- Article of the Month: Racism in a post-racial Europe

"Both multiculturalism itself and the current attacks on it, in a European context at least, have to be understood in terms of a deeply ingrained inability, and even unwillingness, among the dominant political class to deal with the effects of race, as a structuring political idea, on European society, on the populations it oppressed under colonialism and during the postcolonial migrations, and crucially on the idea of Europe itself."

Historicizing multiculturalism enables sociologist Alana Lentin to avoid the dead-ends of the debate between self-appointed guardians of secular ("muscular": David Cameron) liberalism and the patrons of an affirmative and managerial notion of "cultural diversity". Locating the origins of the concept in the UNESCO study of 1950, in which Claude Lévi-Strauss played a leading role, Lentin understands culturalism as a way to retain a Eurocentrist response to social heterogeneity while circumventing the discredited category of race.

"Whether or not it is as pernicious as an idea, culture is no less reifying than race. Indeed, it is on these grounds that the concept of multiculturalism has been critiqued by scholars and activists who have claimed that seeing cultural groups as internally homogeneous and static ignores the hybridization that comes about as populations originating in various parts of the globe share space in the urban metropole."

Critique of culturalism is, however, to be distinguished from the anti-multiculturalism now espoused across the political spectrum and mainstream media, even entering libertarian quarters such as the gay pride movement. Ostensibly aimed at the illiberalism of multiculturalism’s "beneficiaries", Lentin argues, the new anti-multiculturalism expresses intolerance of "bad diversity":

"To its opponents, multiculturalism is antithetical to diversity because its laissez-faire principles make culture unmanageable. Good diversity presents us with more cultural choices, like items on a menu to be sampled, but does not upset the balance of power in unequal societies; bad diversity is potentially transformative, not only because it is not marketable, but because it challenges the very precepts upon which the terms are set."

This article is part of the series European histories: Concord and conflict, published in cooperation with the European Cultural Foundation.

Alana Lentin

This article is available in English

- New Eurozine partner: Letras Libres

The Spanish journal Letras Libres has joined the Eurozine network. Based in Madrid, the monthly journal was founded in 1999 in the tradition of the journal Vuelta, founded by Octavio Paz. Letras Libres has two editions, one published in Spain and the other in Mexico.

What the journal describes as its cosmopolitan approach is based on a belief that, in a world where the political, economic, social and cultural agendas have become universal, it is essential to provide spaces of reflection on the most pressing issues of global debate. Letras Libres states its aim as being to act as a bridge between cultures and as a tool for dialogue between countries and continents.

More about Letras Libres, including the latest issue.

- Climate of change?

Social agreement about the necessity of radical ecological change may be unprecedented, yet rhetoric and reality go their separate ways. Published before the 2009 Copenhagen Climate Conference, article in the focal point "Climate of change?" analysing reasons for the political deadlock remain pertinent as the UN meets over the next two weeks in Durban to make another (last ditch?) attempt to reach a post-Kyoto agreement.

Dipesh Chakrabarty explains why geological agency must enter the humanities as a category linked to the struggle for human freedom; Claus Leggewie advocates a per-capita emissions budget as stimulus for global development; Simon Zadek argues for unilateral action as alternative to pursuing universal consensus; Ingolfur Blüdorn sees the exhaustion of the critique of consumer capitalism in the dominant discourse of sustainability; and Åsa Knaggard asks whether dependence on inexact climate science disqualifies political decisions.

All articles in the focal point "Climate of change?"

- Support Eurozine!

As a regular reader of Eurozine, you know that the platform continuously presents articles by authors from all over Europe and provides an invaluable window to European debates on the most pressing issues of our times.

If you appreciate our work and would like to support our contribution to the establishment of a European public sphere worthy of its name, please make a one-off donation or set up a standing order!

To donate to Eurozine

- New articles

* Anna Karpenko

Kaliningrad’s architectural heritage: An insider’s view

What is the threat implied in the handover of the symbolically significant architectural heritage of the Kaliningrad region to the Orthodox Church of Russia? Local historian Anna Karpenko examines the social and cultural aspects of the conflict.

30.11.2011

This article is now available in Danish, English and Lithuanian

*Geert Lovink, Patrice Riemens

Twelve theses on WikiLeaks

Vindictive, politicized, conspiratorial, reckless: one need not agree with WikiLeaks’ modus operandi to acknowledge its service to democracy. Geert Lovink and Patrice Riemens see indications of a new culture of exposure beyond the traditional politics of openness and transparency.

30.11.2011

This article is now available in Estonian and English

*Pierre Nora

Recent history and the new dangers of politicization

With the past ceasing to be a body of knowledge and becoming a public issue, a new form of political influence has exerted itself upon historians, warns Pierre Nora. In France, the subject of colonialism is particularly controversial. More than ever it is crucial historians retain critical distance.

24.11.2011

This article is available in English and French

* Wolfram Kaiser

Unreliable narrators

Witness accounts and the institutionalization of European history A preference for witness accounts in European museums creates a blandly affirmative surface under which narrative authority continues to operate. Questions of reliability aside, is a witness-based history even able to fulfil the necessary task of narrating Europe’s political identity?

24.11.2011

This article is available in English

* Alana Lentin

Racism in a post-racial Europe

Critique of culturalism as a polite form of Eurocentrism is to be distinguished from the new wave of anti-multiculturalism, argues Alana Lentin. Ostensibly aimed at the illiberalism of multiculturalism’s "beneficiaries", the latter expresses intolerance of "bad diversity".

24.11.2011

This article is available in English

- Eurozine Review

Delaying the nemesis

"Esprit" ponders German contradictions; "Polar" cautions against playing safe; "Lettera internazionale" obtains Adriatic equilibrium; "dérive" enjoys urban pleasures; "Vikerkaar" theorizes cultural explosions; "Akadeemia" disregards the perennially contrary; "Dialogi" revisits the classic avant-garde; and "Springerin" reappraises the art of diplomacy.

23.11.2011

This article is available in English and German

* Jan-Werner Müller

Is Germany’s future still European?

An interview with Jan-Werner Müller Germany’s politicians lack deep European convictions yet are susceptible to calls for a more strident role in Europe; and while the mainstream is unlikely to give up what it sees as the recipe for German success, "constitutional patriotism" could allow for greater Europeanization.

22.11.2011

This article is available in English

* Thomas Biebricher, Frieder Vogelmann

Me Ltd.

If individuals are to act as corporations, then they should at least receive the protection conferred by the concept of limited liability: assurance of security and not the threat of social demotion will encourage employees to take professional risks. The Danish "flexicurity" model is instructive.

21.11.2011

This article is available in German

* Achim Vesper

Too much of a good thing

Security as responsibility of the state after Hobbes Hobbes justified state sovereignty through the individual striving for security. Yet from the insight that without security there can be no good life, he arrived at a concept of security that endangers the good life, argues Achim Vesper.

21.11.2011

This article is available in German

* Mikhaïl Xifaras

Copyleft and the theory of property

A battle is underway between the supporters of intellectual property and the defenders of "the commons". Mikhail Xifaras traces the history of the concept of "exclusive rights" and evaluates the emancipatory claims of the copyleft movement today.

17.11.2011

This article is now available in English, Estonian and French

* Gilbert Achcar

The last tremors

Like in 1848, the Arab revolutions are spearheaded by young people whose democratic aspirations can no longer be halted, writes Gilbert Achcar. No matter what happens in the short term, there exists the real possibility that a liberal order will arise.

16.11.2011

This article is available in German

* Iryna Vidanava

Scenes from the battlefield

Despite renewed crackdowns on the independent media in Belarus, there are signs that the tide is turning in the battle for free speech in the country. However, victory for the democratic forces will require politicizing Belarus’ young Internet audience, writes Iryna Vidanava.

14.11.2011

This article is now available in Danish and English

* Slawomir Sierakowski, Charles Taylor

The de-politicization of politics

The challenge for a liberal democracy is to remain as such, argues Charles Taylor in conversation with Slawomir Sierakowski. Western democracies suffer two types of deterioration: a misperception of really existing problems and a lack of vital tension between the demos and the government.

10.11.2011

This article is now available in English

* Roger Scruton

Unreal estate

Freemarket disregard for the elementary moral truths of debt and obligation is to blame for the current crisis, says Roger Scruton. But the call for a return to economic morality is no endorsement of the financial fictions of the social democratic state.

10.11.2011

This article is now available in English and Romanian

- Eurozine Review

The crass defence of Christendom

"New Humanist" lays to rest the myth of Christian values; "Glänta" watches racism mutate; "Vikerkaar" calls Breivik the first terrorist of the European New Right; "Wespennest" explores Austria as it is; "Magyar Lettre" seeks alternatives to regime architecture; "Merkur" dwells on the Green vision of self-induced annihilation; "Blätter" says Iranian philosophers prove Islam can do democracy; "Studija" doubts good art needs the kudos of victimization; and "NLO" re-reads Enlightenment cosmopolitanism.

09.11.2011

This article is available in English and German

* Kenan Malik

The last crusade

The claim that Christianity embodies the bedrock of European cultural values simplifies both the history of Christianity and the roots of modern democracy, argues Kenan Malik. Ironically, the defenders of "Christendom" draw on the same politics of identity as Islamists and multiculturalists.

08.11.2011

This article is available in English

* Igor Kovacevic

Not just to build - Recovering architecture in Central Europe

In eastern central Europe, the neoliberal "regime architecture" favoured by non-state actors is copied by the public sector, resulting in buildings with no representative function. To counter this trend, architects must serve as ambassadors of architecture and quality space.

08.11.2011

This article is available in English

* Lucas Zeise

Bank bail-out as a farce

Of all the absurdities in the latest banking rescue package, writes Lucas Zeise, the greatest is that the banks are being rescued at all. Widespread disbelief in governments and banks condemns the carefully constructed rescue structure to farcial failure.

08.11.2011

This article is available in German

* Wolfgang Müller-Funk

So much Austria - Speculations on the invention of a country

Insecurity and the fear of being overlooked is what compels Austria to talk about itself incessantly. Two luxury volumes reveal to Wolfgang Müller-Funk what is unique about the symbolic construction of the Austrian nation: its foundation upon a chain of defeats.

08.11.2011

This article is available in German

* Thomas E. Schmidt

The nature party

For the fledgling German Green Party, nature was both a term of political struggle and the basis for a new social morality. The Green horizon of self-induced annihilation has since led to a fundamental change in political agenda-setting.

08.11.2011

This article is available in German

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