Articles

To write is to write one’s way through the preconceived and into the world on the other side, to see the world as children can, as fantastic or terrifying, but always rich and wide-open. Karl Ove Knausgård on creating literature.

In this article based on Fabiani’s speech at the Eurozine conference in 2013, the sociologist situates the events of Zucotti Park and Tahrir Square in a continuum that points to how future innovation may enable a global public sphere to overcome democratic fatigue.

The West must start to put its long-term interests above the instant gratification of London bankers, German gas traders and real estate dealers all over Europe, who are yearning for Russian money. Then the new Cold War can be won, writes Vladislav Inozemtsev.

An anti-gender campaign initiated by the Roman Catholic Church in Poland made gender a permanent fixture on the front pages of Polish newspapers as 2013 drew to a close. Karolina Wigura and Jaroslaw Kuisz introduce a new series of articles from Kultura Liberalna.

Film director Agnieszka Holland considers the anti-gender campaign of the Roman Catholic Church in Poland a political attempt to cover up the Church’s own problems; and contends that being a white, heterosexual, conservative Catholic Pole cannot be the only respectable way of living.

The Roman Catholic Church in Poland is not merely scaremongering about gender: it wishes to seriously reflect upon the topic, insists Marcin Nowak. And despite the potential of every idea, including liberalism and Christianity, to become an ideology, serious dialogue will follow.

As shallow as it is reductive, containing no attempt at scholarly or exegetic analysis: this is Piotr H. Kosicki’s verdict on the pastoral letter published 29 December 2013 by Poland’s Roman Catholic bishops, condemning “gender ideology”. So what could the bishops have been thinking?

It has almost become a commonplace that Ukrainian nationalism is anti-Semitic by nature. Vitaliy Portnikov refutes this stereotype by showing that both Jews and Ukrainans were under Russian dominance and thus not at home in their country. The Maidan has finally provided a chance to build a modern political nation where Jews can be Ukrainians.

Ahead of local elections at the end of March and presidential elections in August, Tigrane Yegavian looks into the influence that the Gülen movement wields in Turkey and beyond; and why this puts it on a collision course with the ambitions of its former ally, prime minister Erdogan.

Corporatization is transforming what activists and NGOs conceive of as being realistic and possible in terms of desirable change. Genevieve LeBaron and Peter Dauvergne examine recent trends that raise crucial issues about the future of global citizen action.

Despite being well aware of the stakes involved in member states such as Hungary, writes Jan-Werner Müller, the European Commission still lacks fully convincing instruments to deal with constitutional capture: a government’s systematic weakening of checks and balances.

Poet and essayist Olga Sedakova takes her fellow Russian writers and intellectuals to task for responding with silence to the light emanating from the Maidan: a light of hope, of solidarity and of rehabilitated humanity. A light that Russia would do well to see itself in.

Iceland’s crowd-sourced constitution and the impact of Beppe Grillo’s blog on Italian politics reveal how “Internet democracy” has opened a new phase of democratic innovation. The relationship between citizens and politicians may never be the same again.

The humanist impulse not only liberated the sense of transcendence from the shackles of the sacred, it also transformed the idea of transcendence itself. Kenan Malik on the humanization of the transcendent in art and literature, from Dante to Rothko.

In a timely opinion piece written prior to Russia’s intervention in Ukraine, Res Publica Nowa editor-in-chief Wojciech Przybylski contends that should Europe rule out the use of force, it will clear the way for others who will not hesitate to use military might to achieve their political ends.

Consensus among online communities may all too often prove fragile if not illusory. But, writes Kathrin Passig, as long as Internet users can adapt to groups that actually agree on only a select few issues, there is no need to lose faith in social media.