Can democracies deal with climate change?

Trust in the ability of political elites to deal with the eco-social consequences of climate change is evaporating. Reaching eco-political targets calls for more participation of citizens as active architects of their society, write Claus Leggewie and Harald Welzer. [more]

The populist moment

Unlike the extremist parties of the 1930s, the new populist movements do not aim to abolish democracy: quite the opposite, writes Ivan Krastev. What we are witnessing is a conflict between elites suspicious of democracy and increasingly illiberal publics. [Slovak version added] [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. [Slovak version added] [more]

The creativity fix

In Richard Florida's "creative city", the creative class dissolves the classical division between the productive bourgeoisie and the bohemian. But creativity strategies have been crafted to co-exist with urban socio-economic problems, not to solve them. [German version added] [more]

Literary perspectives: Sweden

Beyond crime fiction, handbags and designer suits

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. [German version added] [more]

Zero confidence

Banks collapsing, homes repossessed, jobs disappearing... no wonder the world is in despair. Steven Lukes turns to Emile Durkheim to make sense of the real depression. Is there a remedy for "the malady of infinite aspiration"? [more]

Nowadays

On resignation

Attention has to be paid to the individual victims of a small minority in pursuit of limitless and obscene wealth and power, writes Giuliano Mesa. Resignation in the face of the dominance of economic logic must be resisted! [more]

From subprime to slump?

This year the world has seen the power of money to socialize the costs of capitalist crisis, but are prices going to go on rising to Weimar-like levels? Jon Amsden explores the origins of the crisis and discerns something worse than inflation on the horizon. [more]

The red carpet

Communication and drug terrorism in Mexico

Drug trafficking is "a highly productive industry" in Mexico, writes Juan Villoro. Corruption, a severe lack of freedom of expression, and excessive violence characterize the country as it is today. [more]

Something to declare

The Universal Declaration of Human Rights has been criticized from all sides since its inception sixty years ago. Conor Gearty calls for a fresh definition of this most humanist value. [more]

Fragile new Europe

Despite talk of a "unified European plan" to combat recession, the motto among EU member states seems to be "each to his own". The financial crisis is reimposing the divide between eastern and western Europe, writes Mircea Vasilescu. [more]

Editorial

The poet D. Šimko / Populism

[more]