Eurozine Review

In the Danish online journal: Ignác Semmelweis, hand soap and the hygiene revolution; history of vaccination in Denmark; and Madagascan bathing rituals and the language of anthropology.

The Belgian journal on ‘folktales and society’: why the folktale can help communicate trauma; on folktales, deconstruction and the imaginary; and pedagogy and the dangers institutionalizing the vernacular.

The Austrian journal on the transformation of the bourgeoisie: discourse, normativity and social-economic change; the privatization of the patriarchy; Romanian communism and the ‘class enemy’; and why it is always others that are middle class.

Vikerkaar sheds a light on Russian speakers living in Estonia, focusing on various aspects of their culture.

Our US associate Public Seminar looks into the most significant social unrest since the civil rights movement. On white ‘moral credentialing’; the making of Black Lives Matter; and the endorsement debate dividing the Democrats.

Ekphrasis on the edge of catastrophe: why literary descriptions of works of art allow the world to reappear; people of the sea, people of the land: on the cosmopolitanism of sailors; and what AI means for the Welsh language.

Why the controversy around education reforms in Poland is about much more than pay; on the historical role of nursery-school teachers; Polish nationalism’s attitude to literary ‘nest-foulers’; and how dark secrets constitute community.

Why, post-pandemic, we will need a new debate about the welfare state we want; Marxist responses to the crisis between ‘zombie apocalypse’ and ‘viral new dawn’; and why democracy relinquished is democracy reclaimed with difficulty.

Why, in times of crisis, we need to recognize the qualities of failing; on emancipation through creative cooperation and how to activate the commons; and a parallel history of Arab-Israeli politics.

What the corona crisis teaches us about the human side of medicine; how France’s response has revealed the impact of decades of neoliberalism; and why the pandemic may shake up the country’s education system.

‘Fronesis’ puts AI in social, political and historical context. Including articles on social democratic discourse on automation since the 1950s; the material conditions of the cloud; and the blindspots of ‘digital empiricism’.

‘Varlık’ concentrates on the attention economy: whether the corona crisis will wake us from the sleep of social media; the novella as literary form for our distracted times; and why the pandemic did not take place (homage to Baudrillard).

‘Kultūros barai’ blasts the Lithuanian government’s coronavirus response, saying that behind the statistics-driven PR and business-friendly attitude lies a reality of shortages and chronic failure to address underlying causes.

‘Osteuropa’ surveys the politics of COVID-19 in eastern Europe, including case studies on Hungary, Poland, Czech Republic, Belarus, Ukraine, Russia and Central Asia. How far does the pandemic pose a threat to autocrats in the region?

‘New Eastern Europe’ focuses on the situation in Donbas: why, six years after the start of hostilities, western Europe still needs to be reminded that Putin is waging war against Ukraine. Also, insights into the escalation in Russian–Polish memory wars.

‘Il Mulino’ on democratic socialism’s demise after ’89: including articles on Italy’s split left; anti-welfarism and the ‘undeserving poor’; and why schooling is crucial in combatting social disarticulation.