Articles

Rejecting the classical liberal defences of free speech, Eric Heinze insists that the strongest case for free speech is grounded on specifically democratic principles. And that hate speech bans can never claim a legitimate role in fully fledged democracies.

In an interview conducted before Euromaidan commenced, Don Kalb discusses the future of capitalism in eastern Europe. Given the rise of China and India, and economic stagnation in the West, Kalb emphasizes the importance of political mobilization in both Ukraine and Russia.

Today’s media, combined with the latest portable devices, have pushed serious public discourse into the background and hauled triviality to the fore, according to media theorist Arthur W Hunt. And the Jeffersonian notion of citizenship has given way to modern consumership.

Three months of Maidan have led to the victory of a spontaneous micro-economy over macro-corruption, writes Nataliya Tchermalykh. That is, the victory of an economy based on grassroots collaboration and policy, as a prerequisite for everyday life.

Jonathan Bousfield talks to three award-winning novelists who spent their formative years in a Central Europe that Milan Kundera once described as the kidnapped West. It transpires that small nations may still be the bearers of important truths.

Steffen Kverneland describes how the medium of the comic book opens up new approaches to biographies of artists. And how, in his graphic biography of Edward Munch, he lets a little light and air and humour liven up the sad, slightly dull atmosphere that tends to surround the painter.

To write is to write one’s way through the preconceived and into the world on the other side, to see the world as children can, as fantastic or terrifying, but always rich and wide-open. Karl Ove Knausgård on creating literature.

In this article based on Fabiani’s speech at the Eurozine conference in 2013, the sociologist situates the events of Zucotti Park and Tahrir Square in a continuum that points to how future innovation may enable a global public sphere to overcome democratic fatigue.

The West must start to put its long-term interests above the instant gratification of London bankers, German gas traders and real estate dealers all over Europe, who are yearning for Russian money. Then the new Cold War can be won, writes Vladislav Inozemtsev.

An anti-gender campaign initiated by the Roman Catholic Church in Poland made gender a permanent fixture on the front pages of Polish newspapers as 2013 drew to a close. Karolina Wigura and Jaroslaw Kuisz introduce a new series of articles from Kultura Liberalna.

Film director Agnieszka Holland considers the anti-gender campaign of the Roman Catholic Church in Poland a political attempt to cover up the Church’s own problems; and contends that being a white, heterosexual, conservative Catholic Pole cannot be the only respectable way of living.

The Roman Catholic Church in Poland is not merely scaremongering about gender: it wishes to seriously reflect upon the topic, insists Marcin Nowak. And despite the potential of every idea, including liberalism and Christianity, to become an ideology, serious dialogue will follow.

As shallow as it is reductive, containing no attempt at scholarly or exegetic analysis: this is Piotr H. Kosicki’s verdict on the pastoral letter published 29 December 2013 by Poland’s Roman Catholic bishops, condemning “gender ideology”. So what could the bishops have been thinking?

It has almost become a commonplace that Ukrainian nationalism is anti-Semitic by nature. Vitaliy Portnikov refutes this stereotype by showing that both Jews and Ukrainans were under Russian dominance and thus not at home in their country. The Maidan has finally provided a chance to build a modern political nation where Jews can be Ukrainians.

Ahead of local elections at the end of March and presidential elections in August, Tigrane Yegavian looks into the influence that the Gülen movement wields in Turkey and beyond; and why this puts it on a collision course with the ambitions of its former ally, prime minister Erdogan.

Corporatization is transforming what activists and NGOs conceive of as being realistic and possible in terms of desirable change. Genevieve LeBaron and Peter Dauvergne examine recent trends that raise crucial issues about the future of global citizen action.