Many Russians were happy to exchange the freedoms of the 1990s for a stream of oil money and a concept of ‘order’ guaranteed by a paternalistic leader. Following western sanctions, a massive expansion of the military industrial complex secured the loyalty of oligarchs and compensated for the loss of superpower status. Putin’s popularity may be wavering, but the demands he caters to are stronger than ever.
Articles
The reaction of artists and celebrities to the result of the re-run Istanbul municipal elections, in which Tayyip Erdogan’s ruling AK Party lost to the opposition CHP, leads Varlık to explore the complex relationship between art and politics. At the centre of the issue is the question: ‘Which is more political: the artist or their work?’
Caroline Muscat learned the dangers of running an independent news website in Malta after journalist Daphne Caruana Galizia, the country’s most prominent journalist, was assassinated and she herself was sued for libel.
In search of lost time
On the current role and future tasks of philosophy
Philosophy: what is it good for? ‘It‘s complicated‘, says Dialogi editor Boris Vezjak, as he asks what can be done about a field of enquiry that seems so detached from the world.
Recommended topics
The end of the liberal world as we know it?
Two Walls in 1989
While the rest of the world concentrated on the fall of the Berlin Wall, another wall in China brought about a different type of change. The economic power the most populous country has accumulated is now challenging the western claim that only liberal democracy would provide ideal circumstances for capitalism.
A recent study shows that cultural journals in Estonia provide a space for criticism not provided by larger media. The Estonian cultural journal sector is among the best-funded in Europe. Despite a conservative definition of the medium – only print journals qualify for support – journals retain full independence and the field is diverse.
On the organic diversity of literature
Notes from my little astrophysical observatory
How can a writer possibly contribute to averting catastrophic climate change? By putting literature into an ‘ecological template’, writes the Icelandic poet and novelist Sjón. Together, writers are responsible for the ecosystem of literature as a whole.
Eurozine review
Art and politics in Erdogan’s Turkey
Varlik 7/2019
The reaction of artists and celebrities to the result of the re-run Istanbul municipal elections, in which Tayyip Erdogan’s ruling AK Party lost to the opposition CHP, leads Varlık to explore the complex relationship between art and politics. At the centre of the issue is the question: ‘Which is more political: the artist or their work?’
Protecting justice against new threats
Index on Censorship 2/2019
Democracy is about more than ‘one person, one vote’, says novelist Robert Harris in Index on Censorship. In this issue, authors from Brazil, Hungary, Venezuela, and elsewhere, look at how new populist regimes hamstring democratic life by taking control of judicial systems.
Fragile hopes for philosophy
Dialogi 3–4/2019
‘The neoliberal era of financial capitalism, the ideology of consumerism and the mentality of nihilism’ have transformed the traditional role of philosophy, argues Dialogi editor Boris Vezjak. In a themed issue, Slovenian authors inquire what happened to philosophers as public intellectuals.
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Focal points
When the Cold War came to a sudden end thirty years ago, the two halves of Europe declared in unison their intention to overcome the legacy of the division. Today, the hopes and ambitions of those heady days can be viewed as unrealistic at best. But is talk of a new East–West divide justified? A new Eurozine focal point asks what happened to ’89 in the intervening years.
Internet technologies are being used in ways that raise far-reaching questions about the resilience and sustainability of democratic systems. And they have fundamentally impacted on understandings of the political, transforming democracies from within.
Cultural journals have played a crucial role in the formation of the public spheres in Europe and beyond. Looking at their history helps understand where they are headed. A Eurozine focal point in collaboration with the Working Group on Periodicals Research.
Fake news has become big news. Post-truth is the new paradigm. Respect for facticity is becoming, by all accounts, a commercial anachronism. And behind it all, the spectre of an illiberal international waging ‘info-war’ against western democracies.
Eurozine Network
Eurozine monitors upcoming funding opportunities on the international level relevant to cultural journalists, such as translation funds, mobility grants and project funding.