In the wake of the US presidential election, the severity of the crisis facing liberal representative democracy is clear. The need for a civil domain has never been greater, argues sociologist Pascal Gielen. What options are left to creatives still prepared to imagine a better world?
Constitutional conflicts, foreign policy upheavals and media spats: one frenetic month into the Trump presidency, Americans are still in a state of shock. With the madness set to continue, it’s time for a petrified opposition to start making some noise.
Against the background of an anxiety-ridden debate around threats to a European identity, Fatima El-Tayeb looks at how exclusionary spatio-temporal structures are being remixed throughout Europe to create a trans-local and trans-ethnic counter-discourse.
In interview, Christian Iaione discusses the concept of the “co-city” – a city that is both cognitive and collaborative – which has been implemented in Bologna. Could this mark the beginning of a new era of urban co-governance? And what do the rise of bottom-up initiatives mean for the future of the welfare state?
The defence and regeneration of the commons depends both on meaningfully strengthening EU participative policy processes, and on greater responsiveness to local civic communities. Following the first European Commons Assembly, Sophie Bloemen and David Hammerstein consider current and future options for co-creation, stewardship and social and ecological sustainability.
Housing estates can accommodate many people, but they rarely bring residents together, creating instead an atomized mass of individuals. However, public space can be cultivated, even among blocks of flats. And the school can play a key role in creating a shared environment and civic involvement, as seen in the example of a project in Košice, Slovakia.
Urban life requires that less land be developed for settlement and reduces traffic volumes. Moreover, commoning practices can provide products required on a daily basis at reduced cost, while using fewer resources and improving quality of life. Fred Frohofer argues for the restructuring of our cities and their relation to rural regions.
Beginning in Athens’ Syntagma Square in summer 2011, a new wave of anti-austerity protest swept across Europe. Commoning practices became crucial to sustaining these movements’ momentum. Lazaros Karaliotas considers the implications for reorganizing urban life today.
Not content with controlling service providers and intimidating users, the Kremlin is turning to China for technology to filter Russian cyberspace. Beijing is all too willing to lend a hand.
Global economic, informational and migratory flows cause the nation state to seem increasingly outdated. Yet individual rights are still best protected through national citizenship, argues historian Dieter Gosewinkel. In the course of the twentieth century, ethnic and discriminatory forms of citizenship gave way to an inclusive concept that is worth preserving today.
The American poet Rita Dove talks to Kosovar author and poet Ag Appoloni about her influences and artistic development, and about the importance of African American history in her work.
Award-winning filmmaker Marco Salustro describes the journalistic challenges of covering the plight of the thousands of migrants who have fled sub-Saharan Africa and are now being held in Libya.
Screening immigrants to identify radicals, as is now happening again in the US, may also filter out migrants with moderate world-views. The political influence of the hardline anti-communist diaspora during the Cold War shows how ideological vetting can exacerbate geopolitical tensions.
Nitra is a small city of around 78,000 in western Slovakia, nestled at the foot of a castle-crowned hill. A walk down the main drag, Štefánikova Street, paints a picture seen across provincial former Habsburgia: there’s brand new infrastructure, shiny new buses but no jobs. Since December 2015 a small group of Christian refugees from Iraq have called this small town their home away from home.
While Moscow’s support of the Front National appears to be waning in advance of the French presidential elections, its ties with Austria’s far right have been cemented by a unique agreement. What does this say about Russian strategy in western Europe?
Britain’s vote to leave the Union and the advent of a US president who regards the EU as dysfunctional pose a major challenge to the remaining 27 members. Whether the EU continues to decline depends on whether Germany and France can strike a new bargain to strengthen the eurozone after their elections this year.