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1. ARTICLE OF THE MONTH: NEIGHBOURLY RELATIONS AS A RESOURCE FOR VIOLENCE
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Possibly the hardest question to answer when looking for the causes of social conflict is why years of neighbourly co-existence have not been enough to prevent outbursts of the utmost violence -- why, when fellow feeling would seem to be intuitive, does antipathy win the day? According to Jan Philipp Reemtsma, chairman of the Hamburg Institute for Social Research, the neighbourly fence represents a boundary that, like the body itself, is uniquely susceptible to violation. What tames neighbourly relations in normal situations, Reemtsma asks, and in abnormal situations, how are such relations organized to resemble civil war?

"Wait, you chicken duck, I want to clobber you for the aphids you put in my orchids!" -- "Hold your horses, Jones! Let me repay you for the ants you put in my salad!" -- one less than enamoured exchange between Donald Duck and his neighbour Jones, from a Disney comic that Reemtsma draws on to illustrate his analysis. "Because [the comic strips] concentrate on the essentials and because they are supposed to trigger in readers a feeling of 'that's exactly how it is' (albeit in an exaggerated form), these stories provide evidence of the structural patterns typical of neighbourhood conflicts."

Reemtsma goes on to explain how large-scale politics instrumentalizes conflict within neighbourhoods. This can take the form of denunciation in totalitarian regimes, or ethnic and religious persecution in sectarian societies. Violence, he writes, makes neighbourly border tensions tangible, sets off the spiral of retaliation, and creates solidarity between perpetrators:

"Once homes have been burned to ashes and people killed, two things become concrete. First, there is the threat: I have become the potential victim of retaliatory violence (which is why people like to claim that such an act has already occurred; retaliatory violence is more credible than initial violence). Second, a new dimension of the kind of intimacy that builds good neighbourly relations is revealed. This new dimension is violence: violence that is perpetrated collectively or violence that is common knowledge, condoned, concealed, hushed up, or boasted about collectively, as the case may be. This is the identity-building realization that one belongs to a community of bastards who will only enjoy recognition and approval in the company of their peers."

This article is available in English and German at:
>>http://www.eurozine.com/articles/2005-11-02-reemtsma-en.html
>>http://www.eurozine.com/articles/2005-11-02-reemtsma-de.html

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2. A PRIZE FOR EUROZINE
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We are very proud that Eurozine has won the Grand Prix Newropeans in the category of information. This prize rewards people and organizations behind the democratization of the European Union for their engagement in the construction of a democratic and open Europe. "The prize highlights the real achievements of integration, often beyond the institutional or governmental level," say the award-givers.

A jury of 1200 representatives of European civil society participated in a Europe-wide online election to determine the winners out of a selection of nominees. The award ceremony took place in the beautiful building of the Felix Meritis Foundation in Amsterdam on Saturday, 26 November.

Newropeans, who awards the Grand Prix, is a Paris-based trans-European political movement that promotes the democratization of the European Union.

Thank you very much!

>>http://www.newropeans.org

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3. NEW ARTICLES
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Pauls Bankovskis
THE JOY OF SMALL PLACES
For Latvians, the joy in finding themselves in a work of international literature often outweighs any offence at being portrayed as troublemakers and hangers-on. As long as authors get their facts right, that is.

This article is available in English and Latvian at:
>>http://www.eurozine.com/articles/2005-11-30-bankovskis-en.html
>>http://www.eurozine.com/articles/2005-11-30-bankovskis-lv.html

Michal Witkowski
THE CULTURAL DIVIDE. UNPOLITICAL CONFESSIONS
Poland's recently elected Law and Justice Party is attempting to impose its prudish values on the rest of the society. For Left-leaning writers and artists, says one author, this augurs bad times ahead.

This article is available in German at:
>>http://www.eurozine.com/articles/2005-11-28-witkowski-de.html

Piotr Rudkowski
THE NATIONAL LANGUAGE DEBATE IN BELARUS
Russian-speakers in Belarus accuse Belarusian-speakers of "national psychosis". Is a reconciliation of nationalism with liberalism possible in Belarus?

This article is available in English and Belarusian at:
>>http://www.eurozine.com/articles/2005-11-25-rudkowski-en.html
>>http://www.eurozine.com/articles/2005-11-25-rudkowski-be.html

Yuri Chavusaw
REVOLUTION AND ANTI-REVOLUTION IN THE POST-SOVIET SPACE
The "coloured revolutions" have been a lesson for the Russian and Belarusian governments on the formation of democratic, non-violent opposition. With elections in Belarus set for September 2006, the "denim revolutionaries" must prove they are effective.

This article is available in English and Belarusian at:
>>http://www.eurozine.com/articles/2005-11-25-chavusaw-en.html
>>http://www.eurozine.com/articles/2005-11-25-chavusaw-be.html

Ida Börjel
EUROPEAN WAISTLINES
Swedish poet Ida Börjel confronts us with our favourite and most insulting national prejudices about ourselves and our European neighbours. But does she confirm them? In a series of insidious linguistic displacements and only seemingly naive phrases, the preconceived notions start to move. Measuring the European waistlines is not a standardizing measure.

This article is available in English and Swedish at:
>>http://www.eurozine.com/articles/2005-11-23-borjel-en.html
>>http://www.eurozine.com/articles/2005-11-23-borjel-sv.html

Boguslaw Bakula
AT THE TOLLGATES OF EUROPE AND ASIA. THE POET JAROSLAW IWASZKIEWICZ
The Polish poet wandered throughout his life between Kiev and St Petersburg. While for him Kiev was a portal to the East and place of poetic initiation, St Petersburg was a place of dark forces and fatalist history. Together, the cities symbolized the difficult unity of East and West.

This article is available in German at:
>>http://www.eurozine.com/articles/2005-11-21-bakula-de.html

Sonja Margolina
SHADOW-STATE GASPROM
Since 2001, rising oil prices have lent the Kremlin ever increasing confidence. Today, Russian oil concern Gasprom is the real Russian state, using its pipelines as an instrument of control over neighbouring countries.

This article is available in German at:
>>http://www.eurozine.com/articles/2005-11-18-margolina-de.html

György Schöpflin
NATIONHOOD, MODERNITY, DEMOCRACY. MANIFESTATIONS OF NATIONAL IDENTITY IN MODERN EUROPE
The authority of states is increasingly eroded by the decline of party politics and effects of globalization. In this context, articulations of ethnic identity will find ever stronger expression.

This article is available in English and Estonian at:
>>http://www.eurozine.com/articles/2005-11-17-schopflin-en.html
>>http://www.eurozine.com/articles/2005-11-17-schopflin-et.html

Fatima Mernissi
ON ARAB WOMEN WHO BUILD PORTS. THE OLD ARTS OF NAVIGATION AS GUIDANCE IN THE DIGITAL CHAOS
Many Arab intellectuals have lamented the absence of a clear vision for the future and blame this on the political indifference of the younger generation. Enter the new Arab woman: digitally clued up and financially astute.

This article is available in German at:
>>http://www.eurozine.com/articles/2005-11-16-mernissi-de.html

Jens-Martin Eriksen, Frederik Stjernfelt
THE MEMORANDUM: ROOTS OF SERBIAN NATIONALISM. AN INTERVIEW WITH MIHAJLO MARKOVIC AND VASILIJE KRESTIC
Left- and rightwing intellectuals collaborated on a document that formulated the ideology of Serbian nationalism in the 1980s and 1990s. Here, two of the authors talk about their involvement.

This article is now available in Norwegian as well as in English, German, and Danish at:
>>http://www.eurozine.com/articles/2005-11-15-eriksen-no.html
>>http://www.eurozine.com/articles/2005-07-08-eriksen-en.html
>>http://www.eurozine.com/articles/2005-07-08-eriksen-de.html
>>http://www.eurozine.com/articles/2005-07-08-eriksen-da.html

Georges Le Guelte
THE WILL TO CONTROL THE BOMBS
Sixty years ago, the first atom bomb was dropped. Despite efforts to prevent the spread of these "weapons of mass destruction", today there are nine states that possess atomic weapons.

This article is available in German at:
>>http://www.eurozine.com/articles/2005-11-14-leguelte-de.html

Marius Ivaskevicius
MY SCANDINAVIA (VII)
Lithuanian novelist and playwright Marius Ivaskevicius is highly rated in the Baltic States, Poland, and Hungary for his humorous observations of contemporary life. Now Eurozine publishes, in English translation, his seven-part Scandinavian travelogue.

This article is available in English and Lithuanian at:
>>http://www.eurozine.com/articles/2005-11-14-ivaskevicius-en.html
>>http://www.eurozine.com/articles/2005-11-14-ivaskevicius-lt.html

Razvan Paraianu
THE HISTORY TEXTBOOKS CONTROVERSY IN ROMANIA. FIVE YEARS ON
The Romanian history textbooks that came out in 1999 reflecting EU values of cultural diversity earned fierce criticism from establishment historians. Why was it not possible at the time to discuss the issue with professional objectivity?

This article is available in English and Hungarian at:
>>http://www.eurozine.com/articles/2005-11-11-paraianu-en.html
>>http://www.eurozine.com/articles/2005-11-11-paraianu-hu.html

Christoph Conrad
"CULTURE" INSTEAD OF "SOCIETY"? THE CONTEMPORARY DEBATE IN HISTORIOGRAPHY
In the 1980s, if historians wanted to read about the history of emotions, for example, they had to go to a French theologian; today, the topic is treated from within the discipline. Evaluating the "cultural turn" in historiography.

This article is available in German and Hungarian at:
>>http://www.eurozine.com/articles/2005-11-10-conrad-de.html
>>http://www.eurozine.com/articles/2005-11-10-conrad-hu.html

Alfred Erich Senn
BALTIC BATTLEGROUND
Between 1940 and 1944, Lithuania, Latvia, and Estonia were caught in a brutal tug o' war between Hitler and Stalin. Only since the 1990s have the survivors and their descendants been able to study the consequences of that decade.

This article is available in English and Lithuanian at:
>>http://www.eurozine.com/articles/2005-11-09-senn-en.html
>>http://www.eurozine.com/articles/2005-11-09-senn-lt.html