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The non-efficient citizen
Identity and consumerist morality
Citizenship Consumerism grounded in indebtedness means financial dependence as opposed to democratic freedom. In the consumerist system, the individual who asserts him or herself through authentic freedom is regarded as a non-efficient citizen. [ more ]
Mobile citizenship?
Migration The "new mobility" implies new freedoms as well as new privations. The biographies of Bulgarian migrants reveal how the horizon of departure has become a basic dimension of the world. Mobility, writes Ivaylo Ditchev, will need to be taken more seriously in the anthropology of citizenship. [ more ]
Captain America died last year
4 July The long-serving American comic superhero was killed off last year in a bloody civil war. It's typical of a new introspection in US pop culture that's leaving fans throughout the rest of the world wondering what to think, writes novelist Dietmar Dath. [ more ]
East translates East
Diagnosing the present
"Diagnosing the present", a translation project between three Eurozine partner journals and supported by the Next Page Foundation, aims to add to an understanding of cultural, political, and intellectual life in contemporary eastern central Europe. Read the translations here. [ more ]
A look into the latest issues
We, the President
Journals digest "Le Monde diplomatique" (Berlin) enjoys the view from Slovenia's presidential balcony; "Krytyka" debates genocide; "Osteuropa" compiles a green book on eastern Europe; "Vikerkaar" revisits the Bronze Soldier debate; "Merkur" is wary of the Left's use of opinion polls; "Roots" poses the Macedonian question; "L'Homme" thematizes caring and fighting women; and "Esprit" watches the world in a hurry. [ more ]
Literary perspectives: Austria
Anything but a "German appendix"
Essay Austrian novelists are still routinely referred to as Germans despite recent critical and commercial success. From the new narrative "miracle" to the darkly humorous "writer's novel", Daniela Strigl finds a contemporary Austrian scene at the top of its game.
[ more ]
Read also All articles in Literary perspectives, Eurozine's series of essays providing an overview of diverse literary landscapes in Europe. [ more ]
BEHIND THE HEADLINES
A journey without maps
Zimbabwe Zimbabwean poet, novelist, and journalist Chenjerai Hove has been one of the many political dissidents to fall foul of the Mugabe regime over the last three decades. Here he recalls two incidents typical of the censorship that forced him into internal exile; and how, in exile outside his home country, he discovered new perspectives. [ more ]
Read also: Augusta Conchiglia, Mugabe's iron hand (de); and Doris Lessing, Robert Mugabe and the Zimbabwean tragedy (de).
Index on Censorship wins Amnesty award
Eurozine news item Index on Censorship has won the prize for best periodical in the 17th Amnesty International UK Media Awards. Articles from the recent issue "How Free is the Russian Media?" were described as "stunning defences of principle". Read them here. [ more ]
François Fejtö in memoriam
A clear head
François Fejtö (1908-2008)
Obituary Renowned Hungarian-French intellectual François Fejtö died on 2 June. Well into his nineties, François (or Ferenc) Fejtö remained an unassumingly honest thinker whose refreshing common sense and European viewpoint made him a matchless figure on the Left. [ more ]
Among reactionaries
François Fejtö (1908-2008)
In memoriam When, in 1989, François Fejtö returned fleetingly to Hungary after fifty years of exile, the eighty year-old found time to meet a great many of the intellectual founders of the nascent democracy. Ágnes Széchenyi recalls. [ more ]
In touch with a vanished world
In memoriam François Fejtö was a witness of the century for whom politics was not a science and intellectual engagement not an excuse for ideological blindness. Jacques Rupnik remembers their last encounter. [ more ]
Read also François Fejtö's account of Hungary, fifty years after the revolution (in French). [ more ]
Female football players don't have balls
Football You need balls to play football. So it is obvious that being a girl just won't do as far as the guys are concerned, says Gerd von der Lippe in a devastating critique of the state of affairs in the reporting and support of women's football in Norway. [ more ]
Beaches and graveyards
Europe's haunted borders
borders "It is more arduous to honour the memory of the nameless than the renowned." The epigram on Walter Benjamin's memorial in Portbou, Catalonia, leads Les Back to reflect on the fate of the African migrants found dead on the coasts of Spain today. [ more ]
Right of Berlusconi
Italy's fascists, hooligans, and radical Catholics
Italy With Silvio Berlusconi's election victory, the Italian far-Right is once again in a position to influence parliamentary politics. Karin Priester surveys the ideological background of the far-Right spectrum and the careers of its leading figures. [ more ]
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1968: Beyond soixante-huit
In focus Forty years on, the differences between the 1968 uprisings in western and eastern Europe move into ever sharper focus. "In retrospect, the great event of '68 in Europe was not Paris, but Prague. But we were unable to see this at the time." Including articles by Jacques Rupnik, Rudi Dutschke, Aleksander Smolar, Christian Semler, and Mykola Riabchuk. [ more ]
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In Focus
Shared space, divided society
Focal point: Cultural diversity Migration is part of modern society, meaning more and more people of different ethnic, religious, and cultural backgrounds live together in Europe. The multitude of perspectives and experiences represents an enormous resource, but as cultural conflicts inherent in today's urban societies become visible, doubts are also raised about the value of diversity. In cooperation with the European Cultural Foundation, Eurozine presents a broad take on the issue that goes beyond the common dichotomy between multicultural segregation and the forceful assimilation of the "melting pot".
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Editors' Choice
The dialectic of secularization
Religion and politics The opposition between "multiculturalism" and "Enlightenment fundamentalism" is misconceived, argues Jürgen Habermas. "The universalist claim of the political Enlightenment does not contradict the particularist sensibilities of a correctly understood multiculturalism." [ more ]
Not an island
Europe and the Middle East
Neighbourhoods Europe can play a major role in averting conflict in the Middle East, says Joschka Fischer. But does it have the instruments and institutions to do so? Given the urgency of the situation, can Europeans afford the luxury of being against Europe? [ more ]
Western front
Creationism The Council of Europe recently issued a resolution warning against the rise of creationism, based on a report that documented not only the existence of a strong Christian creationist lobby in Europe, but also the rise of Muslim creationism. Peter C. Kjćrgaard reports. [ more ]
From "big character posters" to blogs
Facets of independent self-expression in China
China Despite predictions to the contrary, the Internet has not brought about abrupt political change in China and is not likely to do so anytime soon. Its significance and implications for Chinese society lie elsewhere, writes Martin Hala. [German version added] [ more ]
Unacknowledged, unseen, unmentioned
Poverty in Europe
Poverty Impoverished German children dream of the US; one Greek person in four is in arrears with their most basic bills; sixty per cent of the poor in Romania have outdoor toilets. Cracks are appearing in Europe's beloved image of itself as the egalitarian alternative to the United States. [ more ]
Controlling words
publishing Press and publishing concentration in France is exceptionally high yet there is barely any protest from within the sector itself. Media monopolization is by no means only a French issue, however: throughout Europe and the US, profit has become publishing's bottom line. [Lithuanian version added] [ more ]
Modes of philosophizing
A round table debate
philosophy Should philosophy have something to say to non-philosophers? Should
it be pursued only by those trained in philosophy? And how should
analytic philosophy deal with other "modes of philosophizing"? "Cogito" poses some big questions to four prominent British and American philosophers. [ more ]
A lesson in Dylan appreciation
literary criticism When Christopher Ricks, author of critical works on Milton, Keats, and Eliot, turned his attention to Bob Dylan, critics grumbled that he could talk one into believing that even a phone book is poetry. Now that Dylan has won the Pulitzer Prize, they may have to reconsider. [ more ]
What makes a biopolitical space?
A discussion with Toni Negri
Urbanism "Soft" forms of activism that create urban collectivities on micro, neighbourhood levels only go so far, says Negri, who favours rupture and revolution over accumulation and gradual change. [German and Norwegian versions added] [ more ]
Read also Antonio Negri's and Judith Revel's manifesto The discovery of the communal. [ more ]
A history to be handed down
Interview with Lilian Thuram
"I'm not black, I'm French" The Caribbean-born French footballer Lilian Thuram talks about his longstanding interest in the history of slavery, about how sport can teach mutual respect, and why he still believes in the French model of integration. [ more ]
You've got to swing your hips!
A conversation with Feridun Zaimoglu
Interview "This whole ethnic crap gets on my nerves!" Forthright as ever, Feridun Zaimoglu explains why the discourse on integration and multiculturalism serves conservative interests and demonizes young Muslims. [ more ]
No coffee
Bourgeoisie What is it about coffee – and coffeehouses – that makes it so agreeable to the bourgeoisie? asks Jakob Norberg in a brief social history of the dark, rich brew. And of the bourgeois public sphere. [ more ]
Gallery for Cultural Journals at the Alte Schmiede, Vienna
news item Cultural journals have always been a central part of the programme at the Alte Schmiede (Old Smithy) in Vienna. Now, a broad selection of Austrian and European cultural journals, among them numerous Eurozine partner journals, can be read in their Gallery for Cultural Journals that opened on 11 February at Schönlaterngasse 7 in Vienna. [ more ]
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Eurozine conference
Changing places (What's normal, anyway?)
The "revolution to normality" was a crucial metaphor of 1989 and beyond. Yet, as speakers at the 2007 Eurozine conference pointed out, the slogan bears more emotive force than conceptual clarity. Today's eastern Europe is a changing place; traditionally, too, it has produced émigré writers who "changed place". Where better than Sibiu, Romania, to discuss "writing in exile?" [ more ]
Eurozine Focal Points
Illiberal Europe?
Focal point: The new populism Parliament or the soapbox? Populist politics are enjoying renewed success in Europe, above all in the former socialist countries. Ivan Krastev, G.M.Tamás, Ralf Dahrendorf, Jacques Rupnik and others investigate the rise of "democratic illiberalism". [ more ]
The city as stage for social upheaval
Focal Point From the western European city to the Third World megacity, it can be observed how the principle of privatization asserts itself in the urban social structure. With Swapan Chakravorty, Filip De Boeck, Ilija Trojanow, Ivaylo Ditchev, Robert Misik...[ more ]
Decentring Europe
Focal point Contemporary European discourse on Europe is often self-centred and provides one more link in a long chain of ideological or mythological constructions. Any reinvention of the concept of Europe that takes into account the complexities inherent in Europe's place in a globalized world must contain a critique of Eurocentrism. Learning from the South may be a key element in the rethinking – and unthinking – of "Europe".
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Cultural citizenship
Focal Point The concept of cultural citizenship responds to the multicultural context of contemporary societies, in which the concern with equality is increasingly being complemented with a concern with difference. Eurozine groups together texts articulating issues central to the concept. Including contributions by Gerard Delanty, Rainer Bauböck, Ivaylo Ditchev, Charles Taylor, Rada Ivekovic, António Sousa Ribeiro, and Axel Honneth. [ more ]
Changing Europe: 50 years of European integration
) "Signing of the Treaty of Rome, 25 March 1957")
Focal point As political Europe turns 50, the questions about its future are as open as ever. Eurozine compiles a selection of articles on the European project: from analyses by Jacques Rupnik and Jan-Werner Müller of the current European crisis, to enquiries by Slavenka Drakulic and Ales Debeljak into transnational identity building; from Göran Rosenberg's federalist arguments, to György Spiró's hilarious parody of Brussels' bureaucratic literary ambitions. [ more ]
Post-secular Europe?
Religion and Politics
Has the rapid and drastic process of secularization in western Europe come to an end? In a new Focal Point, Eurozine looks at different aspects of this question: Is religion a public or a private matter? Can there be such a thing as a European Islam? If so, what characterizes it? What role can religion – or religions – play when it comes to the emergence of a European solidarity? [ more ]
The future of war
Focal Point Are wars that are fought between nations a thing of the past, and are the future challenges more a case of ethnic strife, break-up of failed states, secession and civil wars? In a special focal point, Eurozine analyzes the changing face of warfare in the twenty-first century, in which terrorism and new security threats have profoundly transformed the way wars are conducted. [ more ]
Politics of border making and (cross-)border identities
Border making Have borders become irrelevant with the project of a united Europe which is supposed to overcome the historical divisions of the continent and the political isolation of its East? No, just the opposite. In a focal point guest-edited by Tatiana Zhurzhenko, essayists and researchers look at the dilemmas of border building and cross-border cooperation in the EU and its neighbourhood. [ more ]
European histories: Towards a grand narrative?
European histories In order for there to be solidarity within the enlarged EU, it will be necessary to develop a broader historical consciousness that accommodates the experiences of the new members. And if Russia's relations with its neighbours are to be harmonious, the taboos surrounding the Great Victory will need to be addressed. Read on for analyses from both sides of a historical divide. [ more ]
Europe talks to Europe: Towards a European public sphere?
EUROPEAN PUBLIC SPHERE The European integration project has made the discussion about transnational spaces for cultural and political debate acute. Can there at all be a common Europe without a pan-European public sphere, where potentially common values and ideas can be formed and transnational political institutions can find their legitimacy? [ more ]
Freedom of speech and the Danish cartoon controversy
Free speech Free speech is a fundamental human right and a central tenet of democracy. Or is it? Reactions to the Danish cartoon controversy show that liberals are re-evaluating what the right to free speech entails. [ more ]
Politics of translation
Translation Our understanding of the field of translation studies has in recent years taken on many more meanings and now encompasses spheres beyond the usual textual dimension: Translation today is as much about the translation of cultural, political, and historical contexts and concepts as it is about language. [ more ]
The Eurozine network at a glance
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