The products of Hungary’s post-truth laboratory are being received with increasing scepticism, while in Estonia the European elections will be a test of nerve following March’s general election. In Belgium, at least, things are just about holding together.
Francis Fukuyama’s argument that far-right identity politics were pioneered by the left has been criticized as blame-shifting. But this is a partial reading, he counters: identity politics are inherent to the democratic ethos and rooted in modernity itself. Understanding their use by the far-right enables us to form a response.
High drama has characterized political life in all three countries during the run up to the European elections in May. The Left is to form a government for the first time in 20 years in Finland but nationalist populism is no less a force there than in Slovakia or the Netherlands.
A combination of institutional arrogance and neoliberal policy has broken the link between EU and its citizens. And yet, as the mass demonstrations in support of EU membership in Britain since the Brexit vote show, Europe can still inspire affection. To continue to be worthy of such sentiments, the EU must develop forms of integration beyond rules and markets.
Hopes of a smooth transition from ‘goulash communism’ to market economies have long since been dashed by the ‘post-Soviet mafia-state’ in Hungary. But to what extent are liberal intellectuals themselves responsible, through their elitist disdain for the rest of the population, for the decline of democracy in Hungary?
In a system in which inequality, consumption and the desire for recognition correlate, giving plays a central role: gifts express our sense of our own value as much as that of others. Only by legitimizing areas of acknowledgement beyond economic success can we move towards a more inclusive form of giving, argues sociologist Alain Caillé.
European memory culture is being undermined from two very different directions: first by resurgent far-right revisionism, second by the new subjectivism in historical methodology. Rather than relying on new technologies to preserve memory, we need to return to the event, to physical place, and to direct communication, argues Claus Leggewie.
The number of deaths caused globally by antibiotic resistance is increasing at alarming speed. The problem is well known, but governments and pharma appear not to take it seriously. Progress in bacteriophage research gives cause for optimism, however: using CRISPR gene editing technologies, these organisms can be deployed as an alternative to antibiotics.
‘Merkur’ publishes an alternative explanation of eastern Europe; ‘Vikerkaar’ excavates the Estonian everyday; ‘Kultūros barai’ says the Soviet past belongs to Lithuania; ‘New Humanist’ discusses nationalisms, antibiotics and health apps; and ‘Atlas’ disapproves of cultural snobbery and the return of cynicism.
‘Blätter’ answers the critics of Fridays for Future; ‘La Revue Nouvelle’ puts forward a trade unionism 2.1; ‘New Eastern Europe’ debates geopolitics after ’89; ‘Letras Libres’ asks what Europe has done for us; ‘Arche’ remembers the life and works of a forgotten Belarusian sculptor; ‘Ord&Bild’ gets into sci-fi; and Host explains why Czech literature in translation shouldn’t be ‘too Czech’.
‘Osteuropa’ compares degrees of toxicity in Russia and Turkey; ‘Varlık’ debates post-Kemalism; ‘Czas Kultury’ explores Poland’s male retrotopias: ‘Esprit’ learns from the black sheep of Europe; ‘Il Mulino’ catches up with Italy’s diaspora; and ‘Rigas Laiks’ talks mad philosophers, linguaphiles and stray dogs.
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.
Journals met in Vienna for the 29th time: 2018 was a twofold anniversary: 35 years since the first European Meeting of Cultural Journals in 1983, and 20 years since the foundation of Eurozine as an online publication
Read up on the background of the past two weeks’ big debates, from Eurozine’s archive
Eurozine monitors upcoming funding opportunities on the international level relevant to cultural journalists, such as translation funds, mobility grants and project funding.
