This year, the magazine turns 25, and our network of cultural journals celebrated the 40th anniversary of the first European meeting of cultural journals, held in Switzerland in 1983.
Connecting editors and writers across the Iron Curtain was an impossible task at the time. The founders succeeded in this, and today our network numbers more than one hundred magazines, magazines, and colleagues. But now we face new divisions in and around Europe. We continue to emphasize that cultural dissemination is crucial to understanding and dealing with any era responsibly – especially an era of chaos and rapid change, such as this era.
Eurozine has rebounded from the brink of collapse several times – and our financial position in 2022 is the lowest point yet. After the difficulties we faced last year, this year we have seen us rebuild strongly, launching new projects: Eurozine is among the co-founders of the brand new Display Europe platform, and we have just introduced our new weekly talk show. You can find more about these below.
The reality is that Eurozine's operations are still far from steady: the team is overwhelmed with a huge body of work, and our funding is not secured after the mid-year in 2024. However, our readership numbers are growing, which is always a challenge. Great reassurance that our work is relevant and appreciated. Please, if you can, consider supporting Eurozine, so we can keep the network and magazine independent and free.
Now, let's see the most popular articles of 2023!
#10
A number of alarming temperature records were broken this year, in all seasons and between hemispheres. Global warming is undeniable, even if popular discourse is still taking its time to fully understand it. Celia Fernandez's article has arrived at Eurozine from our collaborator, Green European Journal, and is relevant reading for every reader, no matter what season they are enjoying right now.
#9
Jean Sawa looks at modernity, which is approaching the end of its path, and contemplates what comes next:
Now, as capitalism teeters on the brink of destroying our entire ecosystem, and as liberal modernity fractures, we need to turn our sights beyond capitalism, toward an alternative modern vision.
This is not the time for nostalgia and sadness, liberal or otherwise. If we fail to identify this new direction, the end of history that we heralded thirty years ago may herald the end of the world, at least the world as we know it.
#8
Farmers are the holders of tradition, stewards of the land, and representatives of small enterprise – in our political imagination. In reality, this is an ancient profession, increasingly controlled by big landowners, and politicians who want their votes, willing to exploit stereotypes to serve the interests of big corporations against the environment and workers:
European agriculture is in dire straits. Although agriculture represents the largest item in the EU budget, spending tens of billions of public funds annually, the bloc has lost three million farmers over the past decade. This means that 800 farmers leave the profession every day. But what is even more worrying is that they have not been replaced: the average age of a European farmer is now 57 years. These statistics date back to the decade from 2010 to 2020, before a war on Europe's doorstep between two agricultural superpowers put further pressure on food producers. , who have since been suffering from the rapid rise in the prices of inputs such as feed, fertilizers and pesticides.
Your favorite series in 2023
What will Europe look like after the “war”? Well, that's an impossible question. By the end of 2023, there are seven major armed conflicts ongoing, including in Gaza, Sudan and Ethiopia. Of all these matters, it is the Russian aggression against Ukraine that directly shapes the European Union. The series has been a global hit, with dozens of translations and republications, and its individual articles are among the most-read articles in Eurozine this year. No matter how impossible it is to predict the “end of the war,” it is important to formulate points of view. And that's exactly what we have War Lessons Series an act.
This debate series was organized by two of Eurozine's founders, Klaus Nehlen and Karl-Henrik Fredriksson, who set out to compare and contrast Europe's response to the opposition to the 2003 invasion of Iraq.
Vasyl Cherebin refuses to normalize the war, and does not want to give in to daydreams about post-war reconstruction.
… Panic would indeed be the appropriate reaction to Russia's war crimes… The international community appears to be gradually accepting atrocities as inevitable, a response that was previously completely unthinkable. Panic may also be a more effective political response, perhaps leading to much-needed international action…
But Europe still prefers to talk about genocide in terms of the politics of history, the culture of memory, and “reconciliation with the past,” and often avoids applying the term to the present for fear of its “relativity.”
The European Union, shaped by crises and devastation, has the opportunity to prove itself against a disillusioned political system. But Natalie Tucci says a quick-fix approach won't do the trick.
Daniel Cohen-Bendit and Klaus Legoy argue that for Europe to maintain political momentum, its relationship with the Global South must change radically.
Top 3
Trust is the common thread that connects our three most-read articles from 2023.
#3
Katarzyna Boni's article was shortlisted for the European Journalism Prize, and for good reason: it begins by offering a personal connection to wildlife and, from there, reveals a way to recognize and rethink our individual and cultural responsibilities to the environment.
We have become spectators. The more we know, the further we move away from animals and animalism. We no longer have any need to make eye contact with them. Berger argues that the view of the monster has become a cause for concern, even terror, in Western civilization. After all that, A wise man Cultured, not just another kind of animal. To look into the eyes of a wild animal is to elicit a form of species-related narcissism, proving how far we have come.
#2
James Dodd writes about why war seems more and more inevitable, in a spiral of self-deception. He believes that stopping the escalation is always possible.
Escalation is an essential feature of any war, but it should not be taken as a determining factor that strictly determines a causal chain of events. Violence has no intrinsic logic, and dictates no necessity; This means that any escalation of violence, as Carl von Clausewitz argued, is at its root a political issue. We enter wars for political reasons, and we only solve them through political means.
Wars become longer and more destructive, more foolish and debilitating, and the more distorted the political situation becomes – stifling potential alternatives to simply prolonging the violence and thus giving war the illusory air of necessity.
#1
Our latest project, the new talk show Standard Time, featured this conversation with two great journalists and a frequent reader favorite of our authors. In this conversation, we discuss how journalism is changing; how readers tend to relate to individual authors rather than to the media nowadays; And whether any of the speakers want their children to pursue media as a career. (No, preferably not.)
Mercy Abang is a Nigerian journalist, among the most internationally commissioned journalists from Africa. She is editor-in-chief of Unbiased the News, based in Berlin, and curates a platform that aims to correct the imbalance in traditional media coverage. Lina Al-Shawaf leads Rozana Radio from Gaziantep, Turkey, broadcasting in Arabic to Syrian audiences in Syria as well as in the diaspora.
Social psychologist Peter Kryko is a returning champion of Eurozine's top lists – and was among our most-read contributors in 2022 and in 2021 too. This time, he shares the winning streak with his distinguished colleagues – and a very distraught editor-in-chief, who is beaming with joy that she has been able to meet the authors.
new project
Eurozine turned 25 years old this year, and we launched this weekly TV show a few weeks ago, within the framework of a new platform we are building with more than 15 international partners: Display Europe. This is an attempt to expand Eurozine's work over three decades, with a new platform offering articles, videos and audio content from dozens of media partners and across more than 15 languages. Check out the platform and follow the talk show, where we will feature Eurozine writers and editors, as well as media personalities from the Display Europe platform, and from across the continent.
The New Year's episode has already been released: it's an unusually light-hearted episode about offensive jokes and who can tell them.
through thick and thin
Admittedly, Eurozine has been in financial difficulties since 2021. Despite all the innovation, we are still far from flat now, with cultural funding dwindling and our budget not yet secured beyond mid-2024. Since the pandemic lockdowns, we have been biting our teeth together and keeping Forced march to secure Eurozine and further develop it. Publishing is increasingly disrupted, and quality is among the least important considerations for major funders. All the more reason why we value our audience – thank you for sticking with us in 2023 and we hope you'll be with us in the new year.
Please, if you can, support us on Patreon, starting at €3 a month, or whatever you can get involved with to keep Eurozine free and independent.
Happy new calendar to you all!
This editorial is part of our final newsletter of 2023. You can subscribe here to receive bi-weekly updates on the latest publications and news in our partner magazines.
