7-8/2006
Critica de art? [Art criticism]

"Esprit" editor Marc-Olivier Padis outlines why a strong platform for European debate has yet to emerge and the role that cultural journals can play in establishing one. Among the most urgent issues for discussion: liquid modernity, cultural decentralization and the dilemmas of an open society. [ more ]
"Arena" and "Fronesis" show class is back with a vengeance; "New Eastern Europe" fleshes out a definition of solidarity; "Dublin Review of Books" discovers that the German language is not so bad after all; "dérive" writes of rats with wings and other urban species; "Index on Censorship" watches free speech take a beating as economic crisis kicks in; "Il Mulino" berates Italy's hybrid and infertile brand of capitalism; "Revolver Revue" is concerned at the post-communist order of things; "Host" announces the arrival of David Foster Wallace in the Czech Republic; and "Magyar Lettre" warns against using the Velvet Divorce as a model for dismantling Europe.

Political economistst and Keynes biographer Robert Skidelsky explains the reasons for the failure of the current anti-crisis policy and how Europe can start to grow again. Listen to the full debate organized by Krytyka Polityczna. [more]
Norman Davies discusses the hidden history of Europe with Luuk van Middelaar, adjudging our present political superstructures according to the standards proved by the past. Video highligthts from a deBuren debate. [more]
Harbour cities develop distinct modes of being that not only reflect different cultural traditions and political and social self-conceptions, but also contain economic potential and communicate how they see themselves as part of the larger structure that is "Europe". [more]
Brought on by the global economic recession, the eurocrisis has been exacerbated by serious faults built into the monetary union. Contributors discuss whether the EU is not only broke, but also broken -- and if so, whether Europe's leaders are up to the task of fixing it. [more]
Broadening the question of a common European narrative beyond the East-West divide. How are contested interpretations of historical and recent events activated in the present, uniting and dividing European societies? [more]
In conversation with the sociologist Gilles Lipovetsky, novelist and Nobel laureate Mario Vargas Llosa discusses the relative merits of "high" and "mass" culture in the contemporary world. [more]
Disillusionment with democracy founded on mistrust of business and political elites has prompted a popular obsession with transparency. But the management of mistrust cannot remedy voters' loss of power and may spell the end for democratic reform. [more]
Social segregation, cultural appropriation: the six-hundred-year history of the European Roma, as recorded in literature and art, represents the underside of the European subject's self-invention as agent of civilizing progress in the world, writes Klaus-Michael Bogdal. [more]
Nationalism in Belgium might be different from nationalism in Ukraine, but if we want to understand the current European crisis and how to overcome it we need to take both into account. The debate series "Europe talks to Europe" is an attempt to turn European intellectual debate into a two-way street. [more]
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]
Eurozine's series of essays aims to provide an overview of diverse literary landscapes in Europe. Covered so far: Croatia, Sweden, Austria, Estonia, Ukraine, Northern Ireland, Slovenia, the Netherlands and Hungary. [more]
Is FEMEN the precursor of a bold new protest pattern, or has it been reduced to an organization of exhibitionists? As long as gender injustices multiply in Ukraine, the strength of FEMEN's message remains undiminished, argues Marian Rubchak. [more]
Multimedia section including videos of past Eurozine conferences in Vilnius (2009) and Sibiu (2007). [more]