For the autistic mind, the world is a complicated tangle of signs that refuses its own decoding. If autism is construed as a source of power, however, frustration can be transformed into creativity and self-expression.
Articles
The description of Russia’s anti-Putin protests of 2011–12 as ‘middle class’ was only partially accurate and used to discredit them. The middle class label applies even less to the Belarusian protests of 2020, whose core message is that dignity and respect are not reserved for a privileged minority.
Biden’s victory was not the decisive win that the Democrats had been assured. So why did the polling failures of 2016, that so underestimated Donald Trump’s influence with voters, persist into 2020? Historian Claire Potter canvassed for the Democrats and has some explanations.
Pessimists fear that the Trump phenomenon has not so much derailed American democracy as revealed long-standing problems in the system itself. But if the causes of the crisis are apparent, prospects of a way out are lacking in a country bitterly divided.
Recommended topics
Despite the ceasefire, Nagorny Karabakh’s status remains unclear. Any lasting solution must deal with the anxieties of precarious nations and unachieved statehood. On the historical roots of the long-standing conflict and the legal ambiguities of a war in contested territory.
The defence of democracy in France must continue to be a republican discourse, not one of libertarian nationalism. Critics of ‘Islamo-leftism’ engage in the very same process of blame-shifting that they accuse their opponents of – sometimes rightly.
Podcast: Glänta’s editorial scope
A conversation with Göran Dahlberg
Translation collaborations, philosophy parties, short videos, journals within journals – just some of the innovative means Glänta uses to reach beyond its base in Gothenburg, Sweden. Join Sarah Waring in peering around the cultural journal’s door with editor Göran Dahlberg in this episode of Gagarin, the Eurozine podcast.
The abortion ruling of Poland’s politically servile Constitutional Tribunal was a debt repaid to Law and Justice’s rightwing Catholic constituency after its re-election last year. The reaction has been the biggest wave of demonstrations in the country since 1989. But the protest movement may be less of a threat to the government than conflicts within the rightwing alliance itself.
Eurozine review
The truth about the electorate
Public Seminar 12+19 November 2020
Public Seminar blames the disappearance of local journalism for the over-dependency on polls. Also: why anti-racist literature may not signal a new conversation about race; and how schools remain arenas of exclusion in secular France.
Up with degrowth
Czas Kultury 3/2020
‘Czas Kultury’ explores new cultural narratives that test established social, political and economic mindsets: degrowth – the antithesis to post-communist consumption – meets end of the world stories infused with western values and conspiracy theories based on political collusion.
Literature that bridges the welfare gap
Vagant 1/2020
‘Vagant’ heralds writing that moves staid positions on the welfare state: freelance writer Henning Hagerup exposes Norway’s bureaucratic system; Christian Johannes Idskov notes the literary excellence and fated criminality of second-generation migrant Hassan; and Joni Hyvönen asks, Ken Loach: tragedian or saboteur?
Focal points
Is the term ‘fascism’ applicable to an authoritarian politician like Trump? Does the label ‘anti-fascist’ gloss over crucial controversies surrounding the term? And is Weimar a useful comparison when thinking about anti-democratic tendencies in the US, in the EU and globally? A new focal point in collaboration with Public Seminar.
Like sustenance and sex, society can’t be reproduced without shelter. That is why today’s housing crisis is so central. Contributions to this focal point look at both the winners and the losers of the crisis: the people profiting from the financialization of housing and those reimagining the right to the city.
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.
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 division. Today, the hopes and ambitions of those heady days may seem unrealistic. But is talk of a new East–West divide justified?
Eurozine Network
Eurozine monitors upcoming funding opportunities on the international level relevant to cultural journalists, such as translation funds, mobility grants and project funding.