The 21st European Meeting of Cultural Journals

Crosswords x mots croisés

The 21st European Meeting of Cultural Journals will take place in Paris, 26-29 September. This year's meeting is organized by the European network of cultural journals, Eurozine, and its French partners Sens Public, Multitudes and Esprit, in cooperation with Ent'revues. The conference is part of the "Saison culturelle" of the French EU presidency 2008 and will take place in the Cité nationale de l'histoire de l'immigration.

More than 100 editors and intellectuals from Europe's leading cultural journals will participate in this event, and the programme includes seminars, debates, a cultural programme, as well as an exhibition displaying journals from more than 30 countries.

Theme

The 2008 Eurozine conference in Paris will explore multilingualism in Europe and its relation to critical publishing against the backdrop of media transformation and the consolidation of network structures. Confirmed keynote speakers and panellists include Michel Deguy, Eduard Glissant, Geert Lovink, Abram de Swaan, Ruth Wodak, Clarisse Herrenschmidt, Patrick Chamoiseau, Gérard Wormser and Barbara Cassin. Workshops will be organized by Daho Djerbal, André Chabin, Odile Chenal, Yannick Maignien, and Ghislaine Glasson Deschaumes. Panel discussions and workshops will be held in French and English with simultaneous translation provided.

Three axes of reflection will structure the conference:

1. Multilingualism/Territories/Migration. Firstly, the conference will thematize the cultural, political, and institutional aspects of multilingualism. How can we think about the relation between place, language, and self-definition in a postnational world without promoting identitarian linguistic politics? What language is spoken by what Europe? What are the communicative prerequisites for transnational public spheres? Can we accept approximate translations in a multilingual context instead of a lingua franca? How are we to deal with otherness and the borders of translatability?

2. Networks/Common(s). Secondly, the conference will investigate new ways of social formation in postmodern societies. What forms of collaboration can be recognized, what are their languages, what are their media? What structures arise and what degree of institutionalization do these new associations require? How much "in common" does a network need ­ how much "in common" can plural societies tolerate?

3. Publics/Publishing. Thirdly, the conference will question the future of political and cultural journals as interventional media. Ten years after the foundation of Eurozine, the editors of the partner journals will return to what for them are central issues: How do print and online media behave in relation to the (multilingual) public sphere? How can political and cultural journals exploit the transformation of the media in a progressive manner? Can they do so? What, then, is the mandate and the impact of journal publishing?

See the programme here

Crosswords maintains a multilingual, collaborative working platform of the same name on the Internet. It will aid the conceptual preparation and theorization/problematization of the conference. Here, a discussion can take place that experiments in vivo with the overlaps between multilingualism, the public sphere, and digital networks. Contributions by and conversations with well-known authors such as Rada Ivekovic, Homi Bhabha, and Etienne Balibar can be commented upon by conference participants and will form the basis for the printed conference journal. This will have a high print run and be distributed free of charge during the conference and at the European Social Forum 2008.

Co-organizers

The web journal Sens public offers a space for interdisciplinary exchange and debate in a cosmopolitical perspective. It contributes to the promotion of the plurality of languages, cultural diversity and sharing of knowledge, attracting a monthly lectorship of fifty thousand people. Deeply involved in media change and digital publishing, Sens public is also a non-profit association which engages in university and institutional partnerships, organizes seminars and cultural events and publishes books.

Multitudes is a political, cultural and artistic quarterly. Established in March 2000, it is the backbone of a transnational editorial collective. For Multitudes, politics and knowledge lie outside the walls of the dedicated institutions. Its goal is to experiment with new conditions of political enunciation and agency while sketching out problematics that run across the fields of political eoconomy, philosophy, artistic practice and the emergent cultures of cyber-freedom. Multitudes takes interest in the analysis of all forms of domination, but it also strives to detect the construction of new spaces of creation and liberty.

Esprit is a monthly journal dealing with current affairs. Founded in 1932 by Emmanuel Mounier, directed by Olivier Mongin since 1989, the journal hosts philosophers, historians, sociologists, writers, and journalists who take part in contemporary debate. Aside from helping to develop existentialist and personalist theories, and its involvement in anti-colonial activities, Esprit contributed in its long history to the creation of a non-marxist French left and gave its support to Eastern European dissidents at the times of the Iron Curtain.

Founded in 1986, Ent'revues has become the major French network for cultural journals. Librairians, booksellers, writers, scolars and editors come together at the annual fair (Salon de la revue) as well as at regular round tables and workshops organized by Ent'revues to promote cultural journals in France.

Conference venue

The Cité nationale de l'histoire de l'immigration is a museum of immigration history and located in the Palais de la Porte Dorée. The building has housed a succession of ethnological museums, starting with the colonial exhibition of 1931. With its controversial history, the Palais seems an ideal place for a debate on multilinguality, migration and new forms of cooperation.

Accomodation and travel

Hotel

Hotel Ibis and Etap Porte de Bercy

All participants and speakers will stay at the Hotel IBIS/ETAP Paris Porte de Bercy.

Hôtels Ibis and Etap Porte de Bercy
2, place de l'Europe
Paris Bercy 2
Phone: +33.1.49.77.55.55
Website

For changes and extra nights:
Please check with the Paris conference office and not directly with the hotel.

Travel

Getting to the hotel from Charles de Gaulle Airport: Take the RER B to Châtelet-Les Halles, change onto Metro 14 in direction of Olympiades. Get off at Cour St-Emilion. From there, it is only one stop with the 24 and 109 buses to Parc de Bercy, right in front of the hotel.

Getting to the hotel from Orly Airport: Take the Orly Bus to Denfert-Rochereau. Take the RER B to Châtelet-Les Halles, change onto Metro 14 in direction of Olympiades. Get off at Cour St-Emilion. From there, it is only one stop with the 24 and 109 buses to Parc de Bercy, right in front of the hotel.

Hotel – map

Getting to the opening venue at Hotel de Ville from Charles de Gaulle Airport: Take the RER B to Châtelet-Les Halles, change onto Metro 1 in the direction of Chateau de Vincennes. Get of at the next stop. You come out directly in front of Hotel de Ville.

Getting to the opening venue at Hotel de Ville from Orly Airport: Take the Orly Bus to Denfert-Rochereau. Take the RER B to Châtelet-Les Halles, change onto Metro 1 in the direction of Chateau de Vincennes. Get of at the next stop. You come out directly in front of Hotel de Ville.

Getting to the opening venue at Hotel de Ville from the hotel: One of the organizers will pick you up on Friday evening. If you want to go on your own, take the 24 bus to Gare de Lyon and change for Metro 1 in direction of La Défense. Get off at Hotel de Ville.

Hotel de Ville – map

Getting to the conference venue from the hotel: There is a foot path across the Bois de Vincennes to the CNHI; the walk takes twenty minutes. One of the organizers will pick you up after breakfast and show you the way. If you prefer to take the bus, the PC 2, leaving at Bercy-Poniatowski close to the hotel will take you in 6 minutes to the Porte Dorée stop, where the CNHI is located.

CNHI – map

Other useful websites: RATP, SNCF, Thalys

Visa

When arriving from non-EU countries: Please make sure that you have a valid visa for France. Please don't hesitate to contact the Paris office if you need any assistance.

Internet

There will be WLAN access at the CNHI. Please bring your laptop with you.

Main sponsors

Sponsors

Media partner

Affiliations

Further information

Congrès européen des revues (EUROZINE)
Maison des Sciences de l'Homme Paris-Nord
4, rue de la Croix Faron
F-93210 Saint-Denis
Phone: +33.1.55.93.93.34
Mail: roman.schmidt (at) sens-public (dot) org

The Paris Conference office is available to give you any further information.
We look forward to seeing you in Paris!

Steering committee

Carl Henrik Fredriksson (Eurozine Vienna), ch.fredriksson@eurozine.com
Gérard Wormser (President Paris based co-organizers), gwormser@free.fr
Gérard Doublet (Managing Director Paris based co-organizers), gdoublet@noos.fr

Conference management and crosswords journal
Roman Schmidt, roman.schmidt@sens-public.org

Header image: Klaus Speidel

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 ]