How can we avoid the prevailing stereotypes of ‘Africa’? How can we overcome the obsessive association of the continent with certain geopolitical markers? How do we stop seeing it as an endless reservoir of raw materials and a market for cheap goods? The new issue of Springerin develops alternative approaches to the discourse of ‘liberation’.
In Krytyka Polityczna online, Kamil Fejfer writes on the precarious working conditions of Ukrainian migrant workers and the unscrupulous practices of many Polish employers; Sławomir Broniarz talks about the recent teachers’ strikes and why they lacked popular support; and Piotr Wójcik criticizes ineffective infrastructure projects aimed at countering Poland’s drought problem.
In il Mulino, Stefano Feltri compares Merkel and Sarkozy’s lack of confidence in Berlusconi’s reforms in 2011 with the spectacle of Salvini rubbing shoulders with Le Pen, Wilders, et al. Both were ‘unequivocally images of Italy’s isolation in Europe. In the past this was hard to bear and always denied, but now it is proclaimed with pride.’
In ‘Osteuropa’, political scientists and journalists speculate on Ukraine’s ‘president without qualities’. The familiar cycle of hope and disappointment turbo-charged by social media’s disruptive technology. Also, a dossier on the sociology of the war in Ukraine.
Host looks at the Czech fascination with the Nordic countries, which predates the Scandi-noir craze by more than a century. Also, two Wikimedians parse the EU’s Digital Single Market Guidance, arguing that it will change the way the internet works – at least for
individual users.
The reaction of artists and celebrities to the result of the re-run Istanbul municipal elections, in which Tayyip Erdogan’s ruling AK Party lost to the opposition CHP, leads Varlık to explore the complex relationship between art and politics. At the centre of the issue is the question: ‘Which is more political: the artist or their work?’
Democracy is about more than ‘one person, one vote’, says novelist Robert Harris in Index on Censorship. In this issue, authors from Brazil, Hungary, Venezuela, and elsewhere, look at how new populist regimes hamstring democratic life by taking control of judicial systems.
‘The neoliberal era of financial capitalism, the ideology of consumerism and the mentality of nihilism’ have transformed the traditional role of philosophy, argues Dialogi editor Boris Vezjak. In a themed issue, Slovenian authors inquire what happened to philosophers as public intellectuals.
Czech magazine A2 profiles Slovak investigative journalist and novelist Árpád Soltész, whose new book ‘Swine’, inspired by the Kuciak affair, has caused a publishing sensation. Also, a sober assessment of the Million Moments for Democracy movement, and a discussion of the politicization of folklore in Hungary.
Esprit’s summer issue, edited by Camille Riquier, considers the idea that capitalism has replaced God with money. Because the thirst for wealth ignores the blood of the poor, the community of money is based on a breach of trust. Do new currencies make a difference? Can we make money visible again, and hence master it?
In the latest issue of Czas Kultury, Anna Paprzycka makes the case for programming languages to be credited as a means of artistic production. In a second focus, the terms ‘people’, ‘nation’ and ‘race’ are scrutinized.
‘Whoever cultivates the vocation of politics must have a sensibility for human idiosyncrasy,’ writes il Mulino; ‘for the flashes of light and the layers of dirt, for the unexpected failures and sudden scrambles that make it unpredictable.’ And this is even more true of one of the most unpredictable of cities, Rome.
In its June issue on ‘The Algerian uprising’, Esprit pays tribute to the democratic and non-violent movement that started on 22 February 2019. The whole nation, carried by its youth, demanded the end of a corrupt and authoritarian regime. The concern for democratic dignity allows Algeria to recover its historical consciousness.
In the June issue of ‘Merkur’, Jan-Werner Müller responds to advocates of ‘talking to the right’. Liberals need to enter the political fray and try to win over their illiberal opponents. However, liberalism must also define its red lines when engaging with populists.
The Catalan journal reflects on the position of the refugee in society, and also delves into kitsch.
Drawing on Erdoğan’s war on the prices of certain agricultural produce, the June issue of the Turkish journal Varlik explores the politics of the potato.