Eurozine

"New Humanist" sees no humanitarian solutions to political crises; "Fronesis" asks who the People are; "Osteuropa" examines the gaffe-prone politics of European identity; "Dilema veche" says leaving Romania is the most effective form of protest; "L'Homme" revisits 19th-century arguments for the abolition of prostitution; "Arena" questions the impact of the Swedish Sex Purchase Act; "Le Monde diplomatique" (Oslo) avoids another story of western selflessnes; and "Studija" welcomes a timely exhibition of Soviet-era painting.

According to the conventional view, the far-Right in Europe is antithetical to the values of liberal democracy. New research showing that far-Right ideology is a radicalization of mainstream values have a major impact on how rightwing populism is understood, writes Cas Mudde.

Humanitarian activists' refusal of politics, combined with their willingness to identify with politics, elicits doubt and even scorn from human-rights critics. Susie Linfield evaluates the controversial debate on the future of humanitarianism.

Feminist icon, anti-Catholic fabrication -- or just a woman battling in a man's world? Sally Feldman uncovers the mysteries of Pope Joan.

When I was 22 I wanted to find a different way of writing about being a man, says Norwegian novelist Geir Gulliksen. It should be possible to be as gentle as a boy or as reckless as a girl. But gender stereotypes have not changed as radically as we think.

The memory of socialism in Georgia is a contradictory one. Some romanticize it as a golden age of stability, others construe it as foreign rule. The textbook has become the link between politics, pedagogy and history. How the past is construed is in flux.

The attraction of opera -- the sanctuary of bourgeois culture -- to critical artists has to do with its formal strictures, argues Diedrich Diederichsen. Opera's high degree of "definition" provides a counterpoint to the variety of non-European-white-heteromasculine perspectives.

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. [Polish version added]

9/11 organizer Khalid Sheikh Mohammed exploited his trial to remind the court of its human rights obligations, while Osama bin Laden's statements include appeals to religious pluralism. Al-Qaeda's use of liberal categories is central to its rhetoric, writes Faisal Devji. [German version added]

As the ideological frenzy of modernism gives way to "content management systems", and as global megacities render obsolete the urban grid and its certainties, societies of discipline become societies of control. Daniel Miller cracks open the password protected "post-city". [Polish version added]

The multiculturalism debate has changed the political fronts. The Left defends minority cultures while the Right stands guard over national culture. Both are variants of a culturalist ideology, argue Jens-Martin Eriksen and Frederik Stjernfelt. [Polish version added]

"Passage" finds contemporary Danish literature is all about me, me, me; "Vikerkaar" offers a perspective on contemporary European literature; "Mittelweg 36" asks who is authorized to speak about rape; "Revista Crítica" argues that trafficking laws omit the crucial factor of citizenship; "Gegenworte" observes art and science converge in the study of living systems; "Res Publica Nowa" takes a dispassionate approach to political debate; "Springerin" sees artists failing to respond to Right culture; and "Dilema veche" explains why in Romania only the mad refuse a bribe.

Not only artists but also scientists work with images, symbols and metaphors, draw on their intuition and make use of coincidence. How the humanities can inform a non-classical and non-reductionist approach to cancer research and living systems as a whole.

While the Great Estonian Novel has yet to be written, the range of fiction in Estonia is wide enough to serve as an indicator of the post-communist country's hopes and fears, anxieties and obsessions. writes the editor of "Vikerkaar". [Russian version added]

In the twenty years since the fall of communism, literature has been lifting the fog that had settled over the expanses of eastern central Europe. A survey of the post-'89 wave of eastern European literature by Suhrkamp editor Katharina Raabe. [Estonian version added]

While the work of novelists Jan Siebelink and Arnon Grunberg reflect the new need for security in the Netherlands, a parallel strand of contemporary Dutch literature sidesteps such concerns: writers with migrant backgrounds are introducing new styles into the Dutch literary repertoire. [Estonian version added]