Articles

Although celebrated as a gesture of solidarity, the act of applauding essential workers is really a form of social distancing from them. It is the fate of heroes that their bodies are being used to climb to the heights of national glory.

Seventy-five years after the end of the Second World War, another war is being fought in its shadow. The ongoing Ukrainian-Russian conflict is fuelled by recycled Soviet cliches. Memory of the victory over fascism, first weaponized by the Kremlin during the Orange Revolution, continues to frame the Russian view of Ukraine.

Corralling homeless people into gymnasiums and building walls around Roma settlements: the COVID-19 measures show their ugliest face when it comes to the overpolicing of marginalized groups. A European survey.

The corona pandemic has brought globalization’s defects into sharp relief. Across the spectrum, neoliberalism is being challenged. Can the narrative of beneficent globalization be revived? And as US hegemony fades, can the institutions of global governance survive?

The recent embarrassment of the ‘New York Times’ over its story on Kremlin-orchestrated disinformation on US health science felt like the nail in the coffin of the ‘all roads lead to Putin’ narrative. Common sense now says that the new propaganda thrives best under democratic conditions.

Ever since the 2008 crisis, cultural journals have been facing increasing financial, political and market pressures. Ann Ighe reviews the issues affecting Eurozine partner journal editors who met funding representatives on what became the eve of European COVID-19 lockdowns.

In the months before the corona pandemic, the BBC had been battling for its political survival under a constant barrage of criticism. Then, as the crisis hit and ratings for news services rose, the government’s anti-BBC rhetoric started to disappear. Has the emergency changed attitudes to the broadcaster?

The Trump administration’s failing response to COVID-19 has prompted governors and mayors to step up and even form shadow federations to coordinate their efforts. Lifelong New Yorker George Blecher reflects on the first phase of the coronavirus crisis in the US.

Sensationalism has focused on fistfights over toilet rolls, but the real story is the withdrawal of democratic oversight, and how little public resistance there is to the declaration of martial law. Power granted is power conceded; and power relinquished is power reclaimed with difficulty.

The coronavirus pandemic took the spotlight from the refugee crisis on the Greek border with Turkey in early March long before a political solution could be reached. Now, the two situations have merged into a poly-crisis.

The Ukrainian government’s pandemic response has got dramatically different reviews. The Zelensky administration declared a strict lockdown early on and has mobilized big business, enjoying wide popular support, but anti-corruption activists and established intellectuals remain suspicious. Nataliya Gumenyuk asks who to trust.

COVID-19 found societies not only unprepared but also unaware. Koray Caliskan and Donald MacKenzie ask why social sciences have taken so little interest in pathogens. In comparing humans and viruses, they reveal the risks of an overly anthropocentric focus. Perhaps it’s time to rewrite the books?