----------------------------------------------------------- EUROZINE NEWSLETTER 06.2010-----------------------------------------------------------
1. Article of the month: When newspapers die... 2. Debate series: The critical divide 3. New Eurozine partner: New Literary Observer (NLO) 4. New Eurozine partner: Syn og Segn 5. New articles
----------------------------------------------------------- 1. ARTICLE OF THE MONTH: WHEN NEWSPAPERS DIE...----------------------------------------------------------- "Some of the biggest newspapers in Norway will never be the same again. They won't even continue to be what they are now. They will cling to life while all sense is slowly sucked out of them; for this is how newspapers die: slowly and painfully, not least for their readers."
Sven Egil Omdal, seasoned journalist and editor, gives a bleak assessment of the state and the future of the printed press. The days are gone when Norwegian editors travelled to the US to learn how to produce quality journalism, he writes. But "this is the time they should be going":
"It is far more interesting to find out the real reason why the Chicago Tribune has filed for bankruptcy protection than to study how to produce interesting political journalism with 600 reporters on staff and daily contact with Congress and the White House."
Faced with a technology of irreversible change, the reigning powers have two alternatives: to redirect resources to areas that are under less threat, or to embrace the new technology in an attempt to transfer the influence and quality of the departing industry onto a new platform. But, warns Omdal, "these leaps of technology cannot be carried out with half a heart and a quarter of a brain. A quantum leap is what is needed."
Sven Egil Omdal When newspapers die... This article is available in English and Norwegian: http://www.eurozine.com/articles/2010-05-18-omdal-en.htmlhttp://www.eurozine.com/articles/2010-05-18-omdal-no.html
----------------------------------------------------------- 2. DEBATE SERIES: THE CRITICAL DIVIDE----------------------------------------------------------- Is the renewed interest in Marx in the context of global economic crisis impossible in eastern Europe, where Marxism is seen as a relic of totalitarianism? The fourth debate in the series "Europe talks to Europe", co-hosted by Eurozine and literary journal Host (Brno) in cooperation with the ERSTE Foundation, took place at the House of Arts in Brno, Czech Republic, on 18 May. Jirí Pehe (Prague) met Benedict Seymour (London) to discuss Marxism as "critical divide" between eastern and western Europe.
Seymour spoke of a "rendezvous with Marxism as it was not in the 'communist' countries". It isn't necessary to "re-invent the ensemble of communism", he argued: "the bottom line is that today people won't go for Stalinism or the rhetoric of the proletarian revolution". Nevertheless, Thatcher's comment that "there is no alternative" is now true: there is now no alternative to something other than capitalism.
Pehe agreed that contemporary capitalism indeed revealed a "cannibalistic" hunger to consume its own resources. The discrediting of Marxism in the former Czechoslovakia created a system post-89 where it was possible to criticize capitalism only "from within". Yet Marx's language of class is outdated, argued Pehe: not a proletarian movement but "global civil society" can save liberal democracy against capitalism.
Read a summary of the debate: http://www.eurozine.com/articles/2010-05-20-newsitem-en.html
"Dilemma '89: My father was a communist": Slovak author and journalist Martin M. Simecka and Hungarian architect and former samizdat publisher László Rajk discuss the still unanswered questions surrounding the involvement of their fathers' generation in post-war communism, and the failings of today's debate about the past in the former communist countries: http://www.eurozine.com/articles/2010-05-07-debate-en.html
----------------------------------------------------------- 3. NEW EUROZINE PARTNER: NEW LITERARY OBSERVER (NLO)----------------------------------------------------------- Eurozine welcomes "New Literary Observer" (NLO) to the network. Published since 1992, "NLO" is an interdisciplinary journal studying Russian culture in a global context. It seeks to stimulate new approaches to culture, to reflect on the rapidly changing status of academic institutions, and to radically modernize the field of human sciences in Russia.
The journal covers three main areas: theory (re-evaluation of traditional philosophical and cultural paradigms, analysis of contemporary intellectual trends); history (Russian and international cultural history, archive documents); and practice (literary genres in the multimedia age, contemporary fiction and non-fiction, academic and cultural events).
More about "New Literary Observer" including the latest issue: http://www.eurozine.com/journals/nlo.html
----------------------------------------------------------- 4. NEW EUROZINE PARTNER: SYN OG SEGN----------------------------------------------------------- Eurozine welcomes the Norwegian journal "Syn og Segn" to the network. It is the only journal for political and cultural issues written in Nynorsk (new-Norwegian). The journal has been published since 1894 by the publishing house Det Norske Samlaget and has influenced the political, literary and academic discourse in Norway for more than a century.
"Syn og Segn" aims to represent a clear, new-Norwegian voice and provide a counter-cultural corrective in an increasingly narrow-minded media field. The journal emphasizes the importance of giving a platform to new female writers in a traditionally male dominated field.
More about "Syn og Segn" including the latest issue: http://www.eurozine.com/journals/synogsegn.html
----------------------------------------------------------- 5. NEW ARTICLES----------------------------------------------------------- Irina Sherbakova When the mute speak to the deaf Generational dialogue and history policy in Russia In Russia today, personal experience of WWII as a source of social memory has almost run dry. Instead, younger generations are exposed to a pseudo-patriotic and ideologized history policy, writes the director of Memorial Moscow's educational programme. 31.05.2010
This article is available in German: http://www.eurozine.com/articles/2010-05-31-sherbakova-de.html
Eurozine Review The Armageddon-obsessed superstructure "Mute" puts the brake on the apocalyptic tendency; "Vikerkaar" rocks to the sound of China's ascent; "Wespennest" sees more than the tip of the literary iceberg; "Glänta" reaches for its gun; "Dialogi" asks where all the feminists went; "Samtiden" heals the feminist rift; "Arche" seeks a post-Soviet "genius urbis"; "NZ" explores municipal governance in a globalized world; and "New Humanist" says debunk the denialists, but beware of dogmatism. 26.05.2010
This article is available in English: http://www.eurozine.com/articles/2010-05-26-eurozinerev-en.html
Benjamin Noys Apocalypse, tendency, crisis Marx's comment that history advances by the "bad side" has inspired an apocalyptic strand of anti-capitalism that supposes history is "on our side". Benjamin Noys takes issue with the accelerationist approach that welcomes apocalypse as the decisive moment. 26.05.2010
This article is available in English: http://www.eurozine.com/articles/2010-05-26-noys-en.html
Roman Schmidt Utopian failing Two journal projects Brecht's and Benjamin's "Krise und Kritik" and Maurice Blanchot's "Revue Internationale" were attempts to create common spaces of thinking and action in times of crisis and change. Central to both projects -- and their failure -- were collective forms of the writing and editorial processes. 26.05.2010
This article is available in German: http://www.eurozine.com/articles/2010-05-26-schmidt-de.html
Keith Kahn-Harris Unreasonable doubt Those who debunk the deniers of scientific consensus tend either to be old-fashioned rationalists or committed activists. Neither group are particularly well suited to looking at the deeper reasons behind denialism, warns Keith Kahn-Harris. 25.05.2010
This article is available in English: http://www.eurozine.com/articles/2010-05-25-kahnharris-en.html
Cristina Masters Cyborg soldiers and militarized masculinities Increasing military interest in the body cancels the transgressive potential of the cyborg. Where humans become the weakest link in contemporary warfare, the cyborg represents a desire for total masculinist domination. Machines, not human bodies, are now the subjects of the text. 20.05.2010
This article is available in English and Swedish: http://www.eurozine.com/articles/2010-05-20-masters-en.htmlhttp://www.eurozine.com/articles/2010-05-20-masters-sv.html
Sven Egil Omdal When newspapers die... ... it can be a slow and painful business. Many of its current problems are of the newspaper industry's own making. But also in Norway there are signs that some are finally getting the message and shaping up to the future, writes Sven Egil Omdal. 18.05.2010
This article is available in English and Norwegian: http://www.eurozine.com/articles/2010-05-18-omdal-en.htmlhttp://www.eurozine.com/articles/2010-05-18-omdal-no.html
Brian Holmes Written in the stars? Global finance, precarious destinies Where hard physics combines with traders' animal passions, financialized civilization becomes imbued with the relations between hunter and hunted. Systemic corruption produces the disconnect between the informational sky above our heads and the existential ground beneath our feet. 17.05.2010
This article is available in English: http://www.eurozine.com/articles/2010-05-17-holmes-en.html
Sarah Ernst Iceland: Stone broke wonderland Overshadowed by volcanic ash, Iceland's economic condition has not changed for the better since the March referendum. As punishment for Iceland's insubordination, the 2.1 million dollar aid package has yet to find its way up north, and neither can Iceland count on help from Brussels in its negotiations with the IMF. 12.05.2010
This article is available in German: http://www.eurozine.com/articles/2010-05-12-ernst-de.html
Ozren Pupovac Present perfect, or the time of post-socialism Suspended between negation and anticipation, post-socialist societies are a beginning with no end, writes Ozren Pupovac. A neoliberal order underwritten by the science of transitology ensures that the sole constant of post-socialism is inequality. 12.05.2010
This article is available in Croatian and English: http://www.eurozine.com/articles/2010-05-12-pupovac-hr.htmlhttp://www.eurozine.com/articles/2010-05-12-pupovac-en.html
Bertram Keller Dead money Ten theses for a new inheritance law Diminishing political support for inheritance tax risks forfeiting an essential mechanism of social equality. Bertram Keller proposes ten adjustments to inheritance law that would ensure fairer redistribution. 11.05.2010
This article is available in German: http://www.eurozine.com/articles/2010-05-11-keller-de.html
Henning Ritter Philanthropy and atrocity On Schopenhauer's ethics Schopenhauer's emphasis on cruelty aligns him with the moral consciousness of the nineteenth century, writes Henning Ritter. The philanthropic enterprises of the time shared a secular approach to dealing with the facts of suffering that had elicited the philosopher's pessimism. 11.05.2010
This article is available in German: http://www.eurozine.com/articles/2010-05-11-ritter-de.html
Olivier Roy Islamic evangelism Islam in Europe Religious and political radicalism among European Muslims is less an import from the cultures and conflicts of the Middle East than a consequence of the globalization and westernization of Islam, writes Olivier Roy. 10.05.2010
This article is now available in Bosnian, English, French, German and Italian: http://www.eurozine.com/articles/2010-05-10-roy-bs.htmlhttp://www.eurozine.com/articles/2007-05-03-roy-en.htmlhttp://www.eurozine.com/articles/2007-05-03-roy-fr.htmlhttp://www.eurozine.com/articles/2006-08-17-roy-de.htmlhttp://www.eurozine.com/articles/2006-10-02-roy-it.html
László Rajk, Martin M. Simecka Dilemma '89: My father was a communist The Slovak author and journalist Martin M. Simecka and Hungarian architect and former samizdat publisher László Rajk are not only former dissidents of the younger generation, but also the sons of well-known persecuted communists. In the first debate in the Eurozine series "Europe talks to Europe", they discussed the still unanswered questions surrounding the involvement of their fathers' generation in post-war communism. A candid and riveting exchange. 07.05.2010
This article is available in English: http://www.eurozine.com/articles/2010-05-07-debate-en.html
Amy Allen Rethinking resistance Feminism and the politics of our selves Is accepting the Foucaultian claim that the subject is constituted by power tantamount to denying the possibility of emancipatory resistance? Not necessarily, argues Amy Allen, taking a detour via Habermas to articulate a politics of opposition to gender subordination that is both individual and collective. 05.05.2010
This article is available in Bulgarian and English: http://www.eurozine.com/articles/2010-05-05-allen-bg.htmlhttp://www.eurozine.com/articles/2010-05-05-allen-en.html
Forum of Concerned Citizens of Europe Living with diversity: For a politics of hope without fear An open letter to Europe Xenophobia is not contained to Europe's extremist fringes but part of the political mainstream, write the authors of an open letter to Europe's leaders. Quick-fix solutions appealing to a mythical Europe of homogenous communities must be replaced by a politics of hospitality and solidarity. 05.05.2010
This article is available in English: http://www.eurozine.com/articles/2010-05-05-forum-en.html
Irene Bandhauer-Schöffmann "Emancipation with bombs and pistols"? Feminists and female terrorists in German-language security discourses of the 1970s Mainstream media portrayals of the "terror girls" of the 1970s framed feminism as a security risk. A survey of feminist journals shows that while female terrorists exercised a fascination for some feminists, the womens' movement on the whole clearly distanced itself from political violence. 04.05.2010
This article is available in German: http://www.eurozine.com/articles/2010-05-04-bandhauer-de.html
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