Nietzsche’s critique of science as displaced theology echoes in reservations about epidemiologists’ political role during the pandemic. But if governments and citizens often expect from science a form of deliverance, many others are convinced that science is part of a plot to deceive us. Perhaps the problem lies not with science but belief itself?
Industrialized nations have heavily plundered natural resources for around 160 years. It’s now payback time. The US and EU, having just pledged to significantly reduce carbon emissions by 2030, link environmental recovery with economic opportunity. Will their innovation challenge coax other leading nations away from fossil fuels in time?
Arriving or leaving? Perceptions of immigration and emigration differ. When a country like Italy has experienced both en masse, what occurs when a pandemic hits and movement is restricted? What are the repercussions?
The GRU has left a trail of violence across Europe. Revelations that it was behind the 2014 explosions in Vrbětice worsen relations not only between Prague and Moscow, but also pro and anti-Kremlin camps within the Czech Republic. The weak Babiš government may fall even before the parliamentary election in October.
The dictate of ‘systemic importance’ is being used to purge all forms of culture resistant to marketization. A newly strengthened alliance between the cultural sector and civil society has emerged in response. But an anti-democratic backlash is also gaining ground, not least from within culture itself.
The urgency of the climate crisis demands individual ethics as much as a willingness to cooperate with power. But reconnecting humans with the natural world also forces us to revisit the promises of ever-growing efficiency and a culture of exploitation.
Global capitalism took a surprise hit when the container ship Ever Given ran aground, bringing mass transportation to a standstill. An environmental protest could not have staged a more spectacular blockade: the incident points to a murky history of worker exploitation, intensified fossil fuel consumption and racist quarantining.
In an era when the sole approved artistic doctrine in the USSR was Socialist Realism, the Moscow collector George Costakis built up a unique body of Russian avant-garde art, alongside numerous early Russian icons, revealing deep-rooted links between the two genres.
In an insane game of geopolitical musical chairs, some post-Soviet European states try to cast themselves as Central, although they don’t feel quite the same way about their neighbours. Why won’t they just identify with the East? A pair of reads from opposite ends of the Union offers fresh insight into the discourse of Central Europe.
Milan Kundera defined a European as someone who is nostalgic for Europe. But one need not share this pessimism to derive nourishment from European intellectual and cultural traditions. On the idea of Europe in the work of five Central European writers of the twentieth century.
Bulgaria’s veto of accession negotiations with North Macedonia last November was a populist anachronism. Stability in the Balkans depends on the success of North Macedonian statehood. This in turn can only be guaranteed by European integration.
The meritocratic premise of modern schooling serves merely to reproduce inequalities. In order to prepare young people for the challenges of the twenty-first century, the purpose of schooling must be fundamentally rethought. Green European Journal talks to political scientist Edouard Gaudot.
In an attempt to distance themselves from the post-Soviet realm and signal their belonging to the West, some countries have revived the label of ‘central’ European. But instead of bringing down the walls of prejudice, this discourse fuels further exclusion by meddling with philosophic geography.
I was going to write a fiery editorial for Women’s Day about how the pandemic has eaten up women’s time and energy – but then I ended up homeschooling instead.
While much of the current day anti-vaxx sentiment is rooted in conspiracy theories, some fears have real historical experiences underlying, which must be reckoned with. Aro Velmet looks into how a yellow fever vaccine, rolled out in French West Africa during World War II, may have killed thousands over more than four decades.
Drought, floods and tropical night syndrome: the 2020 drought killed all crops in Bessarabia and the deepest Ukrainian lake is drying out rapidly, while the Black Sea could rise by 50 cm, displacing ¾ million people. Ukraine faces climate change already and Mariana Verbovska offers snapshots of the impacts and the efforts to mitigate them.