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donate Almantas Samalavicius
holds a Ph.D. in art history and theory and is a professor at Vilnius Gediminas Technical University. He is the author of numerous books and essays on cultural and literary criticism, the latest of which is, Ideas and Structures. Essays in Architectural History (2011). In addition he has translated books by Zygmunt Bauman and Gerard Delanty into Lithuanian.
Eurozine Articles
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]
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]
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]
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]
New world-system?
A conversation with Immanuel Wallerstein
At some point, there is a tilt; there always is. Then we shall settle down into our new historical system. Wallerstein foresees one of two possibilities: more hierarchy, exploitation and polarization; or a system that has never yet existed, based on relative democracy and relative equality. [more]
Flourishing within limits
A conversation with green economist Molly Scott Cato
Molly Scott Cato is willing to acknowledge the extraordinary advances that economic growth has brought. However, she insists that only by learning to flourish within limits can we hope to regain our sense of the good life. [more]
Future money
A conversation with James Robertson
Understanding the need to combine economics and ethics amounts to a "Copernican revolution", says the co-founder of the New Economics Foundation. The survival of our species depends on our making the money system work in ways that will "enable and conserve". [more]
Beyond contemporary economic thinking
A conversation with John B. Cobb
John B. Cobb, Methodist theologian and longstanding critic of the of the political-economic establishment, talks about his communitarian and ecology-based critique of neoliberalism and the potential for world religions to inform an alternative. [more]
The pursuit of happiness
A conversation with economist Mark Anielski
The global debt crisis is encouraging economists and others to explore alternative ways of measuring national wealth. In conversation with Almantas Samalavicius, Mark Anielski discusses the possibility of an economic system based on wellbeing rather than unlimited growth. [more]
Economics, sustainability and the legacy of E.F. Schumacher
An interview with Bob Massie
American priest, politician and social activist Bob Massie talks about how the ideas of Ernst Friedrich Schumacher can inform a transition to an alternative economy and why the author of "Small is Beautiful" still has something to say to a secularized, European audience. [more]
Shifting shapes of Europe
Sociologist Gerard Delanty revisits his 1995 book "Inventing Europe", talking about the possibilities of post-national citizenship, Europe's complex Christian identity, and why accounts of Europe today must include the heritage of the peripheries. [more]
Literary perspectives: Lithuania
Almost normal
The literary field in Lithuania has established itself since independence, despite vastly smaller print runs. Today, a range of literary approaches can be made out, from the social criticism of the middle generation to the more private narratives of the post-Soviet writers. [more]
The vanishing genius loci of Vilnius
Vilnius's Baroque and Gothic urban heritage was once a rallying point for Lithuania's independence movement following the architectural ravages of Soviet modernism. Now it is subject to a new onslaught from local finance capital -- and no one seems to care. [more]
Lithuania: Universities on the threshold
A blind drive towards utility characterizes higher education policy in Lithuania. The only remedy on offer for the ongoing brain-drain is based on the logic of the market. Lithuanian universities are steadily going the way of the rest of "common property" after independence. [more]
An amorphous society
Lithuania in the era of high post-communism
"High post-communism" in eastern Europe is defined by efforts to control collective memory, political discourse dominated by abstract concepts, and the cult of entertainment -- a view from Lithuania. [more]
National identity, culture and globalisation
Lithuania wakes up to a new social and cultural reality
In the academic and intellectual debate in Lithuania, globalisation and Europeanisation are often regarded as deadly threats to the national culture, an "evil mission". Almantas Samalavicius looks at the arguments and proposes a completely different concept of identity. [more]
Europe's East as spiritual space
Greek philosophy, Roman law and Christianity. Are these the only cornerstones of European culture? [more]
Intellectuals in post-communist Lithuania
How has the social and political standing of intellectuals changed? [more]
Memory and amnesia in a postcommunist society
Dealing with the legacy of the communist past in Lithuania. [more]
The burden of freedom
Lithuanian media during the transition
A decade into its existence as an independent state, has the Lithuanian media learned how to make use of its newly found freedom? [more]
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