Articles

The legacy of the European Capital of Culture project of 2012 in Maribor is characterized by the project’s steady implosion, writes Boris Vezjak. After the hype and the corruption, and in the absence of any new infrastructure whatsoever, the city has learned its lesson.

For the time being, it seems that nothing on Earth is capable of reducing the release of carbon emissions into the atmosphere. But if the global consensus among scientists as to the causes of climate change is not enough to effect change, what is?

Like Joyce’s Ulysses, Nabokov’s Lolita was once smuggled through customs in suitcases. Tim Groenland tells the unlikely story of how Nabokov’s classic ever came to be published in the first place and then go on to become a commercial success.

It’s never been more difficult to form new political movements that do justice to the connection between the local and the global, as well as the abstract and the concrete. Olav Fumarola Unsgaard on the rise and fall of the social forum movements of the past two decades.

Hiring staff and selecting contributors is dependent on quality, qualifications and specialist skills but not gender, writes Dialogi editor-in-chief Emica Antoncic. Gender-oriented quotas are therefore not an option and would not deal with the root causes of inequality anyway.

Merkur have confronted the predominance of male contributors to the journal with an issue produced exclusively by women. That this had little lasting impact may rest upon the essay genre itself, together with gender-specific time economies and even expectations concerning quality.

Genero focuses on feminist theory, which means that a majority of those working on the journal are women. However, the publication is committed to publishing quality articles written by authors of both genders, writes deputy editor-in-chief Katarina Loncarevic.

As a journal of feminist history, one principle of L’Homme since its foundation has been to support historians in the field in as many ways as possible. Articles reflect the strength of German-speaking scholars, as well as the diversity of related topics throughout Europe.

Syn og Segn aims to accomplish full gender equality among both staff and contributors. In 2012, the journal dealt with a wealth of gender related topics, ranging from homosexuality in Viking times, through the muxe of Mexico, to gender issues among modern Norwegian women.

The latest issue of Spilne is on gender and labour. Two thirds of the authors are women, largely because of the preponderance of female scholars in gender studies. The journal’s website, which includes a section devoted to material on feminism, allows a more informal approach to gender issues.

Given that politics is traditionally seen as a male area, commissioning women writers is never easy for Soundings. One solution has been an attempt to redefine politics such that its agenda becomes more women-centred. However, explains Sally Davison, moves to equality usually involve the need for a redistribution of resources and can cause conflict.

The benefits of greater dialogue between female and male authors are not limited to the treatment of gender as a topic per se, writes Magdalena Malinska. Which is why the Polish quarterly Res Publica Nowa is increasingly publishing articles co-authored by female and male authors.

There can be no doubt that cultural journals need to take gender into account in the context of their daily activities. But, write Marc-Olivier Padis and Alice Béja, associated procedures should also be adapted to the journal’s size and mode of functioning.

The periodical translation of news into words and the associated analysis that constitutes the print medium, writes Victor Tsilonis, is no longer enough. It cannot attract a wider audience. The answer: humorous, issue-specific poster, social media and video campaigns.

Saskia Sassen compares the impact of two kinds of socio-technical formations on the public sphere: electronic capitalist elites concentrated in global cities and globally networked, local social activist movements. Both have the power to transform existing political and economic systems.