Articles

The idea that the purpose of culture is reconciliation confronts Ukrainian cultural activists with a dilemma: how to preserve one’s dignity while keeping the attention of western institutions?

Cultural journalism plans for eternity: current events do inspire, but do not define our kind of publishing. In Eurozine’s archives, older articles rarely go forgotten, covered in the online equivalent of dust. Here’s a selection of the most read pieces in Eurozine over the past five years.

Russian attacks on civilian infrastructure are putting the resilience of the Ukrainian people to the test. While attitudes and moods on the home front may prove decisive, the war is in full swing also at the economic level, where the West is fully involved. Almost one year into Russia’s full-scale invasion of Ukraine, here’s what lies ahead.

2022 is a year of hurt and loss, but also of fierce resistance. Amid war and blood-soaked revolutions, masses have risen up to demand dignity, freedom and their right to form their own destiny. Here are your favourite articles from 2022 – and a few pieces our editors think you’ll love.

Russia’s war in Ukraine is being fought not only on a physical frontline but also on a virtual battleground. When Putin’s military forces unleashed full-scale attacks, Kremlin-sponsored participatory propaganda simultaneously hit a new level. Investigations monitoring pro-Russia social media channels reveal disinformation patterns with broad reach.

Since the 1980s, a wave of privatization has turned housing into a market commodity. Though tourism platforms and corporate landlords are more present than ever, an increasing number of European cities are fighting back, following the path laid out by Vienna.

Measures such as ‘ethical AI’ and ‘good data’ will not bring about social justice, end racial capitalism or forestall climate disaster. How to channel discontent and counter-hegemony into an actual transfer of power in the late platform age?

During the Second World War, Pope Pius XII failed to recognize the plight of victims. Today, Russia’s Patriarch Kirill supports the Kremlin’s ‘special military operation’, denouncing liberal rights, especially those of LGBTQ+ communities, and, consequently, Ukraine’s majority Orthodox Christian community.

How does disinformation overwrite the imagination and beliefs of those who consume it? With this half-serious programmatic manifesto for a deadly serious issue, Romanian journal Scena9 sets out to explore online fake news and the way it shapes our minds.

Heating is no longer as simple as flicking a switch: burning fossil fuels is environmentally unsustainable; and, this year, Europe’s reliance on Russian gas, weaponized by the Kremlin, has created a rush for alternatives. In Ukraine, where power facilities are under repeated attack, existing, pre-war energy efficiency plans have become a lifeline.

Generations of Russians schooled during and after the Soviet Union were taught that Russia’s imperial expansion took place peacefully. In this version of history, Russia was always reacting to western aggression. Sound familiar?

The effectiveness of Kremlin propaganda is based on a tangled bundle of lies and half-truths. Reality, however, cannot be distorted forever. As Europe needs to bring vision back to politics, can Russians finally emerge from their echo chamber?

For far too long governments in the West have trusted the Iranian reformers, misunderstanding the nature of power in the Islamic Republic. A Europe committed to human rights and feminist values must stand up for the people of Iran and give them a chance to speak.

In socialist Czechoslovakia, one of the world’s biggest arms exporters, issues of durability and demise were taken into account. Why, then, do Cold War weapons continue to resurface in deadly attacks and armed conflicts across the globe, well beyond their alleged obsolescence?

The removal of Potemkin’s remains from St Catherine’s Cathedral in Kherson was not without irony, given the flimsiness of Putin’s version of history. On the meaning of Russia’s macabre new ideology.

The Qatar World Cup is a vast soft-power operation for the militarily weak, gas-rich emirate. But reforms prompted by international attention – from sustainability to women’s rights and labour conditions – are likely to fade along with the stadia lights.