http://www.eurozine.com Eurozine - the netmagazine publishes original texts on the most pressing issues of our times. We also present articles and reviews published in our partner magazines. The articles are available in several languages to open up a new public sphere for communication and debate. en netmagazine, articles and reviews Thu, 23 May 2013 13:21:11 +0200 Thu, 23 May 2013 13:21:11 +0200 http://www.eurozine.com/bravenewworld/RSS-Feed.html publick.net feed me ch.fredriksson@eurozine.com office@eurozine.com http://www.eurozine.com/articles/2013-05-22-eurozinerev-en.html "Wespennest" winces at a Europe poised between paralysis and renewal; "Mittelweg 36" applies the lessons of economic history; "Schweizer Monat" raises an eyebrow as John Gray ranks Keynes above Hayek; "Vikerkaar" homes in on the contribution of cultural journals to the European public sphere; "Akadeemia" scrutinizes the nature of (Kierkegaard's) writing and the writing of nature; "Lettera internazionale" mediates between history and memory; "Esprit" lists the perfect ingredients for an authoritarian drive á la Orbán; "Spilne" reveals the real reasons for the shortage of wives in the West; "Krytyka" brands Ukranian political science a pseudo-science; and "New Literary Observer" is bemused by Russian proposals to prohibit cats trampling. Wed, 22 May 2013 00:00:00 +0200 Eurozine Review en http://www.eurozine.com/articles/2013-05-21-gray-en.html The destination of intellectual journeys, remarks John Gray, is unknown at any one time. Utopianism, on the other hand, usually ends in disaster. Thus the radical anti-communist of the 1970s finds Marx's analysis of capitalism prescient today and rates Keynes above Hayek. Tue, 21 May 2013 00:00:00 +0200 John Gray, René Scheu en http://www.eurozine.com/articles/2013-05-17-padis-en.html "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. Fri, 17 May 2013 00:00:00 +0200 Marc-Olivier Padis en http://www.eurozine.com/articles/2013-05-17-valjataga-en.html "Vikerkaar" editor Märt Väljataga braves the cross currents that accompany ideas and their communication in transnational contexts, with a view to assessing the contribution of cultural journals to the public sphere. He discovers an ongoing process in which persistence pays off. Fri, 17 May 2013 00:00:00 +0200 Märt Väljataga en http://www.eurozine.com/articles/2013-05-16-dastoli-de.html Pier Virgilio Dastoli advocates a federal future for the European Union if the current imbalance of power is to be redressed. A federal approach will also help seal success in the areas of energy, criminal law, industry, social questions, international security and economic governance. Thu, 16 May 2013 00:00:00 +0200 Pier Virgilio Dastoli, Milvia Spadi de http://www.eurozine.com/articles/2013-05-10-timofeeva-en.html The recent proliferation of new taboos in Russia seems to know no limit, according to philosopher Oxana Timofeeva. She shows how proposals for new legislation to curb noise pollution may reveal more about the animal inside us all than the authorities could dream. Fri, 10 May 2013 00:00:00 +0200 Oxana Timofeeva en http://www.eurozine.com/articles/2013-05-07-amir-de.html Doves are a symbol of peace, purity and fertility. They were once of practical use too: until science intervened, dove droppings were essential to the manufacture of fertiliser. So just how did they end up at the bottom of the urban symbolic order? Fahim Amir investigates. Tue, 07 May 2013 00:00:00 +0200 Fahim Amir de http://www.eurozine.com/articles/2013-05-08-jergovic-en.html The presidents and prime ministers of Balkan countries have convinced Europe that they represent the only guarantee that the Balkans will not descend back into war. It is through this kind of counterfeit politics that Croatia has arrived at the threshold of the European Union. Wed, 08 May 2013 00:00:00 +0200 Miljenko Jergovic en http://www.eurozine.com/articles/2013-05-08-bauman-en.html Who will outsmart who, who will be kicked out first? This is the job market, and probably society at large, reduced to the level of reality TV, writes Bauman. However, though the spirit of solidarity is in exile, it would be premature to give up on the prospect of its return just yet. Wed, 08 May 2013 00:00:00 +0200 Zygmunt Bauman en http://www.eurozine.com/articles/2013-05-08-eurozinerev-en.html "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. Wed, 08 May 2013 00:00:00 +0200 Eurozine Review en http://www.eurozine.com/articles/2013-05-08-simoni-it.html Reforms implemented without logic or consistency have cost Italy the economic dynamism it achieved in the 1980s. A hybrid and infertile capitalism is the outcome, writes Marco Simoni, leaving Italy with the highest number of young people in Europe who are neither studying nor employed. Wed, 08 May 2013 00:00:00 +0200 Marco Simoni it http://www.eurozine.com/articles/2013-05-06-blecher-en.html He pointed a way for American fiction out of the doldrums of postmodernism, writes George Blecher. For a culture troubled by the corrosive commercial media and closed-end systems underpinned by technology, David Foster Wallace's influence remains a force to be reckoned with. Mon, 06 May 2013 00:00:00 +0200 George Blecher en http://www.eurozine.com/articles/2013-05-03-odoherty-en.html With German-bashing now firmly established as a European "Volkssport", "Dublin Review of Books" editor Enda O'Doherty turns to the semi-barbarous German language; and finds that in the right hands, or expressed through the right vocal cords, German is indeed a very beautiful language. Fri, 03 May 2013 00:00:00 +0200 Enda O'Doherty en http://www.eurozine.com/articles/2013-05-03-muller-en.html Brussels is not empowered to be a policeman for liberal democracy in Europe. Not yet. But should it be? Following recent developments in Hungary and Romania, Jan-Werner Müller argues that it is legitimate for Brussels to interfere in individual member states as a democracy watchdog. Fri, 03 May 2013 00:00:00 +0200 Jan-Werner Müller en http://www.eurozine.com/articles/2013-04-09-stuttgen-de.html Jasbir K. Puar reflects on the politics of posthumanism, especially as they relate to questions of health and disability in an age of neoliberalism. She argues for integrating intersectional analysis of race, gender, sexuality, nation and disability with assemblage theory. Tue, 09 Apr 2013 00:00:00 +0200 Jasbir K. Puar, Tim Stüttgen de http://www.eurozine.com/articles/2013-04-30-druckrey-en.html As part of a special issue of "Springerin" on anti-humanism, Timothy Druckrey reflects on the role of apparatus in a system that incorporates and monetizes virtually every form of transaction via omnivorous detection algorithms that mine personal data. Tue, 30 Apr 2013 00:00:00 +0200 Timothy Druckrey en http://www.eurozine.com/articles/2013-04-29-newsitem-en.html Did Bob Dylan really do for popular music what Einstein did for physics? Should Dylan win the Nobel Prize for Literature? And what of his place in literary scholarship? The Einstein Forum reflects on five decades of Dylan's song writing and performing. Mon, 29 Apr 2013 00:00:00 +0200 Eurozine News Item en http://www.eurozine.com/articles/2013-04-26-maier-en.html The suggestion that the division of the social product is as urgent a problem as its overall growth has led to political economy returning to both history and current politics, argues Charles S. Maier. High time, then, to analyse deprivation, wealth and inequality on a world scale. Fri, 26 Apr 2013 00:00:00 +0200 Charles S. Maier en http://www.eurozine.com/articles/2013-04-24-iber-en.html Historian Patrick Iber argues that, while the age of liberal imperialism seems on the wane, a liberal order remains, as do the lessons of the last two centuries: exchange and contract between free nations works best when power between them is close to equal. Wed, 24 Apr 2013 00:00:00 +0200 Patrick Iber en http://www.eurozine.com/articles/2013-04-24-menzelevskyi-de.html The trauma of Chernobyl is being transformed into a commodity, or even a brand, writes Stas Menzelevskyi. This follows the release of films like "Chernobyl Diaries" and "Nuclear Waste", and, to an extent, the instrumentalization of the day of remembrance on 26 April. Wed, 24 Apr 2013 00:00:00 +0200 Stanislav Menzelevskyi de http://www.eurozine.com/articles/2013-04-24-nemec-en.html As part of a special issue of Czech literary magazine "Host" on attitudes to murder in real life and literature, the American writer David Nemec reveals a sub-plot to a notorious unsolved murder case in which reality remains stubbornly resistant to fiction. Wed, 24 Apr 2013 00:00:00 +0200 David Nemec en http://www.eurozine.com/articles/2013-04-24-lussault-fr.html More French residents can now afford to own a detached house than ever before, thanks in part to the tendency of government to favour this form of social ascendancy. As a result, urban and rural spaces are changing beyond recognition, writes geographer Michel Lussault. Wed, 24 Apr 2013 00:00:00 +0200 Michel Lussault fr http://www.eurozine.com/articles/2013-04-23-newsitem-en.html "Prostory", the Ukrainian magazine for culture and social critique, has joined the Eurozine network. Its young editors are dedicated to "rethinking the Ukranian public sphere" by connecting local analysis of current social issues with the cultural translation of foreign narratives. Tue, 23 Apr 2013 00:00:00 +0200 Eurozine News Item en http://www.eurozine.com/articles/2013-04-23-martin-de.html Sociologist of religion David Martin calls proponents of an aggressive "new atheism" to task for collapsing arguments over the relation between religion and violence into ahistorical conjecture. This poses a threat to both scholarly standards and public debate in general. Tue, 23 Apr 2013 00:00:00 +0200 David Martin de http://www.eurozine.com/articles/2013-04-22-lanchester-de.html John Lanchester, author of the 2012 London novel "Capital", describes how the whole of London has become a department store in which the streets are shelves and the houses goods for sale. It is here that his characters' lives play out, between the poles of homeliness and displacement. Mon, 22 Apr 2013 00:00:00 +0200 Josef Girshovich, John Lanchester de http://www.eurozine.com/articles/2013-04-19-standing-en.html Class has not disappeared. Instead, a more fragmented global class structure has emerged alongside a more flexible open labour market. This prompts Guy Standing to forge a new vocabulary capable of describing class relations in the global market system of the twenty-first century. Fri, 19 Apr 2013 00:00:00 +0200 Guy Standing en http://www.eurozine.com/articles/2013-04-17-keret-en.html Etgar Keret compares his role as an author of short stories and essays to that of a "court jester in the land of the convinced": a standpoint that opens up new and surprising angles on reality and, above all, generates great stories -- as this interview conducted in Riga, Latvia, proves. Wed, 17 Apr 2013 00:00:00 +0200 Etgar Keret, Ieva Lesinska en http://www.eurozine.com/articles/2013-04-16-bradbury-en.html Nicholas Bradbury made his literary debut this year with the novel "Market Farm", a reworking of George Orwell's "Animal Farm" for the free market era. He talks here about influences for his satirical take on the current financial crisis and potential grounds for hope for the future. Tue, 16 Apr 2013 00:00:00 +0200 Nicholas Bradbury, Almantas Samalavicius en http://www.eurozine.com/articles/2013-04-12-sanchez-en.html Social movements give validity to the rearguard, to the intellectual construction of a model that resists both attacks and criminalization, writes Juan Luis Sánchez. And as hundreds of people continue to be made homeless every day in Spain, the demonstrations can be expected to continue. Fri, 12 Apr 2013 00:00:00 +0200 Juan Luis Sánchez en http://www.eurozine.com/articles/2013-04-10-leisegang-de.html After Amazon coming under fire for the treatment of its pickers and packers in Germany, "Blätter" editor Daniel Leisegang finds that competitors are also suffering at the hands of the world's largest online retailer, whose aggressive high-growth strategy he compares to a fatal embrace. Wed, 10 Apr 2013 00:00:00 +0200 Daniel Leisegang de