Professor Bauman on Soft Power and Hard Facts
Originally published on: Social Europe Journal “Joseph S. Nye Jr. has turned upside down Machiavelli’s infamous recommendation to the Prince: it is safer when people fear you than when they love you… Whether or not that recommendation was right for the Princes, remains a moot question; but it no longer makes sense for presidents and prime ministers. Nye would agree that because of its eminently flickery habits love is not particularly fit... Read More
Do Facebook and Twitter help spread Democracy and Human Rights?
Originally published on: Social Europe Journal “The official American establishment’s reaction to the Iranian youth venting briefly on the streets of Tehran their protest against fraudulent elections of June 2009 bore striking resemblance to a commercial campaign on behalf of the likes of Facebook, Google or Twitter. I suppose that some gallant investigative journalist, to whose company alas I do not belong, could have supplied weighty material... Read More
Social Europe Journal – our new Media Partner!!
Another big announcement – Social Europe Journal officially became our Media Partner. It is a privileged for us to have such a prestigious partner. Thank you! Social Europe Journal (SEJ) is the first journal, delivered mainly electronically, addressing issues of critical interest to progressives across Europe and beyond. It was founded in late 2004 and has been continuously published since spring 2005. SEJ is above all a forum for debate... Read More
Zygmunt Bauman on Berlusconi
“Godd Riddance Berlusconi – And Viva Italia!” Originally published on: Social Europe Journal “Let me recall the verdicts of the great Portuguese man of letters José Saramago, who – frustrated by the stultifying dilatoriness of Italian legal justice – would not meekly wait for the court of Italian conscience to be called into session. Saramago, alas, won’t be able to react in person on the sorely delayed verdict finally... Read More
Professor Bauman on The ‘Why’s’ and ‘What for’s’ of People taking to the Streets
Originally published on: Social Europe Journal “The Arab Spring triggers popular rebellions against autocrats across the Arab world. The Israeli Summer brings 250,000 Israelis into the streets, protesting the lack of affordable housing and the way their country is now dominated by an oligopoly of crony capitalists. From Athens to Barcelona, European town squares are being taken over by young people railing against unemployment and the injustice... Read More
Zygmunt Bauman on Glocalization coming of Age
Originally published on: Social Europe Journal ‘One is tempted to say: social inventions or re-inventions (as the newly invented/discovered possibility of restoring to the city square the ancient role of the agora on which rules and rulers were made and unmade) tend to spread “as forest fire”. One would say that, if not for the fact that globalization has finally invalidated that time-honoured metaphor. Forest fires proceed by spreading.... Read More
Zygmunt Bauman on the London Riots
In his latest article in Social Europe Journal Zygmunt Bauman comments on the London Riots and their causes: ‘These are not hunger or bread riots. These are riots of defective and disqualified consumers. Revolutions are not staple products of social inequality; but minefields are. Minefields are areas filled with randomly scattered explosives: one can be pretty sure that some of them, some time, will explode – but one can’t say with any... Read More
On Never Being Alone Again by Zygmunt Bauman
Originally published on Social Europe Journal Two apparently unconnected items of news appeared on the same day, 19 June – though one can be forgiven overlooking their appearance… As any news, they arrived floating in an “information tsunami” – just two tiny drops in a flood of news meant/hoped to do the job of enlightening and clarifying while serving that of obscuring and befuddling. Zygmunt Bauman receiving Gloria Artis Award. Photo G.Lepiarz One... Read More
On the Future of Migrants – And of Europe by Zygmunt Bauman
© Grzegorz Lepiarz Originally published on: Social Europe Journal “Europe needs immigrants” – former Italian Prime Minister Massimo D’Alema stated bluntly in the 10th May Le Monde – in direct dispute with “the two most active European pyromaniacs”, Berlusconi and Sarkozy. Calculation to support that postulate could hardly be simpler: There are today 333 million Europeans, but with the present (and still falling) average birth rate,... Read More
On Dysfunctionality of the Global Elites by Zygmunt Bauman
Originally published on Social Europe Journal Sergei Magaril, teaching at the Moscow University of Humanities, published (in the 9th February issue of theNezavisimaya Gazeta) an article under the title “In Search of Social Quality”, which starts from a quotation from Ivan Pavlov, the first Russian Nobel laureate: “The fate of nations is determined by the minds of their intelligentsia”. In full agreement with that opinion, Magaril proceeds... Read More
