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The Bronze Nights
The failure of forced Europeanization and the birth of defensive nationalist democracy in Estonia
politics of memory The EU accession process over, writes Tonis Saarts, Estonia's rightwing party politics has found a new rallying cry: the threat of Russia. [ more ]
East European savages
national minorities Ethnic Hungarians in Vojvodina vote for liberal, Belgrade-based parties in Serbia while unconditionally supporting the Right in Hungary itself. László Végel is reminded of the joke about the savage. [ more ]
A look into the latest issues
A savage joke
Journals digest "Index" follows counter terrorism from the courtroom to the community; "Osteuropa" anticipates a renaissance of Jewish life in eastern Europe; "The Hungarian Quarterly" has it out with eastern European savages; "Dilema veche" goes undercover in Italy; "Host" asks who flies the flag of commitment; "Kulturos barai" deplores toothless journalism; "Akadeemia" celebrates academia; "Magyar Lettre Internationale" debates '68 East and West; and "Fronesis" reads Marx beyond Marxism. [ more ]
behind the headlines
Pluralism by default
Ukraine Viktor Yushchenko's election victory in September 2007 opened up an opportunity for improvement of Ukraine's democratic institutions, writes Mykola Riabchuk. The current crisis, a symptom of "pluralism by default", represents a setback for those hopes. [English version added] [ more ]
The crisis of the post-Cold War European order
Russia Ivan Krastev argues that a policy of engagement focused on national interest and a radical turn from value-based foreign policy to nineteenth century Realpolitik is not a workable option for relations between Russia and the West. [English version added] [ more ]
Eurozine conference held in Paris
Conference More than 100 editors and intellectuals from all over Europe attended the 21st European Meeting of Cultural Journals in Paris last weekend. The conference explored multilingualism in Europe in terms of language policies, migration, translation and the European public sphere. [ more ]
network veterans look back When a handful of editors of European Cultural Journals first got together in 1983, they could not have imagined that the network they had initiated would still be going strong 25 years later. Network veterans look back on the history of a community that has endured. [ more ]
Encyclopaedist of the international
Interview Antonin J. Liehm, editor of the Czech magazine Litérarní noviny until 1968 and founder of Lettre Internationale, has been at the forefront of numerous attacks on the "provincialism of major cultures". One theme has persisted throughout: the idea of an international magazine. [ more ]
The society of the query and the Googlization of our lives
A tribute to Joseph Weizenbaum
internet "There is only one way to turn signals into information, through interpretation", wrote the computer critic Joseph Weizenbaum. As Google's hegemony over online content increases, argues Geert Lovink, we should stop searching and start questioning. [ more ]
literary perspectives
Literary perspectives: Sweden
Beyond crime fiction, handbags and designer suits
Essay Recent literary debates in Sweden have dwelled, among things, on authors' love lives and penchant for designer handbags. Yet there is more out there if one looks: Hans Koppel's hatchet job on suburban manners, for example, or Magnus Hedlund's explorations of human perception. [ more ]
Read also Pär Thörn, "We're like a boat with water up to the gunwales and there are waves breaking over the sides the whole time!"; Hanna Hallgren, "Depressive European"; Athena Farrokhzad, Tova Gerge, "Manual for postmodern childrearing"
Read also All articles in Literary perspectives, Eurozine's series of essays providing an overview of diverse literary landscapes in Europe. [ more ]
From '68 to '89
1968 What is the meaning of '68 almost twenty years after the fall of the Berlin Wall? In an East-West dialogue placing '68 in a European and global perspective, leading protagonists of events in eastern Europe converse with their western counterparts. [English version added] [ more ]
1968 in Moscow
A beginning
1968 Aleksander Daniel locates the birth of the dissident movement in an appeal broadcasted by western radio on 11 January 1968, protesting against the trial of Aleksander Ginzburg and three other system-critical writers. "To appeal to world public opinion, to the 'enemies', was equivalent to treason, to betrayal of the homeland." [ more ]
The end of illusions?
Czechoslovakia 1968 and after
1968 The Soviet invasion of Czechoslovakia in August 1968 caused the Soviet empire to lose its internal logic even for the communist faithful. Yet today, the naivety of the reform communists of the 1960s serves as a pretext for the dismissal of any vision of a better political system, writes Samuel Abrahám. [ more ]
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Editors' Choice
The dialectic of secularization
post-secular Europe? The opposition between "multiculturalism" and "Enlightenment fundamentalism" is misconceived, argues Jürgen Habermas. "The universalist claim of the political Enlightenment does not contradict the particularist sensibilities of a correctly understood multiculturalism." [Italian version added] [ more ]
Sex appeal
the religious right America's religious Right has discovered sex as a recruitment strategy, writes Dagmar Herzog. At the same time, the language of repression has returned via the secular notion of self-esteem – to the detriment of women in particular. [ more ]
"Emancipation is not an all or nothing affair"
Interview with Nancy Fraser
feminism and Islam Critical theorist Nancy Fraser outlines in interview her concept of "parity of participation" and emphasizes the centrality of the politics of interpretation in any dialogue about justice, such as that between western feminism and Islam. [ more ]
Multiculturalism and liberal democracy
cultural diversity Liberal values can be twisted to justify limiting the civil rights of ethnic groups, warns Will Kymlicka. Nevertheless, religious law may not replace the civil code. "The same forces that support ethnic politics within liberal democracy also channel it in democratic ways." [ more ]
Manufactured scarcity
energy "Manufacturing scarcity" is the new watchword in "Green capitalism". James Heartfield explains how for the energy sector, it has become a license to print money. Pioneered by Enron in the 1990s, the model of restricted supply is now promoted worldwide. [ more ]
Head-on collision in the Rospuda Valley
Poland: transport versus nature
environment The planned construction of a four-lane section of the trans-European "Via Baltica" road corridor through a pristine wetland valley in north eastern Poland has brought intervention at a European level. The case serves as a precedent for the application of EU conservation law. [ more ]
Murder in Mexico
Chronicle of a massacre
sport and politics Sent to Mexico City in 1968 to cover the Olympics, sports journalist Brian Glanville instead found himself reporting on the anti-government demonstrations at the Plaza de las Tres Culturas. He recalls how, despite the ensuing massacre, indifference reigned at the Olympic Village. [ more ]
Blurred boundaries
Sport, art and activity
sport and politics Is the convergence of art and sport under the pressure of pseudo-participatory spectacle undermining the utopian potential of both? Benedict Seymour goes back to the future to recover the new kind of activity which, in different ways, is still informing them. [ more ]
Beaches and graveyards
Europe's haunted borders
borders "It is more arduous to honour the memory of the nameless than the renowned." The epigram on Walter Benjamin's memorial in Portbou, Catalonia, leads Les Back to reflect on the fate of the African migrants found dead on the coasts of Spain today. [German version added] [ more ]
Unacknowledged, unseen, unmentioned
Poverty in Europe
Poverty Impoverished German children dream of the US; one Greek person in four is in arrears; sixty per cent of the poor in Romania have outdoor toilets. Cracks are appearing in Europe's image of itself as the egalitarian alternative to the United States. [ more ]
No coffee
social history What is it about coffee – and coffeehouses – that makes it so agreeable to the bourgeoisie? asks Jakob Norberg in a brief social history of the dark, rich brew. And of the bourgeois public sphere. [ more ]
A lesson in Dylan appreciation
literary criticism When Christopher Ricks, author of critical works on Milton, Keats, and Eliot, turned his attention to Bob Dylan, critics grumbled that he could talk one into believing that even a phone book is poetry. Now that Dylan has won the Pulitzer Prize, they may have to reconsider. [ more ]
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East translates East
"Diagnosing the present", a translation project between three Eurozine partner journals and supported by the Next Page Foundation, aims to add to an understanding of cultural, political, and intellectual life in contemporary eastern central Europe. Read the translations here. [ more ]
Gallery for Cultural Journals at the Alte Schmiede, Vienna
news item Cultural journals have always been a central part of the programme at the Alte Schmiede (Old Smithy) in Vienna. Now, a broad selection of Austrian and European cultural journals, among them numerous Eurozine partner journals, can be read in their Gallery for Cultural Journals that opened on 11 February at Schönlaterngasse 7 in Vienna. [ more ]
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In Focus
Focal point: Cultural diversity Migration is part of modern society, meaning more and more people of different ethnic, religious, and cultural backgrounds live together in Europe. The multitude of perspectives and experiences represents an enormous resource, but as cultural conflicts inherent in today's urban societies become visible, doubts are also raised about the value of diversity. In cooperation with the European Cultural Foundation, Eurozine presents a broad take on the issue that goes beyond the common dichotomy between multicultural segregation and the forceful assimilation of the "melting pot". [ more ]
Eurozine Focal Points
Focal point Forty years on, the differences between the 1968 uprisings in western and eastern Europe move into ever sharper focus. "In retrospect, the great event of '68 in Europe was not Paris, but Prague. But we were unable to see this at the time." Including articles on '68 in Czechoslovakia, Poland, Russia, Ukraine, France and West Germany. [ more ]
Focal point The Beijing Olympics 2008 are unusual insofar as not one country has boycotted them. This, despite the fact that the political dimension of the Games has seldom been more controversial. Are we seeing a new kind of "Olympic indifference"? With this in mind, Eurozine compiles articles on sport, politics, and protest. [ more ]
Focal point: The new populism Parliament or the soapbox? Populist politics are enjoying renewed success in Europe, above all in the former socialist countries. Ivan Krastev, G.M.Tamás, Ralf Dahrendorf, Jacques Rupnik and others investigate the rise of "democratic illiberalism". [ more ]
Focal Point From the western European city to the Third World megacity, it can be observed how the principle of privatization asserts itself in the urban social structure. With Swapan Chakravorty, Filip De Boeck, Ilija Trojanow, Ivaylo Ditchev, Robert Misik...[ more ]
Focal point Contemporary European discourse on Europe is often self-centred and provides one more link in a long chain of ideological or mythological constructions. Any reinvention of the concept of Europe that takes into account the complexities inherent in Europe's place in a globalized world must contain a critique of Eurocentrism. Learning from the South may be a key element in the rethinking – and unthinking – of "Europe". [ more ]
Focal Point The concept of cultural citizenship responds to the multicultural context of contemporary societies, in which the concern with equality is increasingly being complemented with a concern with difference. Eurozine groups together texts articulating issues central to the concept. Including contributions by Gerard Delanty, Rainer Bauböck, Ivaylo Ditchev, Charles Taylor, Rada Ivekovic, António Sousa Ribeiro, and Axel Honneth. [ more ]
Focal point As political Europe turns 50, the questions about its future are as open as ever. Eurozine compiles a selection of articles on the European project: from analyses by Jacques Rupnik and Jan-Werner Müller of the current European crisis, to enquiries by Slavenka Drakulic and Ales Debeljak into transnational identity building; from Göran Rosenberg's federalist arguments, to György Spiró's hilarious parody of Brussels' bureaucratic literary ambitions. [ more ]
Religion and Politics Has the rapid and drastic process of secularization in western Europe come to an end? In a new Focal Point, Eurozine looks at different aspects of this question: Is religion a public or a private matter? Can there be such a thing as a European Islam? If so, what characterizes it? What role can religion – or religions – play when it comes to the emergence of a European solidarity? [ more ]
Focal Point Are wars that are fought between nations a thing of the past, and are the future challenges more a case of ethnic strife, break-up of failed states, secession and civil wars? In a special focal point, Eurozine analyzes the changing face of warfare in the twenty-first century, in which terrorism and new security threats have profoundly transformed the way wars are conducted. [ more ]
Border making Have borders become irrelevant with the project of a united Europe which is supposed to overcome the historical divisions of the continent and the political isolation of its East? No, just the opposite. In a focal point guest-edited by Tatiana Zhurzhenko, essayists and researchers look at the dilemmas of border building and cross-border cooperation in the EU and its neighbourhood. [ more ]
European histories In order for there to be solidarity within the enlarged EU, it will be necessary to develop a broader historical consciousness that accommodates the experiences of the new members. And if Russia's relations with its neighbours are to be harmonious, the taboos surrounding the Great Victory will need to be addressed. Read on for analyses from both sides of a historical divide. [ more ]
EUROPEAN PUBLIC SPHERE The European integration project has made the discussion about transnational spaces for cultural and political debate acute. Can there at all be a common Europe without a pan-European public sphere, where potentially common values and ideas can be formed and transnational political institutions can find their legitimacy? [ more ]
Free speech Free speech is a fundamental human right and a central tenet of democracy. Or is it? Reactions to the Danish cartoon controversy show that liberals are re-evaluating what the right to free speech entails. [ more ]
Translation Our understanding of the field of translation studies has in recent years taken on many more meanings and now encompasses spheres beyond the usual textual dimension: Translation today is as much about the translation of cultural, political, and historical contexts and concepts as it is about language. [ more ]
The Eurozine network at a glance
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Focal points