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Per Wirtén
is Editor-in-Chief of the Swedish magazine Arena. Among his publications are Europas ansikte (2002), Populisterna: en berättelse från folkets århundrade (2000) and Hellre fattig än arbetslös? (1997).
Eurozine Articles
They removed the veil
Pernilla Ouis and Anne Sofie Roald adopted the headscarf back in the 1980s at the same time as political Islam began to grow. Now they are part of a global trend towards secularization in which more and more women are shedding their headscarves and veils. [more]
Unacknowledged, unseen, unmentioned
Poverty in Europe
Impoverished German children dream of the US; one Greek person in four is in arrears with their most basic bills; sixty per cent of the poor in Romania have outdoor toilets. Cracks are appearing in Europe's beloved image of itself as the egalitarian alternative to the United States. [more]
Doing the world differently
In defence of multiculturalism
Multiculturalism, long the bête noire of the Right, has come under increasing attack from the Left. But whether multiculturalism poses a threat to Enlightenment values or not, the real debate must be over how we interpret the term itself. [more]
Free the nation - cosmopolitanism now!
"Cosmopolite" was once a pejorative code word used to denounce Jews, anarchists, pacifists and others who refused to accept the call for fixed borders coming from the nation-states. Now, in another historic turning-point, cosmopolitanism is coming back. [more]
The New Paradox
USA: just a country among others?
We may, writes Per Wirtén, be standing before a big paradox: the globalization that many Europeans view as Americanization might in fact lead to a situation where the USA is transformed from the one and only empire to just one country among others. [more]
Articles published in the Partner Section
Radikalismens fantasyvärld
När vänstervågen äntligen börjar rulla upp i strukturer och samtiden känns mognare än någonsin springer radikaler in i barnkammaren. Det är ett sorgligt reprisbeteende. [more]
En skön känsla av utopisk energi
Göteborg och Genua har efterlämnat oro, förvirring och även en känsla av pessimism eller till och med uppgivenhet. Begripligt med tanke på våldet – polisens och svartskjortornas. Men obefogat i ett större perspektiv, menar Per Wirtén. [more]
Världspolitik utan världsregering
Det finns en del radikala tankar om europeisk demokrati efter att nationalstaten tappat greppet. Per Wirtén sorterar och diskuterar de starka viljor som just nu florerar på kontinenten - och i Sverige. [more]