Eurozine Review

What the corona crisis teaches us about the human side of medicine; how France’s response has revealed the impact of decades of neoliberalism; and why the pandemic may shake up the country’s education system.

‘Fronesis’ puts AI in social, political and historical context. Including articles on social democratic discourse on automation since the 1950s; the material conditions of the cloud; and the blindspots of ‘digital empiricism’.

‘Varlık’ concentrates on the attention economy: whether the corona crisis will wake us from the sleep of social media; the novella as literary form for our distracted times; and why the pandemic did not take place (homage to Baudrillard).

‘Kultūros barai’ blasts the Lithuanian government’s coronavirus response, saying that behind the statistics-driven PR and business-friendly attitude lies a reality of shortages and chronic failure to address underlying causes.

‘Osteuropa’ surveys the politics of COVID-19 in eastern Europe, including case studies on Hungary, Poland, Czech Republic, Belarus, Ukraine, Russia and Central Asia. How far does the pandemic pose a threat to autocrats in the region?

‘New Eastern Europe’ focuses on the situation in Donbas: why, six years after the start of hostilities, western Europe still needs to be reminded that Putin is waging war against Ukraine. Also, insights into the escalation in Russian–Polish memory wars.

‘Il Mulino’ on democratic socialism’s demise after ’89: including articles on Italy’s split left; anti-welfarism and the ‘undeserving poor’; and why schooling is crucial in combatting social disarticulation.

‘Esprit’ on the alliance between Christians and anti-establishment populists; illiberalism and the transformation of democracy; the EPP and the ‘Hungary question’; and why ‘The Joker’ captures the political zeitgeist.

‘Ord&Bild’ publishes a big issue on India and Europe. Including articles on the Europeanization of novelist Nirmal Verma; Akbar’s forgotten multiculturalist legacy; the silent suffering of refugee filmmakers; existentialism in Indian literature; and faith in Hindi cinema.

The new issue of the Flemish journal ‘rekto:verso’ informs us about historical monsters, monsters in the movies, and monsters at the circus. But it also discusses monsters that aren’t always recognizable as such: the embodiments of monstrousness experienced in multiple ‘Others’.

The Norwegian NGO Iris Center is one of the few aid organizations with a presence in the overcrowded refugee camp on the Greek island of Chios. Interviewed for ‘Syn og Segn’, volunteer Janne Hegna speaks of the hopelessness felt after the 2016 EU–Turkey agreement to curb migration to Europe. Also: a focus men’s mental health.

French journal ‘Revue Projet’ publishes a dossier on ecological thinking. Including articles on why catastrophism won’t save the planet, and how decolonization recasts the environmentalist project.

Lest dissent seem easy from afar, ‘Index’ offers a global range of case studies showing ‘why and when we choose to censor ourselves’. Including articles on China’s CCTV culture, media dependencies in France, microchipping in Sweden, the crisis of Bulgarian journalism and much more.

Belgian journal ‘La Revue nouvelle’ reflects on individualism and criticisms made of it. Why collective behaviour is by no means absent in contemporary society; what burnout tells us about social change; and whether individualism is necessary for creativity.

When a group experiment carried out by the Frankfurt School in the 1950s revealed Holocaust denialism, it was rejected on methodological grounds, writes historian Johannes Platz in ‘Mittelweg 36’. It was not until the 1960s that the concept of the group became central to ‘the formatting of the social’.

A special issue of ‘Novoye literaturnoye obozrenie’ addressing Tsarist and Soviet colonial rule, alongside post-colonial Russian influence. Including articles on literature and decolonization in Tajikistan, the return anti-feminism in Kazakhstan, and the erasure of colonial history in Russia.