----------------------------------------------------------- EUROZINE NEWSLETTER 12.2006 ----------------------------------------------------------- 1. Article of the month: Saskia Sassen in interview 2. Friend and foe. Shared space, divided society 3. New journals RSS 4. New articles
----------------------------------------------------------- 1. ARTICLE OF THE MONTH: SASKIA SASSEN IN INTERVIEW ----------------------------------------------------------- Saskia Sassen talks to Magnus Wennerhag in Swedish journal "Fronesis" about her latest book "Territory, authority, rights: From medieval to global assemblages" (2006). Discussing broadly the global spread of illiberalism, Sassen argues that formal politics, still focused at the national level, can no longer accommodate the political. Consequently, informal political forms, which include protest movements but also multinational business, are wielding increasing influence:
"Today, multinational corporations, which are private legal personas, also function as informal political actors [...] They have and continue to put a lot of pressure on governments to do what they want done [...] these new social forms can incorporate what we might call the good and the bad guys."
Along with greater autonomy for powerful economic actors to act as informal political agents comes the privatization of executive power, whereby the executive becomes less and less accountable and citizens' privacy rights are increasingly violated. "The liberal state has been hijacked for neoliberal agendas, and even new types of very modern despotisms. By this I mean despotisms that are less heavy-handed, more intermediated through propaganda machineries, etc."
Sassen is careful to identify, from a pro-liberal standpoint, both positive and negative aspects of the transformation: "The denationalizing that happens through the demands of global firms is not so good, whereas the denationalizing that happens through the use of human rights in national courts is very interesting, and mostly positive. [...] we can perform global politics through national state institutions -- and in so doing, will, of course, partly denationalize our state, which is fine with me as it begins to build a multi-sited infrastructure for global politics -- a global politics that runs through localized sites rather than a world state."
Saskia Sassen, Magnus Wennerhag DENATIONALIZED STATES AND GLOBAL ASSEMBLAGES. AN INTERVIEW WITH SASKIA SASSEN
This article is available in English and Swedish: http://www.eurozine.com/articles/2006-11-20-sassen-en.htmlhttp://www.eurozine.com/articles/2006-11-20-sassen-sv.html
----------------------------------------------------------- 2. FRIEND AND FOE. SHARED SPACE, DIVIDED SOCIETY ----------------------------------------------------------- Articles based on papers presented at the 19th European Meeting of Cultural Journals are now being published in Eurozine. Already online: Les Back, "Phobocity. London and the War on Terror"; Kenan Malik, "Free speech in a plural society"; Irena Maryniak, "The Polish plumber and the image game"; and Ursula Owen, "An apprenticeship in assimilation". Still to come: texts by Cynthia Ghorra-Gobin, Salil Tripathi, Edda Manga, and Abdul-Rehman Malik.
For more information, read a summary of the conference: http://www.eurozine.com/articles/2006-11-24-newsitem-en.html
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----------------------------------------------------------- 4. NEW ARTICLES ----------------------------------------------------------- Wolf Dieter Enkelmann EUROPE - NOTHING BUT A PROMISE? Wanderlust has made Europe into a transcontinental continent. Will the world and its cultures ever be able to disentangle themselves from their Europeanization? 30.11.2006
This article is available in German: http://www.eurozine.com/articles/2006-11-30-enkelmann-de.html
Alphonso Lingis ETHICS IN THE GLOBALIZED WAR With hi-tech weaponry reducing the risk of battlefield casualties -- at least on the side of those owning it -- traditional warrior virtues have become the preserve of the lone suicide attacker. 29.11.2006
This article is available in English and Lithuanian: http://www.eurozine.com/articles/2006-11-29-lingis-en.htmlhttp://www.eurozine.com/articles/2006-11-29-lingis-lt.html
Agnès Sinai LATE AWAKENING IN HOTHOUSE CHINA China's economic boom is contributing significantly to global warming, which at its current rate will lead to severe problems for the region. Worried, Beijing is at last taking part in the Kyoto Agreement's "clean development mechanism". 28.11.2006
This article is available in German: http://www.eurozine.com/articles/2006-11-28-sinai-de.html
Ursula Owen AN APPRENTICESHIP IN ASSIMILATION. CLOSING SPEECH AT THE 19TH EUROPEAN MEETING OF CULTURAL JOURNALS Assimilation is a dirty word in multicultural politics. But as a child of German-Jewish immigrants growing up in postwar Britain, it was what Ursula Owen most desired. The sense of being different, she says, only became an advantage later, as she began to reinvent herself through language. 27.11.2006
This article is available in English: http://www.eurozine.com/articles/2006-11-27-owen-en.html
Kenan Malik FREE SPEECH IN A PLURAL SOCIETY. OPENING ADDRESS AT THE 19TH EUROPEAN MEETING OF CULTURAL JOURNALS Multiculturalist censors turn the notion of respect on its head, said Kenan Malik as he opened the Eurozine conference. In a truly plural society we need the fullest possible extension of free speech. 23.11.2006
This article is available in English: http://www.eurozine.com/articles/2006-11-23-malik-en.html
Thomas von Ahn DEMOCRACY OR THE STREET? ON THE STABILITY OF THE HUNGARIAN POLITICAL SYSTEM The current political wrangling in Hungary seems inseparable from the battle for the moral high ground in the memory of 1956. Nationalists call it an "uprising", socialists a "revolution"; the only thing everyone agrees on is that it was not a "counter-revolution". 21.11.2006
This article is available in German: http://www.eurozine.com/articles/2006-11-21-vonahn-de.html
Truls Lie MACHINES AND DRUGS Do we really regard technology as an integral part of ourselves in the same way "machines" are composed of flesh and blood and social context? And doesn't the rapture of losing oneself satisfy a natural psychological need? The machines are the compelling drug. 17.11.2006
This article is available in English and Norwegian: http://www.eurozine.com/articles/2006-11-17-lie-en.htmlhttp://www.eurozine.com/articles/2006-11-17-lie-no.html
Anna Friman PORNOGRAPHERS IN BLACK Is the female pornographic eye dangerous? Or is it just another male fantasy? Anna Friman on what happens when women write about sex. An award-winning essay on posh porn. 16.11.2006
This article is available in English and Swedish: http://www.eurozine.com/articles/2006-11-16-friman-en.htmlhttp://www.eurozine.com/articles/2006-11-16-friman-sv.html
Les Back PHOBOCITY. LONDON AND THE WAR ON TERROR The sound of London has changed dramatically since the 7 July 2005 bombings, says Les Back. The wail of police sirens has become the soundtrack of the "phobocity". 15.11.2006
This article is available in English: http://www.eurozine.com/articles/2006-11-15-back-en.html
Irena Maryniak THE POLISH PLUMBER AND THE IMAGE GAME The Polish plumber is the butt of jokes throughout Europe, and even the Polish tourist board has made use of the cliché. However, in the UK, there is growing resentment towards eastern European economic migrants. 15.11.2006
This article is available in English: http://www.eurozine.com/articles/2006-11-15-maryniak-en.html
Dmitrij Furman ORIGINS AND ELEMENTS OF IMITATED DEMOCRACIES. ON POLITICAL DEVELOPMENT IN THE POST-SOVIET SPACE The "imitated democracies" of the post-Soviet space fake popular will and manipulate public opinion. Still, they are propped up by society's approval, meaning democratization must arise from internal processes. 13.11.2006
This article is available in German: http://www.eurozine.com/articles/2006-11-13-furman-de.html
Lukasz Galecki, Tom Segev ISRAEL'S SECULAR MYTH. THE HOLOCAUST AFTER ITS SECULARIZATION After the Eichmann trial in 1961, the Holocaust ceased to signify to Israelis the humiliation of the European Jews and became a link to secular Jewish tradition. 10.11.2006
This article is available in German: http://www.eurozine.com/articles/2006-11-10-segev-de.html
Péter Nádas A HEADLESS REVOLUTION "In the absence of the tradition of revolutionary change, we are left with the European tradition of conformity and opportunism, with court poetry and mannerism." Péter Nádas on the meaning of the Hungarian revolution then and now. 09.11.2006
This article is available in English and Hungarian: http://www.eurozine.com/articles/2006-11-09-nadas-en.htmlhttp://www.eurozine.com/articles/2006-11-09-nadas-hu.html
Stig Saeterbakken MY HEART BELONGS TO EUROPE. THEREFORE IT IS BROKEN Does literature help maintain individual and collective identity, or does it inspire us to discredit it? 08.11.2006
This article is now available in Swedish, English, Danish, and Hungarian: http://www.eurozine.com/articles/2006-11-08-saeterbakken-sv.htmlhttp://www.eurozine.com/articles/2006-02-02-saeterbakken-en.htmlhttp://www.eurozine.com/articles/2006-05-09-saeterbakken-da.htmlhttp://www.eurozine.com/articles/2006-02-02-saeterbakken-hu.html
Claus Leggewie FROM NEIGHBOURHOOD TO CITIZENSHIP. EU AND TURKEY For those in favour of "deepening" the EU, the presumed otherness of Islam is cause for alarm; for those in favour of "widening", Turkey's economic and geo-strategic potential counts in its favour. 08.11.2006
This article is now available in Italian, English, and Turkish: http://www.eurozine.com/articles/2005-12-21-leggewie-en.htmlhttp://www.eurozine.com/articles/2005-12-21-leggewie-en.htmlhttp://www.eurozine.com/articles/2005-12-21-leggewie-tr.html
Yona Friedman, André Krammer, Christian Kühn THE ERRATIC STATE OF REALITY. YONA FRIEDMAN IN INTERVIEW The author of "Architecture mobile" and "La ville spatiale" talks about the ideal inhabitant of his flexible city and the universality of the concepts of participation, choice, and openness. 07.11.2006
This article is available in German: http://www.eurozine.com/articles/2006-11-07-friedman-de.html
Ernest Gellner RELIGION AND THE PROFANE "The difference between the success of Islam and the failure of Marxism is that [...] Islam never claimed that work is sacred." Ernest Gellner, speaking in 1995, draws surprising comparisons between Marxism and Islam. 06.11.2006
This article is now available in Italian, English, and German: http://www.eurozine.com/articles/2006-11-06-gellner-it.htmlhttp://www.eurozine.com/articles/2000-08-28-gellner-en.htmlhttp://www.eurozine.com/articles/2000-08-28-gellner-de.html
Ted Cantle PARALLEL LIVES We may live in a multicultural society, but we need a more positive approach to breaking down segregation. 03.11.2006
This article is available in English: http://www.eurozine.com/articles/2006-11-03-cantle-en.html
Yasmin Alibhai-Brown, Candace Allen, Ted Cantle, Dreda Say Mitchell MULTICULTURALISM: A FAILED EXPERIMENT? Commonality is all very well but it must work both ways: three responses to Ted Cantle's re-evaluation of nationality, citizenship, and community. 03.11.2006
This article is available in English: http://www.eurozine.com/articles/2006-11-03-alibhaibrown-en.html
Moris Farhi ALL HISTORY IS THE HISTORY OF MIGRATION Migration and exile have characterized the world since the beginning of time. And for most of that time, the ambivalent presence of The Other has aroused extremes of sentiment within the host community. 03.11.2006
This article is available in English: http://www.eurozine.com/articles/2006-11-03-farhi-en.html
Ekow Eshun IDENTITIES AND THE SUBVERSION OF BORDERS By laying claim to a place, we find our identity and begin to change that of the world around us. 03.11.2006
This article is available in English: http://www.eurozine.com/articles/2006-11-03-eshun-en.html
Irena Maryniak, Salil Tripathi CITIES OF MIGRATION How do outsiders negotiate the new urban space in which they arrive? How do they make it their own? 03.11.2006
This article is available in English: http://www.eurozine.com/articles/2006-11-03-maryniaktripathi-en.html