Culture

  • To save Europe’s rivers, it’s back to basics

    If you’re a river swimmer in the UK, you learn to check for sewage overflow warnings. Last year, raw discharge was sent into English rivers a whopping 825 times a day. When the coast is clear from the upstream sewage works, locals flock to Teddington Lock, a leisurely stretch of the Thames in West London that’s brimming with rowers, sailors, paddleboarders…

    Read More »
  • Our enemy is not Tchaikovsky himself

    Despite the personal shock felt by every Ukrainian, the full-scale Russian attack on Ukraine on 24 February 2022 triggered a wide-ranging discussion about new cultural strategies in wartime conditions, which had already been ongoing for eight years. Ukrainian associations, unions and societies published appeals calling for a complete cessation of cooperation with Russia. An April appeal by Ukrainian musicians, mainly…

    Read More »
  • The crisis of criticism | Eurozine

    It is no secret that the field of criticism as a writerly practice – in art, music, literature, what have you – is in some disrepute today, despite the preponderance of the term. The reasons for the stepchild status of criticism are as manifold as are their concatenations, not the least of which is the problem of identifying a shared…

    Read More »
  • Our human responsibility | Eurozine

    ‘When violence answers violence in a growing frenzy that makes the simple language of reason impossible, the role of the intellectual cannot be … to excuse from a distance one of the violences and condemn the other … that role is clarify definitions in order to disintoxicate minds and to calm fanaticisms, even when this is against the current tendency.’…

    Read More »
  • A history of unpopular protest

    On 16 February this year, seven Just Stop Oil protesters were found guilty of peacefully blocking the distribution of oil from the Esso Fuel Terminal in Birmingham. All were sentenced to 12 months conditional discharge with costs of up to £500. However, it was the views of District Judge Wilkinson, in sentencing them, that caught the news. ‘It is abundantly…

    Read More »
  • Behind the green transition | Eurozine

    We are in northern Argentina, near the Bolivian border, at an altitude of over 3000 metres. The sun shines brightly on the vast, snow-white landscapes of the Salinas Grandes, the country’s largest salt flats. In summer, temperatures here soar to 45 degrees Celsius. The air is thin – it’s harder to breathe, and walking takes effort – and the light…

    Read More »
  • Die aktuellen Herausforderungen bieten Europa eine zweite Chance

    Herauszuarbeiten, wie daneben die beiden Titanen der europäischen Philosophie 2003 gelegen haben, ist müßig und wäre bigott: ihre Illusionen waren auch die unseren. Auch wir wollten eine Vertiefung und postnationale Verfassung der Europäischen Union, setzten auf die Herausbildung einer transnationalen Öffentlichkeit, hatten einen europäischen Bund als eigenständigen politischen Akteur in der Welt im Blick. Die Unterschiede lagen in (allerdings nicht…

    Read More »
  • Wird die Ukraine Europa von seiner kolonialen Mentalität befreien?

    Nach anderthalb Jahren des Widerstands gegen die russische Invasion zeigt die Ukraine keine Absicht, mit dem Aggressor zu verhandeln. Die Entschlossenheit der ukrainischen Streitkräfte bei der Verteidigung der Souveränität und territorialen Integrität des Landes ist ungebrochen. Dabei profitieren sie von der einmütigen Unterstützung der Gesellschaft und der Rückendeckung durch eine weitgehend geschlossene politische Elite. Alle Kräfte des Landes, von der Zivilgesellschaft über…

    Read More »
  • Power over principle | Eurozine

    Pessimism derives from pessimus, the Latin for ‘the worst’. In the days leading up to Turkey’s general and presidential elections on 28 May 2023, I tried to avoid pessimistes. I belonged to the ranks of those who believed optimus was fast approaching: a rebirth of parliamentary democracy, a return to human rights and reason, and, most importantly, a firm goodbye…

    Read More »
  • Is Europe possible? | Eurozine

    The European Union is the product of wars. Of two world wars that nearly put an end to Europe as we know it. Of a cold war that seemingly forever drew an iron curtain through it. Of the near-death experience of Europe as an idea. For more than anything, Europe is an idea: the idea of the many peoples, languages…

    Read More »
Back to top button