On 25 February 2018, the bodies of investigative journalist Ján Kuciak and his fiancée Martina Kušnírová were discovered in their village house in western Slovakia. Each of them had been shot dead. Kuciak’s murder is the first of a journalist in modern Slovak history. Samuel Abrahám, editor of Eurozine partner journal ‘Kritika & Kontext’, penned this response.
Whether as heritage or as kitsch, landscape is often thought of as being detached from everyday life. In literature, too, human history tends to be separated from geography. Writing from the Balkans reminds us of this intimate connection, says British poet Fiona Sampson.
Vladimir Putin’s ‘ordinary bloke’ appeal is cultivated through calculated breaches of political decorum. Donald Trump’s transgressions also cement his popularity, even if he lacks the traditionally masculine self-restraint of his Russian counterpart.
A vicious cycle of destitution locks large numbers of Hungarian women into sex work. Moving to western Europe to avoid prosecution, their vulnerability and isolation only increases. Réka Kinga Papp on systemic exploitation in the European sex trade.
Appeals to the European Court of Human Rights to enforce the ‘right to truth’ in connection with the Franco regime and the Katyń massacre have been refused on procedural grounds. A long history of delayed justice has become a permanent case of justice denied, argues human rights lawyer Grażyna Baranowska.
North and South, East and West, centre and periphery – the dichotomies with which Europe’s constitution is riven have profound cultural-historical roots. Particularly the schism between the Byzantine and Graeco-Roman cultures is a persistent source of friction, writes the renowned Romanian art historian and philosopher Andrei Pleșu.
Poland’s ‘Holocaust law’ criminalizing any claim that Poles shared responsibility for Nazi crimes has caused major rifts with its foreign allies, above all Israel and the US. Yet the international indignation is also selective, writes André Liebich.
This paper attempts to analyse the methods of organising the work and life of participants in contemporary circulation of the arts (artists, curators, critics, freelancers) which I explain with the use of the category of structural opportunism.
Poland’s predominantly state-owned forests cover a third of the country’s territory and are heavily endowed with national mythology. Anthropologist Agata Agnieszka Konczal explores connections between Poland’s forests and collective memory, and the role of Polish foresters as ‘guardians of the nation’.
The city of Matera will be a European Capital of Culture in 2019. At the heart of a deprived area that was once a byword for southern Italian poverty, it has undergone major changes since 1945, thanks to government intervention and growing tourism. Mariavaleria Mininni looks at how its prospects continue to change.
Russian theatre director Kirill Serebrennikov, arrested in August 2017 for alleged fraud, is the victim of the cultural backlash following Putin’s re-election in 2012, writes Marina Davydova. His case is a lens through which to understand Russia’s problems.
Between post-human globalization and nationalist withdrawal, the ecological question pushes us towards the earthly ground. Traditionally rejected as reactionary, ‘the question of belonging to a particular soil’ has suddenly become urgent for the Left. An interview with Bruno Latour (1947–2022).
The implicit link between immigration and crime has found its way into the political mainstream in Europe, write lawyers Laetitia Sanchez Incera and Maria Vittoria Salvatori. Safeguarding the individual becomes a challenge to the ‘politics of fear’.
Democrats have forgotten whatever promises they made to listen to their opponents, establishment Republicans have been left aghast, and not even Trump’s core support has seen much in the way of reward. As Trump’s star begins to wane, the polarization will increase, predicts George Blecher.