European Ideas Research Articles

Coloniality and contestations over academic freedom in Africa

Abstract Like other regions of the world, academic freedom is on the decline in Africa. While there are some generic factors accounting for this phenomenon worldwide, others are fundamentally unique to the African context. These are related principally to the subject matter of coloniality of higher education on the continent. This study addresses these matters by, among others, discussing the origins of the university in pre-modern Africa and the place of academic freedom in it. This development is followed by the emergence of university education in Europe through the application of the liberal script and which contributed to the sidelining and eventual general demise of higher education institutions with their roots in pre-modern Africa. The work contends that while one may trace the origins of the university/academic freedom to Africa, academic freedom as it stands today is shaped by the liberal script with hardly any reference to the root of higher education in Africa. Therefore, the meaning, understanding and application of academic freedom do not reflect the realities of higher education in Africa. This work proposes the adoption of a relative universalist approach, as opposed to the liberal approach, which is clothed with universality, but in reality, it is a reflection of a European idea of academic freedom. This approach is considered necessary to reflect the African reality of academic freedom which will help to identify effective advocacy tools to promote and protect academic freedom in Africa and thereby make academic freedom more meaningful for application in the region.

Introduction: Political Ecologies of Paper in Early Modern Art, 1500–1800

Abstract This special issue examines paper as it became the definitive material for both artistic practice and jurisprudence. European paper made from pulped rags and linens to create the mythic white empty grounds for design was foundational to early modern European ideas about both sovereignty and the creative act. The materiality of paper—as a surface created from refuse—also introduced a form of ecological thinking into both artistic practice and political theory that recognised the value and revolutionary potential of the material world to create from the detritus of failed projects and revolutions. Surveying artistic production across the European continent and into the Ottoman empire, this series of essays examines paper as both a material force that redefined the limits of the creative act while also being inseparable from the consolidation of new political regimes emerging from the rise of early modern colonialism. Paper was both the tool of dispossession and also the grounds on which the potential of artistic practice was reimagined.

ЕВРОПЕЙСКАЯ ИДЕЯ ШАРЛЯ ДЕ ГОЛЛЯ И ЖОРЖА ПОМПИДУ

В статье представлены концепции «объединенной Европы», выдвинутые двумя первыми президентами Пятой республики во Франции Шарлем де Голлем и Жоржем Помпиду. На основе высказываний самих глав французского государства рассмотрены их предложения по устройству и развитию Европейского экономического сообщества и воплощение идей двух политиков в жизнь. The article presents the concepts of “united Europe” put forward by the first two presidents of the Fifth Republic in France, Charles de Gaulle and Georges Pompidou. On the basis of the statements of the heads of state, their proposals for the structure and development of the European Economic Community and the implementation of their ideas were considered.

Politicisation of the European Union in Slovenia in the Twenty Years of its Membership

Abstract Ever since Slovenia became independent, the European idea has been viewed fondly by the political elite and the public. The absence of any successful Eurosceptic parties has meant the main goals concerning European integration became national projects. Euroscepticism has remained limited, although in more recent years politicisation has steadily grown through political parties’ positions on EU issues. At the same time, the country’s political elite has lost sight of the specific strategy Slovenia should play in the EU. Moreover, alignment with other EU member states has begun to vary depending on the ruling party. After twenty years of membership, this has led to Slovenia being seen as one of the more submissive actors in EU policymaking. In the article, by applying an analytical framework of politicisation, we consider the changing attitudes to the EU in Slovenia through the twenty years of its membership. The central research question is: in which ways have European issues become politicised over the last twenty years in Slovenia? The research question is addressed by considering a chronological approach and analysis of events, participation in European elections and public opinion data. We argue that, as a newer member state, Slovenia politicises European issues to a limited extent.

The "Idea of Europe" Through the Eyes of Soviet Diplomats During the Great Patriotic War

The "Idea of Europe" Through the Eyes of Soviet Diplomats During the Great Patriotic War

On the Borders of European Pluriversalism. Thinking Europe With/Beyond the Limits of Balibar

ABSTRACT The article aims to initiate a dialogue with Étienne Balibar’s writings on borders, Europe, and universalism, in the context of the contemporary transformations of the borders of Europe and the current crisis of universalist politics. Its first motivation is to demonstrate how Balibar’s work could serve as a theoretical framework for border studies to understand the link between the vacillation of borders and the crisis of European universalism. The figure of boundary, limit, or horizon played a key role in the emancipatory narratives on the idea of Europe. Balibar recognized how the metamorphoses of borders revealed the fundamental aporia of European universalism of any kind: each universalism, no matter how inclusive and radical, has to adopt the particular carrier and designate its limits. Hence the politics of universality tends to be border politics: it rests on constant and infinite transgression of the limits to universalism, without the prospect of overcoming the aporia. The second motivation is to revisit Balibar’s philosophy of borders of Europe by drawing out lessons from contemporary research on border transformations. Answering Balibar’s call to the need to theorize pluriversalism, the article shows how European borders became recently the new sites of pluriversal politics.

Individualism in Europe: A Comparison to Asia

The motto of Liberty, Equality, Fraternity was originated in Europe in the 18th century. A desire to be on one’s own and go freely has been spread worldwide. Every individual is valued more than ever, each individual is an independent spirit who could express the creativity of their’s own volition. It can be said that individualism is one of the core values that lead to the development of Europe as it is today. It is worth studying how “individualism” develops in Europe and compare it to Asia where “individualism” promotes its own values besides collectivism while being influenced by the West. This will involve a specific model that blends the European idea of individual autonomy with Asian collectivism. Europeans take part in the decision-making process through the family so as to create a close relationship between the individual and the family; the Asian culture has to be self-sufficient. Implementing this concept would reduce the chances of exploiting of common men in general and fragile groups in particular.

Querying ‘Global’ Music History: Significant Geographies between Goswami Pannalal and Queen Victoria

Abstract Global music history projects have become increasingly popular in recent years. Going global has its advantages: it develops conversations between researchers working on disparate regions; it sheds light on larger frameworks that are less evident on smaller scales of analysis; it decentres how we teach music history; and it retraces a global hinterland for music systems that have conventionally been called ‘Western’. At the same time, the global history approach raises challenges for researchers working on the world beyond Europe. In particular, there is the danger of unintentionally reinstating Eurocentrism, either by uncritically exporting research questions based on the European experience to the wider world, or by narrowing our focus onto those musicians and scholars who engaged with European ideas and practices, especially in colonial settings. This work is valuable, but it also comes with risks. This essay considers these problems through a case study: a largely forgotten music scholar, Goswami Pannalal, who travelled and taught across north India in the late nineteenth century. Examining his musicological study in Hindi, the Nād Binod (‘Sonic Delight’, 1896), I consider how far asking ‘global’ questions might shed light on his work, and offer an alternative reading based on a ‘significant geographies’ approach.

Migration and immigration in Europe and its edges

ABSTRACT Literature of the twentieth and twenty-first century is often concerned with migration, immigration, and exile. Zadie Smith’s White Teeth, Michel Houellebecq’s Submission, and Mohsin Hamid’s Exit West, narrate the lives of immigrants and refugees and the negotiations between migrants and host nations. They trace the transformations on the idea of Europe and how it is challenged in the face of socio-historical crises. Kapka Kassabova’s Border belongs to a long tradition of Eastern European writing that engages in a dialogue with the idea of Europe. Viewed from its edges and through narratives of migration, Europe emerges as a geographical, linguistic, and cultural space whose oneness is an impossibility considering the stories of dislocation housed in its cities.

A Hermeneutic Approach to the Formation of a Secular Culture in Modern Israel

ABSTRACT The creation of the state of Israel was the outcome of the Zionist movement, which originated in Europe and was itself inspired by fundamental European ideas—Enlightenment, national self-determination, democracy and socialism. From its earliest days Zionism was primarily a secular movement that rejected the religious establishment and religious way of life of the Jews in the Diaspora. In many respects, however, the founders of the state and the principles on which they founded its institutions—the political, judicial, economic, social, and educational—were rooted in the ethical values and cultural practices of the Jewish tradition which they had apparently rejected. To explain this complex process of secularization of a very ancient religious and cultural tradition—which many see as an unresolved or unresolvable conflict between two opposing systems of thought—I draw on the hermeneutic philosophy of Hans-Georg Gadamer and especially on his Truth and Method (1960). Culture, according to Gadamer, is a continuous flow of tradition within what he called “the horizon.” People, he argued, create and live within a given cultural tradition, but they are at the same time its interpreters, enlarging it by adopting elements from various cultures and ideologies, or “horizons.” From this hermeneutic perspective, the founders of modern Israel and their successors were the active interpreters of the Jewish tradition within the larger historical context of the European Enlightenment. I illustrate this process of cultural interpretation by focusing on the secularization of the Jewish holidays, specifically on the way the Kibbutz movement, a leading symbol of the new Israel, re-interpretated Jewish holidays like Passover, Shavuot (Pentecost) and Yom Kippur, and gave these religious festivals a secular-Israeli content. However, this dynamic pioneering stage of secularization may be said to have ended by the 1980s. From then on, the secular identity of Israeli society has been undergoing a variety of radical changes.

Populism, post-Marxism and Iran: an essay towards a decolonization of knowledge

This essay is an exposition of the philosophy of populism, a philosophy by and large inspired by Michel Foucault to herald the New Discourse called ‘post-Marxism' a term made famous by Ernesto Laclau and Chantal Mouffe which would lay the foundations for not so much the secular New Social Movements comprising multiple issues like gay rights and environment, but ironically would be an apologia for right-wing populist movements based on messianic theologies. It claims that while post-Marxism wanted to jump over Marxism, in actuality it became partner to radical messianic politics as in the case of Foucault's ardent support for radical Shiite Islam in Iran. This essay concentrates on the theory of populism and connects it to the politics of messianism in Iran claiming that these theories of populism are theories created in Western universities comprising Eurocentric ideas based on the uncanny combination of the theory of the ‘essential spiritualism of Asia' and ‘biopolitics'. This essay claims that the contemporary politics of Shiite Islam in Iran have less to do with the internal history of Iran, and more to do with a form of ‘manufactured Islam' where Islamic radicals picked up Ali Shariati's existential rendering of ‘authenticity’ as jihad and martyrdom (shahadat) in order to mobilize the masses first against the shah and then in the bloody war against Iraq. It argues for a decolonization of knowledge that leads to the decoupling of the nineteenth and twentieth century European ideas of spiritualism and biopolitics in order that one is able to see non-Western societies as they are and not as they are imagined by Orientalist scholarship.

Oscar Halecki's Idea of Europe: A Tribute

Oscar Halecki (1891-1973) was one of the leading historian who investigated Europe as a distinct supranational community supporting a model of federalism to govern it. This note aims to retrieve Halecki's idea of Europe on the fiftieth anniversary of his death.

The fantasist and dreamer of united Europe. Rudolf Hotowetz’s relationship to the European idea and its shaping (1918-1926)

The fantasist and dreamer of united Europe. Rudolf Hotowetz’s relationship to the European idea and its shaping (1918-1926)

Russian Strategic Culture in Retrospect

The article analyzes the transformation of Russian strategic culture over the past 100 years. During this period, Russia veered away from the strategic goal-setting practices that its elite had implemented previously. Since the end of the 18th century, Russia was an integral part of the Concert of Europe, and its ruling circles absorbed the European ideas of peace, language of diplomacy, and approaches to military planning. Soviet power essentially “reinvented” the strategic culture of the Russian state, adopting The Second World War imbued Soviet strategic culture with a great-power attitude. The crisis of Soviet ideology seriously affected the strategic thinking of the elites, provoking its decline. The article concludes that some key categories of Soviet strategic culture still affect the strategic culture of modern Russian elites.

The European idea and national identity in Ukrainian literature at the turn of the 19th and 20th centuries

The article presents the process of modernization of Ukrainian literature at the turn of the 19th and 20th centuries. On the one hand, the author analyzes the adaptation of the European idea and culture to Ukrainian realities, on the other hand, the evolution of nationalism reaching its maturity phase is observed in the text. This is evidenced by the declarations and programs published in such magazines as Ukrain'ska Khata [Ukrainian Hut] during the years 1909–1914, especially by the articles of Mykola Yevshan and Andriy Tovkachevsky. The discussions that took place during that period were particularly signifi cant in establishing the direction for the development of national culture. Ukrainian literature acquires the features of cultural openness and dialogue, which are clearly illustrated by the works of its prominent authors such as Ivan Franko, Lesia Ukrainka, Mykhailo Kotsiubynsky, Olha Kobylianska, Ahatanhel Krymsky.

Європейська ідея та національна ідентичність в українській літературі кінця ХІХ – початку ХХ століття

The article presents the process of modernization of Ukrainian literature at the turn of the 19th and 20th centuries. On the one hand, the author analyzes the adaptation of the European idea and culture to Ukrainian realities, on the other hand, the evolution of nationalism reaching its maturity phase is observed in the text. This is evidenced by the declarations and programs published in such magazines as Ukrain'ska Khata [Ukrainian Hut] during the years 1909–1914, especially by the articles of Mykola Yevshan and Andriy Tovkachevsky. The discussions that took place during that period were particularly signifi cant in establishing the direction for the development of national culture. Ukrainian literature acquires the features of cultural openness and dialogue, which are clearly illustrated by the works of its prominent authors such as Ivan Franko, Lesia Ukrainka, Mykhailo Kotsiubynsky, Olha Kobylianska, Ahatanhel Krymsky.

Gender Specifics of European Iconography at the Beginning of the 19th Century: Problem of Analysing the Images of Maria Szymanowska

The purpose of the article is to analyse the iconography of Maria Szymanovska in the context of gender specifics of European painting at the beginning of the 19th century. The research methodology consists in the application of the comparative method, which made it possible to compare the images of Maria Szymanowska in the early and late periods of her work; to compare the portraits of the artist with typical images of European women of the studied era, in order to establish the degree of conventionality/originality of her visual image. The historical method and the method of cultural commentary made it possible to analyse and determine the place of Maria Szymanowska's iconography in the panorama of European portrait painting at the beginning of the 19th century. The scientific novelty of the research lies in the understanding of the visual image of Maria Szymanowska through the prism of the gender characteristics of the time. Three unknown portraits of Maria Szymanowska are being published for the first time – finds from the archive of the Vasyl Stefanyk National Scientific Library of Ukraine, which expand the understanding of the iconographic image of the artist throughout her creative biography, and also complement the understanding of the gender specificity of the images of women in European iconography, in particular, women female artists of the analysed period. Conclusions. The analysis of Maria Szymanowska's iconography made it possible to characterise the visual image of the artist as one that fits into contemporary European ideas about fashion, social presentation in the community (in the case of Szymanowska, it is a conscious desire to get closer to the aristocracy) and a romantic type of femininity as a certain aesthetic and worldview ideal. The existing iconography of Maria Szymanowska in its various artistic manifestations (lithographs, watercolours, oil paintings, sculpture) allows us to talk about compliance with the gender norms of the time regarding the proper – and therefore attractive, empathetic, comfortable and, most importantly, socially acceptable – appearance of a woman.
 Keywords: Maria Szymanowska's iconography, cultural methodology of gender analysis, painting, European portrait painting of the 19th century, gender studies.

Quarantine, Diseased Geographies, and Cross-Cultural Encounters in the Eighteenth-Century Mediterranean

AbstractThe article examines the relationship between quarantine practices and Western European medical notions of the Ottoman Empire in the eighteenth-century Mediterranean, as well as the crucial role of quarantine centres in facilitating trade and mobility between the East and the West. I argue that quarantine should be analysed to understand the complexity of the early modern Mediterranean as a shared context that saw both connections and clashes. The first part of the article focuses on Western European ideas concerning the geography of the Mediterranean, medical theories, and related quarantine practices. These theories often presented the ‘healthy’ ‘Christian West’ as opposed to the ‘infidel’ and ‘plagued’ Ottoman Empire. However, the article argues for a more nuanced understanding of the early modern Mediterranean, where both unity and diversity co-existed. Quarantine, despite its association with isolation and the reinforcement of borders, also enabled connections and circulation despite the fear of plague. This article explores quarantine centres as key components of the infrastructure of mobility, with a particular focus on religious diversity, tolerance, and multilingualism. The article also explores the perception of the institution through the eyes of Ottoman passengers, shedding light on their perspectives and attitudes toward quarantine.

Favoured subjects. The myth of the Middle Class and the imaginary of Cluj IT

Abstract Romanian IT professionals are marketized as young, highly skilled, and full of potential individuals. However, there is a contradiction in their image. In the discourse of international outsourcing, they are presented as cheap labour, while on the national and local level they are considered high earners. Under the privilege of income tax exemption, the IT sector is continuously growing and attracting labour, providing well-paying entry-level jobs and bringing in foreign capital. At the same time, on a symbolic level, it also developed a reputation as a facilitator of social ascension and of importer of European ideas. In this paper I aim to examine what drives people towards professional reorientation to IT. How is the idea of the middle class being used? What is the imaginary that makes people take on the risky and arduous road of re-professionalization and what are its consequences?

Passenger Traffic in Bulgaria and North Macedonia – Current State and Prospects for Development

The purpose of this publication is to examine the current state and dynamics of passenger traffic between Bulgaria and North Macedonia and to mark the prospects in the context of tourism. The authors use statistical data, as well as publications of researchers and institutions directly or indirectly related to the problem at hand. Along with this, the text also focuses on cross-border cooperation between the two countries in the field of tourism as a convenient tool for promoting economic development and inclusion to the European idea. Main emphasis in this cooperation can be placed in several directions: joint projects for the implementation of common specialized routes; development in the field of advertising in the digital environment by promoting the destinations by journalists and bloggers; exchange of good practices.