The ‘68 movement in Germany originated in shifts of culture and lifestyle before turning political, and even violent. The historical contribution of ‘68ers is not limited to what happened in the 1960s and 70s, argues Aleida Assmann; in the 1980s it was formative in the emergence of a new Europe.
Essays | Eurozine
19 June 2018
A blow to the democratic dream
Data-driven political marketing and electoral hacking follow a similar principle: focus on the weakest link in the chain, whether susceptible individuals or voting machines in swing states. On what the Cambridge Analytica scandal reveals about the new arts of political campaigning.
18 June 2018
Against indifference
There is little hope for the release of Ukrainian political prisoners in Russia during the World Cup. However, Oleg Sentsov’s hunger strike will not have been in vain if it causes people to question the platitude that ‘sport is above politics’.
14 June 2018
What is international?
In May, fifty years on from the events of 1968, the ‘The Kyiv International – ’68 NOW’ project reflected on the political and cultural heritage of the revolt and struggle of that year. In particular, the project’s curator and the head of Kyiv’s Visual Culture Research Center (VCRC) Vasyl Cherepanyn asks, where is the idea of internationalism today?
12 June 2018
Uncertain territory
The international order has never been tidy or complete, always having had lands with contested sovereignty. The breakdown of empires is the most common catalyst for producing new aspirant states. The post-Soviet space is especially rich in these territories, as Thomas de Waal explains.
During the Crimea crisis, Ukrainian filmmaker, writer and Maidan activist Oleg Sentsov took part in distributing food to Ukrainian soldiers blockaded by Russian troops. He was arrested in Crimea in May 2014 and taken to Russia, where he was sentenced in 2015 to twenty years in prison on terrorism charges. In a short biographical piece, published in German translation in ‘Transit’ and republished here, Sentsov recalls his first exposure to official corruption during his schooldays. Sentsov has been on hunger strike since 14 May to campaign for the release of the approximately 70 Ukrainian political prisoners held on the territory of the Russian Federation.
In 2008, Belgian journal ‘La Revue Nouvelle’ published an interview with Arkady Babchenko, in which he explained why his experience of serving in the Russian army in Chechnya had motivated him to become a war reporter. In light of Babchenko’s recent staged murder, in order to foil a genuine assassination plot, the interview makes for chilling reading.
Much of the language used in corporations is meaningless. What’s more, it is meaningless by design. Bullshit can be profoundly dangerous and make people despair – but it can also help them make their way in the world, reports André Spicer.
David Reich’s pioneering study of ancient DNA might have caused some ructions among social scientists – but it’s set to revolutionise our ideas about human migration and identity, reports Peter Forbes.
