Articles

Germany didn’t intend to become Europe’s current hegemon, writes Wolfgang Streeck. However, even now that it is, German chancellor Angela Merkel may yet go down in history as the person who liberated Europe from a common currency turned into a common nightmare.

History is replete with examples of how the political logic of disintegration sets in. But is the European Union next in line? You can be sure that it is, writes Ivan Krastev, so long as the European project remains a haven for elites over which people have no control.

Freedom of movement was one of the major achievements of the revolutions of 1989, argues Jacques Rupnik. Now, central and eastern European heads of state refuse to grant this freedom to non-Europeans. But how much longer can they expect to maintain their contrary stance?

The hostile response of central and eastern European heads of state to the prospect of accepting Syrian refugees is emblematic of the parlous state of liberal democracy in the region, say Michal Simecka and Benjamin Tallis. Europe must avert a deepening East-West divide.

The world’s first synthetic fabric, rayon, was spun into artificial silk stockings and worn by the same women who mass produced it. Hannah Proctor uses this as a guiding metaphor for her analysis of interwar gender politics and their relation to today.

British imperialists may have invented the modern idea of organized sport, associating valour on the field with virtues such as ‘fair play’, being a ‘good loser’ and, above all, nationalism. But, writes Elizabeth Wilson, the devotion of the tennis fan is of an altogether different quality.

The extent to which working women are now creating a new society is unprecedented in human history, says Alison Wolf. And yet, the uncomfortable truth remains that everyone tends to take care only of his or her own social group.

Many of today’s pirate libraries were born to address political, economic and social issues specific to Soviet and post-Soviet times, observes Bodó Balázs. They are now at the centre of a global debate on access to knowledge.

It is no longer possible to contrast a “secular” West with a “religious” East, writes Olivier Roy. Secularization and the de-culturation of religion are taking place in both East and West. The difference is the political forms that the de-culturated religions take.

It may well be that the Euro-Summit agreement of 12 July 2015 is forced through in a process at least as brutal, and even more divisive, than the extremities of the eurocrisis seen over the last five years. But even this does not necessarily preclude the renewal of European politics.

In her contribution to the editorial in Soundings’ summer issue, Syriza member Marina Prentoulis assesses the options for grassroots movements in a European Union that has lost sight of any notion of a “Social Europe”; a union determined to preserve a neoliberal agenda. The following was written prior to the 12 July Euro-Summit agreement.

There are many words that neoliberalism has emptied of content – democracy, social justice, citizenship, sovereignty – that can be reclaimed, filled with progressive ideas and used to drive change. So says Sirio Canos Donnay, an archaeologist and member of Podemos.

The ongoing revolution in knowledge and service economies is every bit as dramatic as the revolution in the industrial economy during the nineteenth century, says Adrian Wooldridge. And it is displacing or disorientating workers in the same way too, but probably at an even faster rate.

The hope of the Arab Spring, as pro-democracy revolutions swept the Middle East, is now a distant memory, as Yemen, Syria and Egypt remain mired in chaos and conflict (to varying degrees). But where did it all go so wrong? In his new book, From Deep State to Islamic State: The Arab Counter-Revolution and its Jihadi Legacy, Jean-Pierre Filiu examines the destructive role of Arab dictators in funding and arming hardline Islamists – boosting groups such as Islamic State (IS) – with a view to dividing the opposition and convincing western powers to back their dictatorships. Here, he discusses his arguments with New Humanist editor Samira Shackle.