Feed
Articles published in Eurozine
Nicolas Sarkozy, the laïcité and the religions
Nicolas Sarkozy's recent comments on religion have alarmed many. Yet, as Jean-Louis Schlegel demonstrates, they bear a continuity with his policy while still minister of the interior to establish an official Muslim representative body. [more]
A Western split within Christianity?
Benedict XVI's Regensburg speech in 2006 was directed less at Islam than at Protestantism, with its twofold spectres of sectarian utopia and consumer individualism. The real scandal was the way Benedict's anti-rationalism was warmly received by so many intellectuals. [English version added] [more]
The EU: Neither God nor Caesar
How does the European Union handle the relationships between confessional faiths and the unified body that it is striving to bring about? Being inherently pluralistic, it is incumbent upon the EU to develop a new form of secularization. [more]
What is postcolonial thinking?
Postcolonial thinking looks so original because it developed in a transnational, eclectic vein from the very start, says theorist Achille Mbembe. This enabled it to combine the anti-imperialist tradition with the fledgling subaltern studies and a specific take on globalization. [more]
A history to be handed down
Interview with Lilian Thuram
The Caribbean-born French footballer Lilian Thuram talks about his longstanding interest in the history of slavery, about how sport can teach mutual respect, and why he still believes in the French model of integration. [more]
Nicolas Sarkozy, Gramsci reader
New power and the temptation of hegemony
Nicolas Sarkozy has professed admiration for the Gramscian notion of "cultural hegemony" -- political domination via domination of ideas. The difference is that Sarkozy seeks hegemony not over ideas so much as values. [Lithuanian version added] [more]
The city of Kinshasa as verbal architecture
Kinshasa, with its nine million inhabitants the second largest city in sub-Saharan Africa, epitomizes contemporary urban chaos. Given that Kinshasa's infrastructure is either non-existent or doomed to disappear, how can one grasp what holds the city together? [more]
From class struggle to place struggle
The local projects of Alberto Magnaghi and the urban renovation of Bernardo Secchi
The term "place struggle" serves to highlight the fact that, in post-industrial societies, conflicts are more and more related to the recovery of democratic space and polities. In a world where global technical flows devour conventional urban space, globalization must be tackled "bottom up". Magnaghi's and Secchi's Italian experiments anticipate this need. [more]
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. [more]
Portobello Road
A London district in the "virtual" era
From immigrant district to faux-bohemian ghetto, the cultural strata that formed the unique identity of London's Portobello Road have been destroyed. [more]
Hungary, fifty years after the revolution
The great Hungarian socialist chronicler of eastern European totalitarianism writes on the revolution in the context of Hungarian history and of the power relations of international communism. [more]
Budapest in flames
A reportage from the barricades of Budapest, originally submitted to Esprit in 1956. [more]
Security: Paradigm of a disenchanted world
What is gained and what is risked in transferring attention to the term "security" and seeing in political institutions nothing else than the response to diffuse uneasiness? [more]
Memories and histories: The new Spanish Civil War
The pact of silence that has existed in Spain over the Civil War and Franco era is becoming increasingly difficult to maintain. A boom in publications on the subject seems to bear out Manuel Azaña's comment that "burying the dead is a Spanish national pastime". [Hungarian version added] [more]
Happy accidents
Deliberation and online exposure to opposing views
Beyond information and opinion sharing, does the Internet facilitate exposure to views we do not share? Does it meet this minimal condition for genuine democratic deliberation and participation? [more]
Framing an Internet network architecture
Political interference, online criminality, hacking, and economic security provide arguments in favour of increased supervision of the Internet. Are the insights that originally made the Internet so dynamic still valid when it becomes a basic infrastructure for the enrichment and sovereignty of nations? [more]
Handwritten correspondence to mental exercise by email
Until halfway through the last century, scientists' handwritten correspondence prepared the ground for the publication of a scientific work. This stage in the process has shifted to the international conference, the organization of which is now conducted by email. What will this mean for archivists of the future? [more]
Agreements and disagreements with historians
Paul Ricoeur's debate with historians echoes in contemporary discussions about conflicting memories, minority issues, and the democratic struggle over past crimes in Europe. [more]
New powers, new menaces
A discussion
Europe has been sidelined by Asia's ascendance on the international scene and new responses by the US to terrorism. Moreover, Europe has failed to recognize the hierarchy of the terrorist menace and to respond effectively. [more]
November nights 2005: The geography of violence
A round table discussion
Can the riots in the French suburbs be understood as an attempt to force solidarity from the middle classes? On the causes and effects of French suburban unrest. [more]
The question of tolerance in Islamic societies
Today's Muslim societies must consider afresh the question of tolerance, and ask why they find themselves mired in indecision and resentment, says Abdesselam Cheddadi. [more]
The presence of African literature
The evolution of literary criticism, publishing, and readership
Africa’s growing role in western European culture is reflected in the increasing interest in its literature. Soon Kourouma will be shelved between Kafka and Kundera. [Hungarian version added] [more]
Leave us alone!
"If anyone holds us back, makes it impossible for us to move forward, it must be Europe, as has been the case ever since slavery." An oral polemic. [more]
The legislation of 1905
Should France's laws from 1905 regulating laïcité be reformed after a century of changes in the religious composition of French society? [more]