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donate Freedom of speech and the Danish cartoon controversy
introduction Free speech is a fundamental human right and a central tenet of democracy. Or is it? Reactions to the controversy reveal strong divergences among liberals about what the right to free speech entails. [ more ]
How to become a real Muslim
offence The media has colluded with self-promoting but marginal Muslim clerics to create a cycle of self-reinforcing myths around the Mohammed cartoons. The fear of causing offence undermines progressive trends in Islam and strengthens the hand of religious bigots. [ more ]
See no evil
cartoon controversy "They have turned my book into another chapter of this fruitless debate." Jytte Klausen talks to "Index on Censorship" about the controversial decision of Yale University Press to publish her book on the Danish cartoon crisis without reproductions of the cartoons themselves. [ more ]
Pictures, provocation, and free expression
to reprint or not to reprint? The decision by some European newspapers to reprint the Mohammed cartoons smacked of arrogance and moral posturing, says the editor of Granta. [ more ]
Politics dressed up as principle
Something rotten in the state of Denmark? When the Danish prime minister defended the Jyllands-Posten cartoons on the grounds of freedom of expression, he failed to acknowledge his political loyalties. [ more ]
Say what you think
The importance of giving offence It is both inevitable and important that people offend the sensibilities of others, says Kenan Malik. Without that, society would be less progressive and alive. [ more ]
Playing the trump card
A human right? The current confusion over freedom of speech is the result of liberalism's persistence in seeing a "right" as something to be claimed rather than accorded. [ more ]
A new map of censorship
A human right! Is freedom of speech a universal human right? Ronald Dworkin defends a principle that should allow no compromise. [ more ]
Culture as battlefield
public sphere A sea change in the public sphere has brought a "language of ethical demands", in which religion becomes the medium of conflict, writes Isolde Charim. [ more ]
Regulation, reponsibility, and the case against censorship
public sphere Is there ever a time and a place for censorship? Not if the media understands its responsibilities, argues the BBC's head of news. [ more ]
Blasphemy
On the structure of mass insult
mocking the weak? Satire, a necessary instrument of rationalist critique, becomes triumphalist when directed at the humiliated. It was the perception of the Mohammed cartoons as the West's victorious mockery that so incensed the Islamic world. [ more ]
Can we say what we want?
protecting the strong? The action brought by Islamic groups against the French satirical paper "Charlie-Hebdo", after it reprinted the notorious Danish cartoons, recently fell through. Is free speech really in danger worldwide? [ more ]
Caught in the crossfire
Minorities in Eastern Europe The Belarusian government has cited offence caused by the reprinting of the Danish Muhammad cartoons as a pretext for a further crackdown on the independent media. Nevertheless, within parts of the Belarusian opposition, hostility towards Muslims is real. [ more ]
Schmucks and miniskirts
moderate Islam To restrict freedom of expression to mollify Islamic extremists is patronizing and offensive to moderate Muslims, according to Salil Tripathi. [ more ]
Getting used to offence
multiculturalism Should people in a multi-cultural society be protected from offence and insult simply because they demand it in the name of religion? A commentary on the British debate. [ more ]
Pride and prejudice
no laughing matter Religions tend to suffer from humourlessness – but that doesn't disentitle them to respect, says Tahar Ben Jelloun. [ more ]
The new paths of modern Islam
interpreting the koran In an interview about the Mohammed cartoons, Rachid Benzine advocates a new reading of the Koran with the instruments of the social sciences. [ more ]
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More focal points
Changing media – Media in change
Media-technological developments are causing a fundamental re-structuring of the newspaper and book publishing sectors, with traditional media locked in fierce competition with online newcomers for market superiority. Yet media change is about more than the "newspaper crisis" and the iPad: property law, privacy, free speech and the functioning of the public sphere are all affected. [ more ]
The bonfire of the universities
The uni's burning! The slogan was everywhere in the German-speaking space last winter, as the protests at the University of Vienna set off a wave of similar strikes, first at Austrian universities, then beyond: in Frankfurt, Heidelberg, Marburg, Zürich... 2009/10 saw further protests at universities in Athens, Zagreb, Marseilles and London. The Bologna Process, one of the main points of contention, also marked its ten-year anniversary on 12 March this year by officially inaugurating the European Higher Education Area. Eurozine surveys a debate enflaming (not only) Europe.[ more ]
Climate of change? Debating the politics of global warming
Agreement about the necessity of radical ecological change may be unprecedented, yet rhetoric and reality go their separate ways; what looks good on paper fails to resonate in social and political practice. Will the Copenhagen Climate Summit be able to bring together word and deed? Or will business continue as usual in the global greenhouse? A Eurozine focal point debates the politics of global warming. [ more ]
Dilemma 89
Twenty years after 1989, most former communist states in central and eastern Europe are members of the EU. Yet the transition from closed to open societies is far from "complete". Fierce debates rage over lustration and information surfacing from secret police archives, over corruption inherited from communist power structures, and over dominant representations of the communist past. Clearly, 1989 is not only an historic moment of liberation, but also a political and social dilemma for the present day.
Media landscapes: Central and eastern Europe
Those in central and eastern Europe who, after 1989, saw the media as the handmaiden of democracy and the conventional watchdog on power, today have become targets for new and subtler forms of censorship. How media autonomy in Europe's newer democracies is being inhibited by market forces and continuing political intervention. [ more ]
The malady of infinite aspiration?
Sound in principle or sick at heart? Articles on the financial crisis, compiled under Durkheim's memorable phrase. Including: Jacques Rupnik, Ralf Dahrendorf, Daniel Daianu, Mircea Vasilescu, Heiner Flassbeck, Olivier Mongin. [ more ]
Olympic indifference
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 ]
Shared space, divided society
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. [ more ]
1968: Beyond soixante-huite
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 ]
Illiberal Europe?
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 ]
Cultural citizenship
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. Contributors include Gerard Delanty, Axel Honneth, Rainer Bauböck, Ivaylo Ditchev, Charles Taylor, Rada Ivekovic, António Sousa Ribeiro. [ more ]
Decentring Europe
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, i.e. absorbing the full critical impact of alternative approaches may be a key element in the rethinking – and unthinking – of "Europe".[ more ]
The future of war
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 ]
The city as stage for social upheaval
From the western European city to the Third World megacity, one is able to observe how a single principle asserts itself in the social structure of the urban space. That principle – privatization – is geared towards the concentration of wealth and assets on an increasingly global scale, a manoeuvre its beneficiaries seek to naturalize. [ more ]
Big Brother goes global
Post 9/11, governments are increasingly tailoring "international standards" to ratify domestic policies that intrude on civil liberties. Welcome to the phenomenon of "policy laundering". [ more ]
Changing Europe
As political Europe turns 50, the questions about its future are as open as ever. A special focus featuring some of Eurozine's most outstanding contributions on the European project: From analyses of the current crisis to a hilarious parody of Brussels' literary ambitions. [ more ]
Post-secular Europe?
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 ]
European histories: Towards a grand narrative?
In order for there to be solidarity within the enlarged EU, it will be necessary to develop a broader historical consciousness that includes both western and eastern experiences. [ more ]
Europe talks to Europe: Towards a 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? [ more ]
Politics of border making and (cross-)border identities
Have borders become irrelevant with the project of a united Europe? No, just the opposite. On the dilemmas of border building and cross-border cooperation in the EU and its neighbourhood. [ more ]
Documenta 12 magazines
Eurozine is participating in the Documenta 12 magazines project, which links over 90 print and on-line periodicals worldwide. Read Eurozine's contributions to the documenta leitmotifs "Modernity" and "Bare Life" here.[ more ]
Politics of translation
Translation today is as much about the translation of cultural, political, and historical contexts and concepts as it is about language. [ more ]
Conferences
Changing places (What's normal anyway?)
The 20th European Meeting of Cultural Journals
Sibiu, 21-24 October 2007
Under the heading "Changing places (What's normal anyway?)", the Eurozine network conference 2007 in Sibiu, Romania, addressed the challenges facing societies, literature, and the media as the need for change meets the urge for normality. Read the conference texts here. [ more ]
Friend and foe. Shared space, divided society
The 19th European Meeting of Cultural Journals
London, 27-30 October 2006
Speakers at the 19th European Meeting of Cultural Journals opened up the discussion on cultural diversity in two directions: first, as it is experienced in the physical urban space, and second, as it is reflected in the mirror of the media. [ more ]
Neighbourhoods
The 18th European Meeting of Cultural Journals
Istanbul, 4-7 November 2005
Contributions on the notion of neighbourhood and the Turkey-Europe question from a range of intellectual and geographic perspectives. [ more ]
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