Cultural journals have played a crucial role in the formation of the public spheres in Europe and beyond. Looking at their history helps understand where they are headed. A Eurozine focal point in collaboration with the Working Group on Periodicals Research.
Post-revolutionary Ukrainian society displays a unique mix of hope, enthusiasm, social creativity, collective trauma of war, radicalism and disillusionment. With the Maidan becoming history, the focal point ‘Ukraine in European Dialogue’ explores the new challenges facing the young democracy, its place in Europe, and the lessons it might offer for the future of the European project.
The focal point presents the findings of the project ‘Eurasia in Global Dialogue’ being carried out at the Institute for Human Sciences, Vienna (IWM). It is edited by Clemena Antonova at the IWM. The focal point is an extension of the earlier focal point, ‘Russia in Global Dialogue’ that ran in Eurozine and at the IWM from 2012–2018 and was edited by Tatiana Zhurzhenko. Further texts have been contributed by journals in the Eurozine network.
Digital technologies are increasingly seen as an antidote to the complaints of ‘post-democracy’. However, the impacts of digital media on democratic processes also need to be seen critically. Covering issues of digitization, disinformation and post-truth politics, this focal point, based on discussions that took place at the 28th European Meeting of Cultural Journals, asks whether internet technologies are saving democracy, or whether democracy is being delivered up to the forces of illiberalism.
Austerity policies have contributed to social fragmentation and the rise of populist nationalism across Europe. However, alternative inter-local forms of mobilization around the commons may yet revive solidarities and keep the prospect of a common Europe alive.
In the aftermath of the 2008 financial crisis, questions of inequality and solidarity have become intertwined. Over the past year, however, questions of solidarity have also been central in connection to the treatment of refugees and migrants.