----------------------------------------------------------- EUROZINE NEWSLETTER 01.2010-----------------------------------------------------------
1. Article of the month: Guns, fire and ditches 2. New Eurozine associate: openDemocracy 3. New Eurozine associate: NAQD 4. Eurozine im:print 5. New articles 6. ... and: Happy New Year!
----------------------------------------------------------- 1. ARTICLE OF THE MONTH: GUNS, FIRE AND DITCHES----------------------------------------------------------- Zoltán Tábori reports from Tatárszentgyörgy, where in February 2009 a house belonging to a Roma was torched and the owner and his son murdered, the seventh in a series of attacks that left six Roma dead and three injured.
Tábori's conversations with Roma and non-Roma villagers gives a disturbing insight into the spiral of crime and resentment in small communities facing increasing competition for employment and education.
A father recalls the night his son and grandson were killed: "I reckon he knew who his attackers were, but he couldn't get it out. I carried him onto the couch inside and wrapped him up. He was cold all over. There were three holes in his back; the detective said a spiked beam probably fell onto him -- that's what did it..."
When shotgun cartridges were found in the morning, it became clear this was not an accidental death. Yet only after intense media and political pressure did the police began to treat the case in connection with a series of murders that had put the entire Roma community in fear for their lives since July 2008.
The murdered man had been charged with the theft of timber from the nearby forest. "It's all true", says his father, "but everyone was filching -- Gypsies and Hungarians alike". "Tatárszentgyörgy", writes Tábori, "is now a village of ditches intended to keep timber thieves out of the woodlands and joyriders off the communal football pitch."
"Everybody points the finger of blame at someone else," says the mayor. "Matters relating to the Roma have always been swept under the carpet, and now political leaders are helpless. Jobbik [the far-Right party] has been hailed as the saviour."
This article is available in English:
http://www.eurozine.com/articles/2009-12-15-tabori-en.html
----------------------------------------------------------- 2. NEW EUROZINE ASSOCIATE: openDemocracy----------------------------------------------------------- We are very happy to welcome "openDemocracy" as a new Eurozine associate, making visible the close cooperation we have had in the past and will have in the future.
The acclaimed web journal "openDemocracy" offers in-depth news analysis and commentary from a pro-democracy, pro-human rights perspective. "We won't tell you what to think", write the editors. "We offer you a spectrum of ideas, from the people who have lived through the events, from those on the ground making a difference, from scholars with expert knowledge. In-depth, independent, inside. Our writers provide you with the background information you need to challenge the politics of any place."
More about "openDemocracy":
http://www.eurozine.com/associates/opendemocracy.html
----------------------------------------------------------- 3. NEW EUROZINE ASSOCIATE: NAQD----------------------------------------------------------- The Algerian journal of social criticism, "NAQD", is the first and only independent Maghreb journal contributing to the development and circulation of contemporary critical reflection. Published annually in French and Arabic, articles focus on key issues affecting society in Algeria, Maghreb and the rest of the Arabic-speaking world.
"NAQD" was founded in 1991 by a group of Algerian academics and intellectuals as an independent critical project; its main aim is to shed light on current problems by instigating a politically independent, critical, and rationalist discourse. "NAQD" is entirely independent of government and relies on subscriptions from libraries and universities in North Africa, Europe and the US.
More about "NAQD":
http://www.eurozine.com/associates/naqd.html
----------------------------------------------------------- 4. EUROZINE IM:PRINT----------------------------------------------------------- Don't miss the opportunity to order a copy of Eurozine im:print, a new series of print collections compiling Eurozine articles and essays around topics of special interest and relevance to a transnational debate.
In "Literary perspectives. The re-transnationalisation of literary criticism", the first issue of Eurozine im:print, renowned critics describe the current literary climate in Croatia, Sweden, Austria, Ukraine, Hungary, Slovenia, Northern Ireland, The Netherlands and Estonia.
More about the Eurozine im:print series including order details:
http://www.eurozine.com/articles/2009-12-02-newsitem-en.html
----------------------------------------------------------- 5. NEW ARTICLES-----------------------------------------------------------
Almantas Samalavicius Literary perspectives: Lithuania Almost normal The literary field in Lithuania has established itself since independence, despite vastly smaller print runs. Today, a range of literary approaches can be made out, from the social criticism of the middle generation to the more private narratives of the post-Soviet writers. 27.12.2009
http://www.eurozine.com/articles/2009-12-27-samalavicius-en.html
Anders Ramsay Marx? Which Marx? Marx's naturalistic understanding of value as being inherent in a commodity has led many Marxists to see money and credit as surface phenomena. In doing so, they overlook the contemporary role played by credit in the reproduction of capital. 21.12.2009
This article is available in English and Swedish:
http://www.eurozine.com/articles/2009-12-21-ramsay-en.htmlhttp://www.eurozine.com/articles/2009-12-21-ramsay-sv.html
Andreas Harbsmeier Literary perspectives: Denmark The contemporary literary reservation Committed, critical writing in Denmark is emerging from its sheltered existence in a literary reservation, in doing so collapsing the boundaries between the literary field and the broader public sphere, writes Andreas Harbsmeier. 18.12.2009
This article is now available in Danish and English:
http://www.eurozine.com/articles/2009-12-18-harbsmeier-da.htmlhttp://www.eurozine.com/articles/2009-10-30-harbsmeier-en.html
Jérôme Sgard The crisis, the economists and Elinor Ostrom's Nobel Prize In Elinor Ostrom's work, economic science and political philosophy meet. Her receipt of the Nobel Prize is recognition of the possibility for fruitful dialogue between economics and other equally rigorous disciplines, writes Jérôme Sgard. 17.12.2009
This article is available in French:
http://www.eurozine.com/articles/2009-12-17-sgard-fr.html
Jonas Ebbesson Environmental injustice Environmental justice halts at national boundaries, ignoring the correlation between environmental harm and other social factors. A cosmopolitan approach is required that considers the situation of individuals in cross-border contexts, argues Jonas Ebbesson. 16.12.2009
http://www.eurozine.com/articles/2009-12-16-ebbesson-en.htmlhttp://www.eurozine.com/articles/2009-12-16-ebbesson-sv.html
Eurozine Review Extra-parliamentary opposition 2.0 "Blätter" declares a revolution of the everyday; "Lettre Internationale" (Denmark) writes the history of global movements after '89; "Lettera Internazionale" sees a parallel reality outlive its origins; "The Hungarian Quarterly" asks whether the dog was wagged in central Europe; "Osteuropa" charts the post-communist curve; "Arena" wrangles over the burka and the niqab in Sweden; "Reset" seeks to redress Italy's political gender imbalance; "Le Monde diplomatique" (Berlin) is impressed by Michele Bachelet, Chile's first female president; "Le Monde diplomatique" (Oslo) does not expect a Copenhagen deal; "Arche" explores the common history of Belarus and Lithuania; and "A Prior" reinvents Flaubert as the cognitive proletariat's prophet of doom. 16.12.2009
http://www.eurozine.com/articles/2009-12-16-eurozinerev-en.html
Zoltán Tábori Guns, fire and ditches A report from Tatárszentgyörgy on the Roma killings Conversations with villagers of Tatárszentgyörgy, Hungary, the scene of anti-Roma violence in February 2009. An insight into the spiral of crime and resentment in small communities facing increasing competition for employment and education. 15.12.2009
Mark Kramer, András Schweitzer Gorbachev's go-ahead András Schweitzer in conversation with Mark Kramer With the benefit of hindsight, it is easy to accuse the West of reluctance in '89. Yet concerns about a violent crackdown by Moscow were understandable, if ultimately unfounded. 15.12.2009
http://www.eurozine.com/articles/2009-12-15-kramer-en.html
Boguslaw Bakula The burden of freedom Polish culture 1989-1999 For Poland, the challenge of '89 lay in combining the formerly separate cultural spheres of dissidence, exile and official policy. When censorship fell away, a cultural "autism" that had developed in Poland during communism encountered a new opponent: the West. 15.12.2009
This article is available in German:
http://www.eurozine.com/articles/2009-12-15-bakula-de.html
Timothy Snyder Holocaust: The ignored reality Auschwitz and the Gulag are generally taken to be adequate or even final symbols of the evil of mass slaughter. But they are only the beginning of knowledge, a hint of the true reckoning with the past still to come, writes historian Timothy Snyder. 15.12.2009
This article is now available in English, Estonian, Lithuanian, Norwegian, Polish, Romanian and Swedish:
http://www.eurozine.com/articles/2009-06-25-snyder-en.htmlhttp://www.eurozine.com/articles/2009-10-15-snyder-et.htmlhttp://www.eurozine.com/articles/2009-08-11-snyder-lt.htmlhttp://www.eurozine.com/articles/2009-08-24-snyder-no.htmlhttp://www.eurozine.com/articles/2009-12-02-snyder-pl.htmlhttp://www.eurozine.com/articles/2009-09-03-snyder-ro.htmlhttp://www.eurozine.com/articles/2009-12-15-snyder-sv.html
Nancy Fraser, Alfredo Gomez-Muller, Gabriel Rockhill Global justice and the renewal of critical theory A dialogue with Nancy Fraser The fall of communism sucked the energy out of social-egalitarian movements, argues Nancy Fraser. Yet it also brought renewals. In the era of globalization, the campaign for redistribution concentrates increasingly on inequalities between, rather than within, nations. 15.12.2009
This now article is now available in English, French and Swedish:
http://www.eurozine.com/articles/2009-04-21-fraser-en.htmlhttp://www.eurozine.com/articles/2009-04-21-fraser-fr.htmlhttp://www.eurozine.com/articles/2009-12-15-fraser-sv.html
Albrecht von Lucke Propaganda of inequality Sarrazin, Sloterdijk and the new German coalition government In a row over the integration of Germany's Turkish population, prominent intellectuals have supported an "elitist" position. All part of a campaign by the "neo-Nietzscheans" to create acceptance for a higher degree of inequality in society, writes Albrecht von Lucke. 15.12.2009
http://www.eurozine.com/articles/2009-12-15-vonlucke-de.html
Heribert Prantl Are newspapers still relevant? It is not the Internet that is responsible for the "crisis of the press", but subordination of journalism to the market, writes the political editor of the "Süddeutsche Zeitung". For the first time since 1945, German journalism risks becoming trivialized. 11.12.2009
This article is now available in English and German:
http://www.eurozine.com/articles/2009-12-11-prantl-en.htmlhttp://www.eurozine.com/articles/2009-08-05-prantl-de.html
Adam Phillips The forgetting museum It seems self-evident that commemoration averts recurrence of that which is being commemorated. Yet an obsession with memory blinds us to the abuses of memory and to the uses of forgetting. 10.12.2009
This article is now available in English, Estonian, German and Lithuanian:
http://www.eurozine.com/articles/2005-06-24-phillips-en.htmlhttp://www.eurozine.com/articles/2009-12-10-phillips-et.htmlhttp://www.eurozine.com/articles/2005-10-31-phillips-de.htmlhttp://www.eurozine.com/articles/2007-08-02-phillips-lt.html
Rick Piltz Why is there no US climate policy? Climate policy in the US is negotiated exclusively in terms of domestic interests. Rick Piltz explains how the combination of political parochialism and the effects of Bush-era climate change denial are stalling the necessary decision-making. 09.12.2009
http://www.eurozine.com/articles/2009-10-30-piltz-en.htmlhttp://www.eurozine.com/articles/2009-12-09-piltz-de.html
Claus Leggewie, Dirk Messner Every day is Copenhagen A breakthrough in international climate policy is still possible Neither the industrialized nor the emerging countries are able to solve the climate problem by "going it alone". In Copenhagen, the EU needs to table a set of exacting reduction targets, without conditioning them on the willingness of others to follow suit. 04.12.2009
http://www.eurozine.com/articles/2009-12-04-leggewie-en.html
Eurozine News Item The Good Society Debate Eurozine partner editors join a debate, co-initiated by "Soundings", on the possibility for a "new political narrative that combines sharp analysis of the shortcomings of the economies and societies we live in with an authentic and convincing vision for the future". 03.12.2009
http://www.eurozine.com/articles/2009-12-03-newsitem-en.html
----------------------------------------------------------- 6. ... and: Happy New Year!----------------------------------------------------------- To all readers, contributors and partners: a happy, peaceful -- and yet exciting -- new year! In 2010, we will continue to provide a Europe-wide overview of current themes and discussions, presenting the best articles from our partners in translation, as well as original texts, on all aspects of culture and politics.
One of our main focuses in 2010 will be the media crisis in the wake of the digital revolution. While the newspaper crisis is the most striking manifestation of change, media as a whole is faced with new and profound challenges. Recent political, social, economic and technological developments transform not only the concept of publishing itself but have effects on copyright legislation, free speech and the fundamental functioning of the public sphere. All fields of publishing and culture are affected, from the literary book trade to the academic production of knowledge, from cultural journals to radio and television.
There is a considerable quantity of material looking at individual aspects of the media across Europe, but there is no substantial, comprehensive and widely accessible approach to the subject. We aim at filling this gap by, for example, extending our already concluded focus on eastern and south-eastern Europe (Media landscapes) to include also media in western Europe.
Focuses on contemporary writing in Portugal, Poland and Macedonia will complement the Literary perspectives series, and under the heading Europe talks to Europe, we will continue our series of high-profile public debates in eastern and central Europe. Bucharest, Bratislava and Brno are among the cities that will host the debates.
Watch this space for more information about these and all other Eurozine activities.
http://www.eurozine.com/comp/focalpoints/medialandscapes.htmlhttp://www.eurozine.com/comp/literaryperspectives.htmlhttp://www.eurozine.com/comp/europetalkstoeurope.html----------------------------------------------------------- The Eurozine newsletter is published with the support of the Culture Programme of the European Union: http://ec.europa.eu/dgs/education_culture/index_en.htm