvia, proves. [more]

The freedom of the fox in the chicken run

A conversation with novelist Nicholas Bradbury

Nicholas Bradbury made his literary debut this year with the novel "Market Farm", a reworking of George Orwell's "Animal Farm" for the free market era. He talks here about influences for his satirical take on the current financial crisis and potential grounds for hope for the future. [more]

Research by numbers

Higher education cuts in the UK are hijacking the pursuit of knowledge. The perception has become entrenched that the role of academics is to serve business and do whatever the government decides is necessary for the economy, writes Thomas Docherty.[Lithuanian version added] [more]

Voices of the plazas

Social movements give validity to the rearguard, to the intellectual construction of a model that resists both attacks and criminalization, writes Juan Luis Sánchez. And as hundreds of people continue to be made homeless every day in Spain, the demonstrations can be expected to continue. [more]

The race for the newest news

"Merkur" recognizes that timing is not everything, it's also the way you tell it; "Free Speech Debate" tracks the Chinese censors' changes; "L'Espill" searches for another kind of political realism; "Blätter" analyses Germany's energy transition 2.0; "Arena" reports from the battle over the Swedish model; "Osteuropa" celebrates a century of research on eastern Europe; "RozRazil" cringes at a toxic cocktail of crisis and circus; "Sodobnost" brands Slovenia a nation at risk; "A Prior" goes with the ebb and flow of the art world; "Springerin" considers the emancipatory potential of a creative anti-humanism; and "Revista Crítica" examines the destiny of women in war. [more]

Fatal embrace

After Amazon coming under fire for the treatment of its pickers and packers in Germany, "Blätter" editor Daniel Leisegang finds that competitors are also suffering at the hands of the world's largest online retailer, whose aggressive high-growth strategy he compares to a fatal embrace. [more]

Neurocapitalism

The fear of depression, dementia and attention deficit disorder legitimizes the boom in neuro-psychotropic drugs. In a performance-driven society that confronts the self with its own shortcomings, neuroscience serves an expanding market. [Slovenian version added] [more]

The facts, the myths and the framing of immigration

The case of Britain

Today, the same arguments once used against Jews, and then against South Asian and Caribbean immigrants, are now raised against Muslims and east Europeans. However, Kenan Malik finds some comfort in reviewing the facts of the matter. He then tackles the illusions. [more]

Cyprus crisis: Swan song of the Eurozone

Fouskas and Dimoulas look at the bigger picture surrounding the Greek Cypriot crisis, as economic contraction reaches levels not seen since the Turkish invasion. Meanwhile, external economic and geopolitical interests leave little prospect of European politics furthering the cause of integration. [more]

Deadline

A history of timeliness

The first printed newspaper appeared 150 years after Gutenberg, as the postal service replaced the messenger and news began to spread faster. Yet the format developed slowly, as Müller shows in a history of print media that concludes with the Internet age. [English version added] [more]

Financing cultural journals: The Turkish case

Osman Deniztekin introduces a survey of Turkish journals that "Varlik" conducted in autumn 2012. Like their European counterparts, Turkish journals need public support. However, they are far more wary of risking their independence by receiving government funding. [more]

"It's best if all journals are self-sufficient"

Edebiyat Ortami, Turkey

Mustafa Aydogan, editor of "Edebiyat Ortami", explains why he thinks the moral support of governments is healthier than their financial support where journals are concerned. As for the quality of journals, diversity of content is crucial. Thus, every journal creates its own readership. [more]

"Journals should inspire and learn from each other"

SabitFikir, Turkey

"SabitFikir" editor Elif Bereketli contends that digital forms are not yet capable of replacing literary journals, at the same time as setting her sights set on a project based exclusively on social media. In a harsh climate for many forms of writing and publishing, innovation is key. [more]

"When ethics and quality come together"

Iyi Kitap, Turkey

Zarife Biliz of "Iyi Kitap", which specializes in children's and youth literature, challenges journals to stop printing unimpressive pieces by renowned authors and instead give voice to a variety of authors selected with more editorial attention, and be more inclusive. [more]

"As the time between thought and expression is shortened..."

Duvar, Turkey

Ali Çakmak of "Duvar" believes there should be public funding not just for journals, but the publishing industry in general. The abstract concept of freedom of expression would then become a reality. Meanwhile, the impact of digital media is hugely significant but difficult to gauge. [more]

"...why would anyone need different journals?"

Sözcükler, Turkey

If millions of students in Turkey were offered cultural journals, it could transform the sector. But culture is threatened, not least by a crude desire to secure popularity, argues Turgay Fişekçi of "Sözcükler". The result: sclerosis and, in the end, the same writers appearing in the same journals. [more]

"Print and digital media should support each other"

Kültür Mafyasi, Turkey

Even if journals are interested in current affairs, they should go to the root of the matter and present alternatives, writes Turgay Özçelik of "Kültür Mafyasi" -- a journal that began online and just launched a print version: "We need to shed light on what mainstream media choose not to see". [more]

"We don't want public support; we want readers"

Karagöz, Turkey

Hakan Sarkdemir cites the lack of a professional distribution network as the biggest problem for Turkish journals. That said, being visible and selling well; selling well and being read well; being read well and having many readers: social media aside, these are not the same thing. [more]

"The journal reader is the minority everywhere in the world"

Kitap-lik, Turkey

Murat Yalçin of "Kitap-lik" asserts that culture and the arts thrive on individual awareness and thought, not collective sensibilities. Thus every journal must learn to cherish its knowledgeable readers -- for which there are no simple formulas based on "responsibility", "mission" or service. [more]

The contained

The container is the universal unit of the global commodity society, facilitating the swift exchange of all kinds of product. Precarity, likewise, connotes a basic form of labour that submissively and flexibly adjusts to any form of employment and system of production. [Ukrainian version added] [more]

Together against Orbán: Hungary's new opposition

Amid international concern over government reforms that endanger democracy in Hungary, Hodonyi and Trüpel discover a political renaissance in Hungarian civil society. Ahead of elections in spring 2014, this may well be an antidote to the EU's "political half-heartedness". [more]

Bulgaria's anger: The real source

As the Bulgarian post-communist transition faces its moment of crisis and the government resigns, the political class and the economic model it oversaw are the subject of deep dissatisfaction. Dimitar Bechev outlines what went wrong, and what can be expected of Bulgaria's spring of anger. [more]

A new perspective on gender studies?

On the new masculi(ni)sm

The conservative backlash has reached the core of the gender debate: antifeminist theory and pro-masculinity approaches paying special attention to the figure of the simplified male victim have arrived. This prompts numerous questions for co-editor of "L'homme" Christa Hämmerle. [more]

The Southern Weekly affair

No closer to the Chinese dream?

The first week of 2013 saw a standoff between editors of the Chinese newspaper "Southern Weekly" and state propaganda authorities over a drastically rewritten new year's editorial. Timothy Garton Ash introduces English translations of the original and published versions. [more]

Let's stop blaming the economy

Radical right parties in central eastern Europe

Alina Polyakova questions the assumption that the rise of the radical right in central and eastern Europe is rooted in economic conditions. Looking at the consequences of post-socialist civil society for liberal democracy will render a more realistic picture, she writes. [Ukrainian version added] [more]

Urbanizing non-urban economies

Ports, mines, plantations

In this article based on Sassen's speech at the Eurozine conference in 2012, the sociologist explains why and how it is that, far more than in the past, urban space today registers the profitability of non-urban economies. The key is to be found in the rise of intermediate services for firms. [more]

Colonial roots and current routes

Migration in the harbour city of Hamburg

Manuel Assner conducted a tour of the Port of Hamburg at the Eurozine conference in 2012, providing a history of migration in the multi-ethnic harbour and surrounding districts. In this article based on the tour, he shows how colonial roots remain intertwined with colonial routes. [more]

Do you really think you'd be included?

"Il Mulino" is open for online comments on the Italian elections; "Mittelweg 36" fears for democracy; "Blätter" calls for more pressure on Hungary; "Glänta" talks to Nancy Bauer about feminist philosophy; "Sarajevo Notebook" takes on the problem of masculinity in the Balkans; "NAQD" presents a panoramic view of post-independence Africa; "Host" casts a critical eye on the current state of Czech literature; "Varlik" scrutinizes the boom in Turkish literature; "La Revue Nouvelle" warns of a clampdown on free expression; "Res Publica Nowa" questions the role of religion and politics in the modern world; and "Merkur" offers an appreciation of Cold War dissidence. [more]

And never the twain shall meet

Dispatching with prejudices about the Mezzogiorno, Paolo Macry re-examines the history of the North-South divide, revealing the importance of the South for the country's political stability. However, settling the accounts between the regions will likely remain a distant prospect. [more]

Gender and sacrifice

Gender divisions, deeply rooted in myth and in society, have spelled more violence and suffering for the Balkans than any concrete benefit. This is a state of affairs about which Capriqi is unequivocal. Whether it can be changed remains an open question. [more]

A new musical cosmos

Anne-Sophie Mutter on Witold Lutoslawski

On the eve of the hundredth anniversary of Polish composer Witold Lutoslawski's birth, "Osteuropa" editor Manfred Sapper speaks to world-famous violin virtuoso Anne-Sophie Mutter about first meeting Lutoslawski, and the effect that he had on her musical career thereafter. [more]

The vertigo of scepticism

Introduction to a conversation with Nancy Bauer

Johanna Sjöstedt introduces her conversation with Nancy Bauer by explaining why Bauer is interested both in exploring the potential of a genuinely philosophical feminism and paving the way for a feminist critique of the philosophical tradition. [more]

What is feminist philosophy?

Nancy Bauer talks about what attracted her to the field of philosophy and what made her remain there. Sjöstedt and Bauer also discuss Simone de Beauvoir, the role of scepticism in modern feminism and the thin line between world-changing philosophy and dogmatism. [more]

Barack Obama's "war on terror"

William E Scheuerman explains why Obama's mediocre humanitarian record in the "war on terror" deserves our critical scrutiny. And how US presidential government's latent monarchist attributes have generated far-reaching policy and legal continuities between Bush and Obama. [more]

In praise of dissidence

There is much to celebrate in the history of Cold War dissidence, writes Helmut König. Which is why it is crucial to recall just how the Peaceful Revolution delivered its heritage of freedom, from the thinkers and the underground printing presses to the impromptu protests. [more]

Contested copyright

Underlying the debate on intellectual property is an ideological faultline between capitalist models and alternatives, writes Sabine Nuss. Although a property approach to intellectual goods has major disadvantages it remains the lesser of many evils. [Ukrainian version added] [more]

Debt: The first five thousand years

Throughout history, institutions have existed to control the potentially catastrophic social consequences of debt. It is only in the current era that we have begun to see the creation of the first planetary administrative system to protect the interests of creditors. [Ukrainian version added] [more]

More information, less sense

"Lettera internazionale" visits Europe outside Europe; "New Eastern Europe" asks if Russia can really change; "Osteuropa" reassesses 1812; "Krytyka" says the coloured revolutions of the future will be different; "Schweizer Monat" proposes Switzerland as a model for the EU; "Dialogi" claims the people did not benefit from Slovenian independence; "Akadeemia" celebrates 95 years of Estonia; and "Multitudes" warns of the dangers of semiocapitalism. [more]

Media activism revisited

Although media activism has opened up new spaces of expression, it has not been able to prevent the dominant media to invade this freedom, writes Franco Berardi. Activists should therefore "reinvest the aesthetic dimension"; first as art, then as therapy. [more]

Thinking Europe without thinking

Neo-colonial discourse on and in the western Balkans

EU member states draw upon a reservoir of colonial discourse to assert superiority over the extra-European Other; western Balkan states compensate by turning the same discourse against neighbours lower down the ladder of EU accession, writes Tanja Petrovic. [Italian version added] [more]

The Mediterranean: Room without a view

The mythical Mediterranean of the tourist imagination masks a reality of debt, stagnation and social decline. Yet the region colludes in its own downfall, writes Jurica Pavicic, trading in former glories while acquiescing to political and economic exploitation. [Italian version added] [more]

A few "easy" steps towards reconciliation

Laissez faire reconciliation in the Balkans will never work, writes Slavenka Drakulic. Symbolic gestures by politicians are well and good, but a substantial change in social attitudes can only be achieved through the institutional promotion of tolerance and collaboration. [Italian version added] [more]

The Swiss model

Harold James advocates scaling up small country democracy, if the members of the European Union are ever to succeed in settling upon a working model of democracy. He explains why the Swiss model of "Konkordanzdemokratie" has much to offer. [more]

Potatoes and fortune cookies

The recent boom in Belarus-China relations is surprising; it's sudden, far reaching and, at first glance, inexplicable. But what are the true reasons and possible prospects for this cooperation? Independent television journalist Katerina Barushka explores. [more]

The end of the European Dream

What future for Europe's constrained democracy?

In trying to escape the banality of everyday life, utopian projects are bound to fail in politics, writes Stefan Auer. As such, the Great Gatsby of F. Scott Fitzgerald's novel and the EU have much in common: they always want more, despite being insanely rich; and still cannot pay their bills. [more]

The war of 1812

How Russia rescued Europe

As Napolean's army disintegrated upon retreating from Russia, the Russian Empire rose from the ashes of Moscow as the "saviour of Europe". Historians Anna Ananieva and Klaus Gestwa recall how a new European order materialized and became the object of reminiscence. [more]

The tune of the future

Italy: old Europe, new Europe, changing Europe

Venice versus Lampedusa: travelling around Italy, Slavenka Drakulic observes one kind of Europe being replaced by another. Instead of attempting to conserve the cultural past, we should accept that migration will adapt much of what we consider "European" to its own image. [Hungarian version added] [more]

Ideology or truth?

A conversation with Norman Lillegard

In a wide-ranging discussion, Almantas Samalavicius and the philsopher Norman Lillegard consider the dangers of relativism, the crisis of education, pleonexia and the economic crisis, and whether literature should provide moral instruction. [Lithuanian version added] [more]

Transnational citizenship

Ideals and European realities

It is time for social science and political actors to acknowledge a paradigm shift from international to transnational relations, writes Claus Leggewie. Which is also to recognize that a new form of world politics is emerging: citizenship (and governance) beyond the nation-state. [more]

Against growth

A conversation with economist Joshua Farley

Given the relation between economic production and ecological degradation, Joshua Farley is convinced that economic growth must stop. It is just a question of when. And whether cooperation will displace competition as the dominant concept in the economic paradigm.[Lithuanian version added] [more]

A beautifying lie?

Culture and kitsch @ London2012

The opening ceremony of the London Olympics, themed "The Isle of Wonders", will offer a pastiche of national identity in which the darker sides of the British psyche are lost in a multiculturalist high-kitsch spectacular, anticipates Phil Cohen.[Hungarian version added] [more]

Reclaiming our rights

As protests continue in Slovenia, Robert Titan Felix sees the need for a programme to protect the welfare state and citizens themselves from the greed of capital, which pushes the less successful to the margins of existence. [more]

New Eurozine Partner: New Eastern Europe

"New Eastern Europe", the English language quarterly for central and eastern European affairs, has joined the Eurozine network. Based in Krakow, Poland, it seeks to initiate debate among leading commentators from East and West. [more]

Ideology never ends

An interview with sociologist Daniel Chirot

While some eastern European countries have shaken off the "post-communist" tag, in others it remains apt, says Daniel Chirot. Meanwhile, new disparities are generating a leftwing revival in the region that show pronouncements of the end of ideology to have been rash.[Hungarian version added] [more]

Splitting up?

The re-nationalization of Europe

Perceived loss of sovereignty and rising hostility towards migrants are behind the nationalist revival in many EU member states. Yet in the countries of the former USSR, nationalism is associated with democratization. Can one talk in the same terms about contemporary nationalism in East and West? [Hungarian version added] [more]

Long live the people!

"Esprit" advocates "mariage pour tous!"; "L'Homme" examines the subversive nature of gender; "Genero" asks whether feminism has made any kind of difference; "Rigas Laiks" approves of restraining the powers that be; "Kulturos barai" looks forward to the new world system; "Critique & Humanism" cries long live the people!; "dérive" stresses the street is good for more than just driving; "Magyar Lettre" provides a wealth of perspectives on Europe; "Passage" watches the new novel on TV; and "Merkur" seeks a wider readership for Bulgarian literature. [more]

Down with democracy! Long live the people!

Boyan Znepolski remains far from convinced by recent attempts by contemporary philosophers to get to grips with the relation between democracy as a political regime and "the people". He discerns a deficit of creativity in the thought of Zizek, Badiou and Laclau. [more]

Restraining the powers that be

Aryeh Neier has headed up Human Rights Watch, the American Civil Liberties Union and George Soros' Open Society Foundations. While in Riga for the twentieth anniversary of Soros Foundation Latvia, he was interviewed by "Rigas Laiks" editor Ieva Lesinska. [more]

The legal ramifications of marriage

Citizens will risk entering into legally precarious situations if there is no change in the law on marriage and adoptions, writes Padis. But whatever the legal consequences of reconfiguring the family, they must not lead to the weakening of individual ties through normative tinkering. [more]

Street life

Once walking was surpassed as the primary form of mobility, concepts of time, distance and urban development changed fast. Schopf and Emberger argue they need reevaluating once more, if urban mobility is to offer anything other than more highways and parking spaces. [more]

Bulgaria returns

Expanding literary horizons

Not all was lost during Bulgaria's postwar "epoch of total frustration", as Dmitri Dimov's "Tabak" and Dimitar Talev's novels show. Frahm finds in Vladimir Zarev an inspiring contemporary novelist and draws attention to emerging talents Kristin Dimitrova and Kalin Terziyski. [more]

Greece: The history behind the collapse

Greece's economic crisis has its roots in a political pact dating back to the foundation of the modern state, writes Georges Prévélakis. The threat posed to Europe by the Greek breakdown is less contagion than a wave of anti-western feeling that could exacerbate geopolitical instabilities. [Hungarian version added] [more]

The politics of no alternatives

An interview with Gleb Pavlovsky

Gleb Pavlovsky, erstwhile political advisor to Vladimir Putin, whose election campaigns he masterminded in 2000 and 2004, talks to "Transit" about the workings of power in the Soviet Union and in post-Soviet Russia. [Hungarian version added] [more]

Get smart

Ireland and the euro crisis

Ireland, like other small EU member-states, must be especially smart in responding to the euro crisis, since it does not command the resources that better enable larger states to protect their interests. How coherent has the Irish approach been so far and are the alternatives more convincing? [Hungarian version added] [more]