For many Belarusians, Lukashenka offered shelter from the upheavals of the 1990s. But when Soviet nostalgia began to fade, faux utopia gave way to an eternal authoritarian present. Since Summer 2020, the future has returned to Belarus. What form will it take this time?
For three decades, Memorial has delivered the facts that have enabled Russians to seek the truth about the Soviet past. Without its research, international accounts of the GULAG would also have been impossible. The attempt to close the NGO is the latest move in the Putin regime’s attempt to monopolize history.
Frantz Fanon’s impact is as important today as it was when he wrote ‘The Wretched of the Earth’, a political work that assesses violence, both of colonists and activists. Glänta commemorates the psychiatrist and political philosopher’s life and work, highlighting his influence on postcolonial theory and anti-racism, in an interview with historian Michael Azar.
Scientific pundits fear that the spread of anti-science will destroy western civilization, while covid-sceptics panic about a lurking dictatorship in which freedoms are sacrificed to healthcare measures. Where is the truth? And how is the ongoing public health crisis changing our relationship with science?
Since Ukraine’s referendum for independence in 1991, the country has seen its fair share of ups and downs. Over the past thirty years, Ukraine artists have been exploring issues of identity amongst the ruins of utopia yet have only recently gained recognition.
Tune in for a live conversation with journalists on how migration and refugees are represented in India, Thailand and Bangladesh, in contrast with European media trends.
New COVID-19 variants keep the international public anxious, and this crisis, permeating all social, economic and political spheres, isn’t even in full bloom yet. Although impossible to contain, it also highlights many potential solutions, which had been lying around for a long time without the political will to act upon them. In gearing up for the much bigger turmoil of an ecological nature, we need to stop concentrating on global centres of power, and give more credit to young motivated people.
Thousands are accused of witchcraft and killed each year across the globe. The social and political roots of sorcery accusation-related violence are complex; those who survive are often shamed into silence. How can the violence be halted in places such as Papua New Guinea, African countries, India and the UK?
A virus and its impact described in closed terms: when under pressure, socio-political narratives often become divisive; perceptions can become negatively transfixed. To understand what has gone wrong right now, we need look at how the problem is framed.
Standing up for your country’s social and ecological wellbeing can be a desperately meaningful undertaking when deep-seated corruption lies behind the struggle: the exodus of many Romanian protesters attests to the high personal risks that have compounded solidarity both at home and abroad over decades of action.
In Poland, a weak democratic culture collides with unfamiliarity with the historical values of the European Union. Rebuilding the rule of law means explaining to citizens that the constitution is there to protect them. The alternative may be Polexit.
The migrant crisis at the Polish–Belarusian border is being used by Lukashenka to divert international attention from the repression of the democratic opposition. But it also suits PiS, which by staging the crisis as a battle for Polish sovereignty is shoring up support among its own electorate. Still, the rest of Europe cannot simply point the finger.
With infection rates on the rise, restrictions are newly coming into force. Experience suggests that lockdowns have a harsher impact on certain sectors of society: young adults, especially those who are already vulnerable, face some of the pandemic’s worst consequences. Yet their needs often go unmet. A Franco-Canadian study suggests a revised approach.
Petr Fiala’s replacement of Andrej Babiš as head of the Czech government is being seen as a refutation of the last four years of corruption, anti-Europeanism and populist instability. But this Manichean narrative, encouraged by the opposition during the campaign, ignores deeper tendencies within Czech politics.
Since the COVID-19 pandemic hit, learning and teaching have come under additional strain both at school and in the home, exacerbating existing weaknesses in the system. How to move forward – to diminish rather than increase inequality, to question the labour market’s hold over education and to uphold academic freedom — is critical for students, parents, teachers and society as a whole.
Strategies for addressing unemployment rates often involve reforms in higher education. Yet bridging the perceived gap creates its own deprivations. Analysing discourse and policy in the European context points to a strong neoliberal agenda behind labour market-oriented changes at universities.