Eurozine Review

Slovak journal Kritika & Kontext returns to Arendt on refugees and debates histories of the First Slovak Republic

Turkish online journal K24 looks at literature, urban life, and ecology, praising novelist Ayşegül Devecioğlu’s treatment of neglected people and places, interviewing novelist, critic, and scriptwriter Selim İleri, and examines the history and precarious future of Turkey’s forests.

The latest 2000 looks at the intersection between art and ethics, remembering forgotten Jewish-Hungarian star actor and theatre director Jenő Janovics, asking whether the greatest form of cowardice is to unquestioningly obey unjust authority figures, and taking another look at a photo-portrait of Marcel Duchamp that makes us reconsider the artist’s genius.

Index looks at the increasing barriers to free thought worldwide: including reports on journalistic self-censorship, freedom of expression for LGBT travellers, the roll-out of Chinese surveillance tech; and Germany’s latest spyware bill.

Midway through Macron’s presidency, ‘Esprit’ asks whether we have entered a new political world, with contributions on the crisis of democratic representation, the role of social networks, the mutations of political personalization and new forms of mobilization.

In the Norwegian edition of the monthly ‘Le Monde diplomatique’: the realities of plastic waste recycling; Catholic anti-modernism and the disappointment of Francis; and the early poems of Jan Erik Vold.

Norwegian quarterly ‘Vagant’ focuses on Michel Houellebecq: the former agronomist on a mission against righteousness. Also: the meaning of Houellebecq’s nicotine addiction and a Houellebecq lexicon from ‘air conditioning’ to ‘zapper generation’.

In Norwegian monthly ‘Ny Tid’ – the forum for essayistic reviews of international titles: contrasting histories of the age of British imperialism and green philosophy from Heidegger to Guattari.

Norwegian quarterly ‘Syn og Segn’ warns against the rise of agribusinesses: how to realize Norway’s potential for self-subsistence? Also, Iceland’s president Guðni Jóhannesson on the republic’s constitutional system.

In a dossier on media and public opinion, ‘Il Mulino’ debates hate speech and the new populism; reading habits and the crisis of critical thought; and traditional media’s susceptibility to disinfo. Also: an interview with Turkish-Kurdish writer Burhan Sönmez.

New Eastern Europe (Poland) focuses on growing interdependencies in the Black Sea region and the role of international actors in its development. Also: the long and complicated history of Ukrainian-German relations; and Kremlin cooption of Russia’s independent music scene.

New Eurozine partner journal ‘Culture & Démocratie’ (Belgium) calls out gender discrepancies in the cultural industries. Including Nadine Plateau on ‘subverting the symbolic’, Alexandra Adriaenssens on statistical effacement, and Bwanga Pilipili and Petra Van Brabant on educating for equality.

In Blätter, Birgit Mahnkopf refutes claims about automation’s brave new world: worsening job quality expected in exporting nations, massive unemployment set to disrupt the Global South. Also: controversy over the definition of the museum; and British parliamentarism beyond the ‘extreme centre’.

Tired debates over the artistic canon replace critique of sexism, racism and classism in education, argues Hanna Engelmeier in Merkur (Germany). Also: re-reading the GDR’s literature of disappointment, and national populism thought outside the liberal box.

An Estonian perspective on planetary ecological crisis: environmental contamination, return of diseases, urban heat islands, diversity decline – but also solutions for the future: greening Soviet-era architecture, transformation of regional economies, tax reforms and more.

New issue of ‘O’r Pedwar Gwynt’ (Wales), featuring Thatcher, the welfare state and Welsh pop, the wisdom of language, existentialism and mindfulness, and ‘pneumatic writing’ from the GDR.