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🎭 Designing for democratic transformations

November 28, 2023

⛓️ The chilling dismissal of Hungarian academic Zoltán Ádám

November 28, 2023

The far right is endangering Romania’s role as a strategic partner in Eastern Europe

November 28, 2023

🔮 Populism and democratic backsliding: learning from Hungary and Tunisia

November 27, 2023

🎭 Protests in Iran show how democratic change requires solidarity

November 27, 2023

November 28, 2023

🎭 Designing for democratic transformations

Feminist and justice-oriented design frameworks offer pathways to democratic transformations. Jesi Carson draws on her experience as design practitioner and researcher in collaborative projects including Participedia and the Global Classroom for Democracy Innovation to explore the transformative potential of design thinking

November 28, 2023

⛓️ The chilling dismissal of Hungarian academic Zoltán Ádám

Hungarian universities are facing increasing interference from government. The recent dismissal of Zoltán Ádám from Corvinus University in Budapest thus signals a worrying erosion of academic autonomy. For Gábor Halmai, Balázs Majtényi, and Andrew Richard Ryder, Ádám's dismissal reflects a pattern. They argue that a broader political agenda is threatening academic freedom, and raising questions about Hungary’s democratic integrity

November 28, 2023

The far right is endangering Romania’s role as a strategic partner in Eastern Europe

Ivo Kesler argues that Romania’s emerging role as a strategic asset in Eastern Europe will be compromised if the far-right party AUR wins the next parliamentary elections. Romania's role as Moldova’s most important supporter and promoter could come to an end

November 27, 2023

🔮 Populism and democratic backsliding: learning from Hungary and Tunisia

Barbara Pisciotta and Daniela Verena Huber explore how populism fuels societal divisions and provides fertile ground for democratic backsliding. This allows populist leaders to increase their own power at the expense of the opposition

November 27, 2023

🎭 Protests in Iran show how democratic change requires solidarity

To achieve systemic change, it is essential to connect self-transformations. By exploring the recent protests in Iran, Zohreh Khoban makes the case for social bonds created through solidarity

November 27, 2023

The EU's approach to Western and Eastern European collective memory

The European Union has built its normative concepts on Europe's postwar consensus, focusing in particular on Holocaust trauma. But Francesco Spera argues that through past and future enlargements, it is also adapting to Eastern European states' mnemonic paths as they move away from their communist histories

November 23, 2023

🦋 Is it post-democracy; or maybe authoritarian neo/liberalism?

'Democracy is in crisis'. We have heard this claim since the 1930s, and new terms regularly surface to describe democracy’s transformations through crisis. Of these terms, argues Dimitra Mareta, post-democracy and authoritarian neo/liberalism are the most challenging. While they describe either a strong or weak state, neither term captures the implications for the people living under such regimes

November 23, 2023

🔮 The technopopulist loop and conflicts of sovereignty in the EU

The EU economic crisis revealed a clash between the EU and national authorities. This clash is, however, only one part of the story. Events in Greece, Italy, Bulgaria and Slovenia, writes Emilija Tudzarovska, also revealed a crisis of party politics. This crisis has triggered appeals to populism and technocracy – technopopulism – which weakens yet further the institutionalisation of politics

November 22, 2023

🎭 Selfie activism: from cruel categories to presentist identities

To strive towards democratic transformations, we have much to learn from marginalised activists. They espouse ‘presentist identities’ to fight the dismissive categories through which other people see them. Presentist identities do not assume a past or a future. Instead, they make us simultaneously perceivable and free, writes Taina Meriluoto

November 22, 2023

Divided by sovereignty claims – territorial identity and societal polarisation

Laia Balcells, Lesley-Ann Daniels, and Alexander Kuo highlight the role of contentious territorial issues in shaping societal divisions. They study three European regions —Scotland, Catalonia, and Northern Ireland — that have salient territorial claims but very different histories. All three, however, exhibit striking similarities in levels of social polarisation

Latest Articles

🎭 Designing for democratic transformations

⛓️ The chilling dismissal of Hungarian academic Zoltán Ádám

The far right is endangering Romania’s role as a strategic partner in Eastern Europe

🔮 Populism and democratic backsliding: learning from Hungary and Tunisia

🎭 Protests in Iran show how democratic change requires solidarity

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