Articles

As the Bulgarian post-communist transition faces its moment of crisis and the government resigns, the political class and the economic model it oversaw are the subject of deep dissatisfaction. Dimitar Bechev outlines what went wrong, and what can be expected of Bulgaria’s spring of anger.

The first week of 2013 saw a standoff between editors of the Chinese newspaper “Southern Weekly” and state propaganda authorities over a drastically rewritten new year’s editorial. Timothy Garton Ash introduces English translations of the original and published versions.

Hamburg is one of the principle harbour cities in Europe and probably the most powerful in economic terms. Situated about 80 kilometres from the coast, the city was once part of the “Hanse”, or Hanseatic League – a powerful confederation of the shipping and trading cities within German territory. Hamburg developed from a free and independent, sovereign state into what is today: Germany’s second largest city. This article is based on a harbour tour held 15 September 2012 as part of Eurozine’s 24th European Meeting of Cultural Journals in Hamburg.

Far more than in the past, urban space today registers the profitability of non-urban economies – the economy of the port, the mine, the plantation. Why and how? The key is the rise of intermediate services for firms: all firms today need more lawyers, accountants, insurance, and financial and consulting services than they did even 30 years ago. Thus a dynamic port will feed the growth of a very urbane professional class in whatever the major city servicing the port. Clearly, urban economies – professional services, design industries – also contribute to reshape urban space.

Nancy Bauer talks about what attracted her to the field of philosophy and what made her remain there. Sjöstedt and Bauer also discuss Simone de Beauvoir, the role of scepticism in modern feminism and the thin line between world-changing philosophy and dogmatism.

Johanna Sjöstedt introduces her conversation with Nancy Bauer by explaining why Bauer is interested both in exploring the potential of a genuinely philosophical feminism and paving the way for a feminist critique of the philosophical tradition.

The world-famous violin virtuoso Anne-Sophie Mutter remembers going through agony before the premiere of Chain II. She had to struggle with the strange new hieroglyphics in Witold Lutoslawski’s score, but even today the marvellous sounds and colours of his music still enchant her. Lutoslawski opened the door for Mutter onto the language of contemporary classical music and new freedom as a performer. She disdains any schematic divisions of music into tendencies, eras or national schools, and pleads the case for music that unfolds from silence. “We really need such music, since the world is very loud indeed!”

William E Scheuerman explains why Obama’s mediocre humanitarian record in the “war on terror” deserves our critical scrutiny. And how US presidential government’s latent monarchist attributes have generated far-reaching policy and legal continuities between Bush and Obama.

Harold James advocates scaling up small country democracy, if the members of the European Union are ever to succeed in settling upon a working model of democracy. He explains why the Swiss model of “Konkordanzdemokratie” has much to offer.

The recent boom in Belarus-China relations is surprising; it’s sudden, far reaching and, at first glance, inexplicable. But what are the true reasons and possible prospects for this cooperation? Independent television journalist Katerina Barushka explores.

A political culture of total optimism has obscured one of the paradoxes of European unity: a constrained democracy, borne out of the experience of the devastating wars in the first half of the twentieth century, and aimed at suppressing pernicious populist instincts, has now become the source of new resentment. Coupled with the unintended consequences of the single currency, these are exceptional times indeed. And the challenges awaiting democracy are not about to get any easier, according to Stefan Auer.

Claus Leggewie pieces together the preconditions of transnationality – migrant communities, religious pluralism and hybrid popular mass culture – with a view to foregrounding the challenge that it presents: between local cultures and global markets, how can a cross-border demos be constructed?

As protests continue in Slovenia, Robert Titan Felix sees the need for a programme to protect the welfare state and citizens themselves from the greed of capital, which pushes the less successful to the margins of existence.

Boyan Znepolski remains far from convinced by recent attempts by contemporary philosophers to get to grips with the relation between democracy as a political regime and “the people”. He discerns a deficit of creativity in the thought of Zizek, Badiou and Laclau.

At some point, there is a tilt; there always is. Then we shall settle down into our new historical system. Wallerstein foresees one of two possibilities: more hierarchy, exploitation and polarization; or a system that has never yet existed, based on relative democracy and relative equality.

Claus Offe opts for democracy over “TINA” logic (“there is no alternative”), which only leads to a politics that fails to provide the electorate with choices. And therein lies the trap. Only more solidarity and more democracy, he argues, can rescue the eurozone from the brink of collapse.