Articles

A bitter battle is underway between the supporters of intellectual property and those who defend the notion of the commons. Legal historian Mikhail Xifaras traces the history of the concept of “exclusive rights” and evaluates the emancipatory claims of the copyleft movement today.

The marketization of the media combines with digital media technology to create a political order determined by public opinion. For political decision-making, the question whether opinion is right or wrong becomes secondary to its legitimacy as a form of feedback.

Despite western Europe’s initially lukewarm response to the people’s revolutions of ’89, twenty years on the EU claims them as a cornerstone of “European identity”. Yet historical gaffes have exposed the pitfalls in attempting to create an all too tidy narrative of Europe’s twentieth century, writes Stefan Auer.

When financial and economic systems fail, trust in the state and its institutions pays the price. After the economic crisis and its exposure of the irresponsibility of global capitalism, the first step to restoring social trust is understanding what went wrong, writes historian Geoffrey Hosking.

Feminist icon, anti-Catholic fabrication – or just a woman battling in a man’s world? The German film Die Päpstin, a rags-to-riches story where the heroine becomes pope, has already been written off by the newspaper of the Italian Bishops’ Conference as a hoax. Sally Feldman uncovers the mysteries of Pope Joan.

According to the conventional view, the far-Right in Europe is antithetical to the values of liberal democracy. New research showing that far-Right ideology is a radicalization of mainstream values has a major impact on how populism is understood, writes Cas Mudde.

Humanitarian activists’ refusal of politics, combined with their willingness to identify with politics, elicits doubt and even scorn from human-rights critics. Susie Linfield evaluates the controversial debate on the future of humanitarianism.

When I was 22 I wanted to find a different way of writing about being a man, writes Geir Gulliksen. It should be possible to be as gentle as a boy or as reckless as a girl. But gender stereotypes have not changed as radically as we think.

“Participation is not only a form of co-production but also an end product in itself”. Curator, artist and theorist Paul O’Neill traces a development from the site-specific artwork to long-term participatory urban art projects.

9/11 organizer Khalid Sheikh Mohammed exploited his trial to remind the court of its own human rights obligations, while Osama bin Laden’s video statements include appeals to religious pluralism. Al-Qaeda’s use of liberal categories is central to its rhetoric on war and justice, writes Faisal Devji.

The International Court of Justice ruling on Kosovo’s declaration of independence will not herald a sea-change in Serbian public opinion, but it is likely to facilitate a general coming-to-terms with the fact that Kosovo is “lost”, writes Florian Bieber. The much-feared “domino effect” is also unlikely to occur.

“The fact that peole who were working freely in the 1990s now work in a way that is no longer free is the result of fear.” Alexei Venediktov, editor-in-chief of independent Russian radio station “Ekho Moskvy”, tells Maria Eismont about dealing with death threats, censorship and the Kremlin.

Les Back learns a few lessons about the importance of paying attention from the examples of Primo Levi, radioman Studs Terkel and literary traveller Flemming Røgilds. They animate an alternative way to live, achieved through two people hearing each other. This active listening can create another set of social relations and ultimately a new kind of society.

“There is no need for the western political artist, too often a disaster tourist, to sail the seven seas looking for injustices to denounce. Inequality and exploitation saturate the ground on which we stand, they are in the grain of everyday life.” Conceptual artist Victor Burgin launches an excoriating attack on documentary art as the “new doxa”.