----------------------------------------------------------- EUROZINE NEWSLETTER 05.2007 ----------------------------------------------------------- 1. Article of the month: Take me to your leader 2. Focus: Cultural diversity 3. New partner: Artistas Unidos Revista 4. New partner: Mute 5. New articles
----------------------------------------------------------- 1. ARTICLE OF THE MONTH: TAKE ME TO YOUR LEADER ----------------------------------------------------------- Is there a monopoly on the media's representation of Muslim communities in the UK and Europe? According to Abdul-Rehman Malik, contributing editor at Muslim magazine "Q-News", this is indeed the case. While "a dynamic, self-identifying Muslim presence [...] has re-shaped our view of religion in the public sphere", the emergence of "Muslim-ness" as a central marker of identity has opened up a gap in the market for "professional believers".
In Britain in the 1970s, a process of institution building began that would enable communities and policy-makers to engage. At that time, diversity was understood in solely ethnic and racial terms; as institutions grew preoccupied with self-preservation, they resisted expressions of religious identity that would undermine their legitimacy.
Post 9/11, with questions of integration, cohesion, and multiculturalism deeply connected to the "war on terror", new institutions, media, and spokespersons have emerged, seeking to fill the gap in Muslim representation:
"Because of policy confusion and drift at the centre, along with the media obsession with Islam and its commensurate desire to hear 'Muslim voices', the field has never been more open for 'Islam entrepreneurs' to rush in and claim legitimacy and a stake. This is not always civil society per se, but a cadre of consultants, groups, think-tanks, journalists, commentators, activists, and policy wonks who are acutely aware that public and social policy priorities have shifted, and that there is plenty of kudos (and some money) to be had if solutions to the 'Muslim problem' can be delivered, critiqued, or, in the case of rightwing pundits, mocked."
Needless to say, the "take me to your leader" approach by no means guarantees representation. "Clearly, replicating the race experience is not in the interest of Muslim communities. It is not in the interest of Britain or Europe as a whole either," writes Malik. Muslim communities are looking for leadership and vision, not representation, he continues. "If the emerging 'Islam industry' can't offer that, then it's not rising to the challenges of the moment."
Abdul-Rehman Malik TAKE ME TO YOUR LEADER. POST-SECULAR SOCIETY AND THE ISLAM INDUSTRY
This article is available in English: http://www.eurozine.com/articles/2007-04-23-armalik-en.html
----------------------------------------------------------- 2. FOCUS: CULTURAL DIVERSITY ----------------------------------------------------------- The multitude of perspectives and experiences present in Europe as a result of migration represents an enormous resource. But, as cultural conflicts inherent in today's urban societies become visible, doubts are also raised about the value of diversity. In the framework of the Austrian "Aktionstage Politische Bildung", Eurozine presents a broad take on the issue that goes beyond the common dichotomy between multicultural segregation and the forceful assimilation of the "melting pot". This focal point is part of a larger focus on cultural diversity that Eurozine is developing together with the European Cultural Foundation and that will be published in full later this year.
Read articles in the focal point Shared space, divided society: http://www.eurozine.com/comp/focalpoints/culturaldiv.html
----------------------------------------------------------- 3. NEW PARTNER: ARTISTAS UNIDOS REVISTA ----------------------------------------------------------- Founded in 1999 by the theatre company Artistas Unidos and the publishing house Livros Cotovia, "Artistas Unidos Revista" is a biannual Portuguese journal of contemporary drama. The magazine publishes articles that analyze the development of the company's theatre work, as well as previously unpublished texts, interviews, and thematic profiles. The magazine is a privileged space for first-time Portuguese publication of works by artists such as José Maria Vieira Mendes, Robert Pinget, Jon Fosse, Francisco Luís Parreira, Harold Pinter, Anton Tchékhov. Artistas Unidos is also part of the Atelier Européen de la Traduction.
Read more about "Artistas Unidos Revista", one of Eurozine's newest partner journals, including its current issue: http://www.eurozine.com/journals/artistasunidos.html
----------------------------------------------------------- 4. NEW PARTNER: MUTE ----------------------------------------------------------- UK magazine "Mute" was founded in 1994 with the aim of discussing the interrelationship of art and new technologies. As mass participation in computer-mediated communications became more integral to contemporary capitalism, its coverage expanded to engage with the broader implications of this shift.
"Mute" publishes articles online on a weekly basis, collating a selection of these into a quarterly printed magazine. Metamute.org's content combines so-called "clusters" dedicated to specific topics (climate change and capital, the politics of multiculturalism, precarious labour) with a wide range of reviews and commentaries, both of which feature in the print publication. All of "Mute"'s content is freely available online.
Read more about "Mute", one of Eurozine's newest partner journals, including its current issue: http://www.eurozine.com/journals/mute.html
----------------------------------------------------------- 5. NEW ARTICLES ----------------------------------------------------------- Mykola Riabchuk FAREWELL TO THE CARGO CULT The current stand-off in the Ukraine is a result of the "incomplete revolution" post-1991 and after the Orange upheaval in 2004. This failure means that the mechanisms of authoritarianism -- bribery, blackmail, and intimidation -- are now back in Ukrainian politics. 04.05.2007
This article is available in English: http://www.eurozine.com/articles/2007-05-04-riabchuk-en.html
Tymofiy Havryliv AFTER THE REVOLUTION IS BEFORE THE REVOLUTION. OR: THE BAD CONTINUATION OF A WELL-MEANT FAIRY TALE The Orange Revolution -- a fairy tale that wasn't. Now the evil prince has bounced back and his chances don't look bad. The people, meanwhile, are learning that there's no such thing as good princes and princesses... 04.05.2007
This article is available in German and English: http://www.eurozine.com/articles/2007-05-04-havryliv-de.htmlhttp://www.eurozine.com/articles/2007-05-04-havryliv-en.html
Olivier Roy ISLAMIC EVANGELISM. ISLAM IN EUROPE It is a mistake to think that religious and political radicalism among European Muslims is a mere import from the cultures and conflicts of the Middle East. It is above all a consequence of the globalization and Westernization of Islam, writes Olivier Roy. 03.05.2007
This article is now available in French, English, German, and Italian: http://www.eurozine.com/articles/2007-05-03-roy-fr.htmlhttp://www.eurozine.com/articles/2007-05-03-roy-en.htmlhttp://www.eurozine.com/articles/2006-08-17-roy-de.htmlhttp://www.eurozine.com/articles/2006-10-02-roy-it.html
Nilüfer Göle THE ISLAMIST IDENTITY. ISLAM, EUROPEAN PUBLIC SPACE, AND CIVILITY It is not distance from, but proximity to modern life that triggers a return to religious identity among migrant Muslims in Europe, says Nilüfer Göle. The religious self for individual Muslims is being shifted from the private to the public realm. 03.05.2007
This article is now available in French, English, German, and Italian: http://www.eurozine.com/articles/2007-05-03-gole-fr.htmlhttp://www.eurozine.com/articles/2007-05-03-gole-en.htmlhttp://www.eurozine.com/articles/2006-08-17-gole-de.htmlhttp://www.eurozine.com/articles/2006-10-02-gole-it.html
Judy Radul WHAT WAS BEHIND ME NOW FACES ME. PERFORMANCE, STAGING, AND TECHNOLOGY IN THE COURT OF LAW Increasingly sophisticated technology for reproducing sound and images is altering the traditional theatrical element of the courtroom. Is it possible to imagine a court, guided by justice and law, taking into account the new "politics of representation"? 02.05.2007
This article is available in English and Swedish: http://www.eurozine.com/articles/2007-05-02-radul-en.htmlhttp://www.eurozine.com/articles/2007-05-02-radul-sv.html
Moris Farhi ALL HISTORY IS THE HISTORY OF MIGRATION Throughout history, the ambivalent presence of the migrant Other has aroused extremes of sentiment within the host community. 30.04.2007
This article is now available in Italian and English: http://www.eurozine.com/articles/2007-04-30-farhi-it.htmlhttp://www.eurozine.com/articles/2006-11-03-farhi-en.html
Zygmunt Bauman, Lukasz Galecki THE UNWINNABLE WAR. AN INTERVIEW WITH ZYGMUNT BAUMAN In the East, impoverished masses are lured into anti-Westernism; in the West, the State seeks to regain its legitimacy via the War on Terror. A vicious cycle of global insecurity is underway. 30.04.2007
This article is now available in Italian, English, and Catalan: http://www.eurozine.com/articles/2007-04-30-bauman-it.htmlhttp://www.eurozine.com/articles/2006-12-13-bauman-en.htmlhttp://www.eurozine.com/articles/2007-03-19-bauman-ca.html
Agnès Callamard CAN WE SAY WHAT WE WANT? The action brought by Islamic groups against the French satirical paper "Charlie-Hebdo", after it reprinted the notorious Danish cartoons, recently fell through. Is free speech really in danger worldwide? 27.04.2007
This article is available in English and German: http://www.eurozine.com/articles/2007-04-27-callamard-en.htmlhttp://www.eurozine.com/articles/2007-04-27-callamard-de.html
Orhan Pamuk NEIGHBOURHOODS. OPENING ADDRESS AT THE 18TH EUROPEAN MEETING OF CULTURAL JOURNALS For Orhan Pamuk, "neighbourhood" implies openness to neighbouring cultures but also provincial mistrust. Cultural journals' role, he says, should be to encourage non-conformity. 26.04.2007
This article is now available in German, French, English, Danish, and Catalan: http://www.eurozine.com/articles/2007-04-26-pamuk-de.htmlhttp://www.eurozine.com/articles/2007-04-26-pamuk-fr.htmlhttp://www.eurozine.com/articles/2006-10-13-pamuk-en.htmlhttp://www.eurozine.com/articles/2006-12-01-pamuk-da.htmlhttp://www.eurozine.com/articles/2007-03-14-pamuk-ca.html
Rainer Münz OLD EUROPE. A LOOK AHEAD TO THE TWENTY-FIRST CENTURY With rising life expectancy, stagnating working-age populations, and low birth rates, Europe faces a demographic challenge over the next fifty years the likes of which it has never known. 25.04.2007
This article is available in English and German: http://www.eurozine.com/articles/2007-04-25-munz-en.htmlhttp://www.eurozine.com/articles/2007-04-25-munz-de.html
Wolfgang Müller-Funk THE DANUBE AND THE CENTRE OF THE CONTINENT Decoding the modern history of the Danube -- from nineteenth-century nationalism, through communism, to post-communism -- and how writers from Grillparzer to Handke have explored a "Danube identity". 24.04.2007
This article is available in German: http://www.eurozine.com/articles/2007-04-24-muellerfunk-de.html
Alex Rhys-Taylor THE IRREPRESSIBILITY OF MANGIFERA How do embodied memories transmit the effects of movement between places, amongst things, and within people into the contemporary urban environment? A literary-sociological narrative describes the sensations of a Caribbean immigrant to Britain. 23.04.2007
This article is available in English: http://www.eurozine.com/articles/2007-04-23-rhystaylor-en.html
André Bellon FRANCE ELECTS ITS MONARCH When France goes to the polls, it will be the rare exception in Europe that a head of state with such powers is elected directly. But criticism of the institutions of the Fifth Republic is growing. Is it time to call up a constituent national assembly? 20.04.2007
This article is available in German: http://www.eurozine.com/articles/2007-04-20-bellon-de.html
Ivaylo Ditchev FLUID CITIZENSHIP. UTOPIA OF FREEDOM OR REALITY OF SUBMISSION? Large sections of the populations of countries at the peripheries of the EU are in permanent migratory motion. The trend towards overcoming arbitrary socio-political territories has its apotheosis in the Internet's utopian horizon of absolute mobility. 19.04.2007
This article is now available in German, French, and English: http://www.eurozine.com/articles/2007-04-19-ditchev-de.htmlhttp://www.eurozine.com/articles/2007-04-19-ditchev-fr.htmlhttp://www.eurozine.com/articles/2006-02-15-ditchev-en.html
Éva Kovács THE MÉMOIRE CROISÉE OF THE SHOAH How the crossovers between the politics of history and personal and social memories of the Shoah differ between eastern and western Europe. 18.04.2007
This article is now available in German, French, and English: http://www.eurozine.com/articles/2007-04-18-kovacs-de.htmlhttp://www.eurozine.com/articles/2007-04-18-kovacs-fr.htmlhttp://www.eurozine.com/articles/2006-05-22-kovacs-en.html
Jean Baudrillard, Truls Lie THE ART OF DISAPPEARING Jean Baudrillard, who died 6 March, gave us the tools to understand the media society and counteract the total assimilation into capitalist overproduction. Excerpts from a previously unpublished interview in which Baudrillard talks about his own death. 17.04.2007
This article is available in English and Norwegian: http://www.eurozine.com/articles/2007-04-17-lie-en.htmlhttp://www.eurozine.com/articles/2007-04-17-lie-no.html
Mark B. Taylor PALESTINIAN SELF-DETERMINATION By ending its boycott of Hamas, Norway may have taken an important first step towards a working peace strategy. 17.04.2007
This article is available in English and Norwegian: http://www.eurozine.com/articles/2007-04-17-mtaylor-en.htmlhttp://www.eurozine.com/articles/2007-04-17-mtaylor-no.html
Patrick Weil THE POLITICS OF MEMORY. TABOO AND COMMEMORATION While recent legislation in France ruled slavery to be a crime against humanity, the continuities of history and republicanism remain uninterrupted. 16.04.2007
This article is available in French: http://www.eurozine.com/articles/2007-04-16-weil-fr.html
David MacFadyen CAN YOU HEAR ME NOW? MOBILE TECHNOLOGY IN RURAL RUSSIA With Siberia and the Urals close on the heels of Moscow in mobile phone ownership, Russia's expanses are rapidly coming to seem less vast. How the latest technology is challenging the monopoly of state-owned media. 13.04.2007
This article is now available in Italian and English: http://www.eurozine.com/articles/2007-04-13-macfadyen-it.htmlhttp://www.eurozine.com/articles/2007-03-02-macfadyen-en.html
Hans-Peter Meier-Dallach SOUNDS OF GLOBALIZATION. OBSERVATIONS FROM ZURICH If the globe is an acoustic space, then globalization is an audible process. Listening for truth of the "World is Flat" theory. 12.04.2007
This article is available in German: http://www.eurozine.com/articles/2007-04-12-meierdallach-de.html
Ted Cantle PARALLEL LIVES We may live in a multicultural society, but we need a more positive approach to breaking down segregation. 11.04.2007
This article is now available in German, French, and English: http://www.eurozine.com/articles/2007-04-11-cantle-de.htmlhttp://www.eurozine.com/articles/2007-04-11-cantle-fr.htmlhttp://www.eurozine.com/articles/2006-11-03-cantle-en.html
Hubert Markl LEARNING TO DIE IN ORDER TO LIVE Medical advances combined with humanitarian dispositions mean that death is brutally dragged out beyond tolerability. We need a new "Ars moriendi", a new art of learning to die, in order to unlock the preciousness of life. 10.04.2007
This article is available in German: http://www.eurozine.com/articles/2007-04-10-markl-de.html
Salil Tripathi A TALE OF TWO COMMUNITIES While business may be the great integrator, cultural tensions have not disappeared in two Asian communities in the UK. Understanding these means dropping multiculturalist clichés about "the Asian community". 06.04.2007
This article is available in English: http://www.eurozine.com/articles/2007-04-06-tripathi-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. 05.04.2007
This article is now available in German, French, and English: http://www.eurozine.com/articles/2007-04-05-malik-de.htmlhttp://www.eurozine.com/articles/2007-04-05-malik-fr.htmlhttp://www.eurozine.com/articles/2006-11-23-malik-en.html
Laurent Dubois, Michel Giraud, Marc-Olivier Padis, Lilian Thuram, Patrick Weil A HISTORY TO PASS ON. INTERVIEW WITH LILIAN THURAM French national footballer Lilian Thuram, a vocal critic of Nicolas Sarkozy, talks about teaching the history of slavery and about discriminatory practices in France today. 04.04.2007
This article is available in French: http://www.eurozine.com/articles/2007-04-04-thuram-fr.html
Sven Hansen THE END OF CHINESE PATIENCE Protests are becoming increasingly frequent and courageous in China. At the same time, leaders in Beijing are reacting more flexibly – as long as the Communist Party's monopoly on power is not threatened. 03.04.2007
This article is available in German: http://www.eurozine.com/articles/2007-04-03-hansen-de.html
Claus Leggewie EQUALLY CRIMINAL? TOTALITARIAN EXPERIENCE AND EUROPEAN MEMORY Whoever wishes to give European society a political identity will rate the discussion of disputed memories as highly as treaties, a common currency, and open borders. 02.04.2007
This article is now available in Lithuanian, German, English, French, and Polish: http://www.eurozine.com/articles/2007-04-02-leggewie-lt.htmlhttp://www.eurozine.com/articles/2006-12-20-leggewie-de.htmlhttp://www.eurozine.com/articles/2006-06-01-leggewie-en.htmlhttp://www.eurozine.com/articles/2007-01-11-leggewie-fr.htmlhttp://www.eurozine.com/articles/2006-12-20-leggewie-pl.html