Feed
donate Islam and democracy
The history of an approximation
iran In Iran, official revolutionary dogma has obliged "post-Islamist" philosophers to provide profound justifications for Islam's compatibility with democracy. Katajun Amirpur puts contemporary Iranian thinking on religion and politics in the context of Khomeini-era anti-westernism. [ more ]
Change must start from within
Roma integration: EU rhetoric and institutional reality
interview European member are now answerable to the European Commission regarding the integration of Roma. But what are the chances of national policies succeeding if structural anti-Roma racism exists within European institutions themselves? [ more ]
The de-politicization of politics
Democracy The challenge for a liberal democracy is to remain as such, argues Charles Taylor in conversation with Slawomir Sierakowski. Western democracies suffer two types of deterioration: a misperception of really existing problems and a lack of vital tension between the demos and the government. [ more ]
The last crusade
Values The claim that Christianity embodies the bedrock of European cultural values simplifies both the history of Christianity and the roots of modern democracy, argues Kenan Malik. Ironically, the defenders of "Christendom" draw on the same politics of identity as Islamists and multiculturalists. [ more ]
Traces that won't go away
The Gastarbeiter fifty years on
labour migration The first Turkish "Gastarbeiter" arrived in Germany fifty years ago. Since then, their reception in German society has swung between enthusiasm and hostility. Yüksel Pazarkaya summarizes the history of the migrant workers, drawing conclusions for today's debate on integration. [ more ]
Vibrant matter, zero landscape
Interview with Jane Bennett
philosophy Philosopher Jane Bennett explains what she understands by "vital materialism" and why rightwing religious rhetoric led her to entertain the notion of an "undesigned order of materiality" possessing "the dynamic, incalculable, awesome and awful qualities elsewhere ascribed to God". [ more ]
Even nameless horrors must be named
Essay It is high time to lift the aesthetic state of emergency that has surrounded witness literature for so long, writes Steve Sem-Sandberg. It is not important who writes, nor even what their motives are. What counts is the "literary efficiency". [ more ]
Aftershock
11 September A decade after the destruction of the Twin Towers, we need to resolve that "Islam", as a singular noun, or "Muslims" as a collectivity are simply not good things to think with or about, let alone for or against. Stephen Howe tracks the tremors after 9/11. [ more ]
The sustainability of democracy
On limits to growth, the post-democratic turn and reactionary democrats
democracy Emancipation, the central demand of democracy, has come to mean liberation from restrictive social and ecological imperatives. Before proposing radical participatory solutions we need to ask how democracy itself serves the politics of unsustainability, argues Ingolfur Blühdorn. [ more ]
Age of insecurity
privacy Cooperation between the communications industry and governments creates unprecedented opportunities for surveillance. Lets not repeat the mistakes of the past and allow companies to assume that users are uninterested in what happens to their data, urge Gus Hosein and Eric King. [ more ]
Focal points click for more 
Social media 
