Mind the gap: illiberal democracy and the crisis of representation

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From the 2nd-4th November 2018, Eurozine’s 29th European Meeting of Cultural Journals, entitled Mind the Gap: Illiberal Democracy and the Crisis of Representation, took place in Vienna.
This playlist features recordings of the panel discussions from this year's Eurozine conference. To select videos in the playlist, click on the symbol with the three lines in the top right of the video window.

About the conference:

In 2018, the Vienna-based European network of cultural journals, Eurozine, will meet for the 29th time, celebrating a twofold anniversary, with it being 35 years since the first European Meeting of Cultural Journals in Switzerland in 1983 as well as 20 years since the foundation of the online magazine and association.

This year, the meeting is entitled Mind the Gap: Illiberal Democracy and the Crisis of Representation and the conference’s panels will discuss the the role of liberal media in the dynamics of polarisation and the rise of the populist right as a result of the failure of institutional politics. Eurozine will also look at surveillance capitalism and the corporate and state capture of the internet as well as at the history of cultural journals and the practice of cultural journalism today.

Alongside a programme of private network events, the conference will open with a public discussion between Daniel Cohn-Bendit and Claus Leggewie on Friday 2nd November 2018, in which the two will discuss what is to be done for a free and open Europe in light of the brand of nationalist and illiberal populism gaining ground across the continent.

Over the course of the weekend, a further four panel discussions will then be publicly aired, covering topics such as the Left’s abandonment of the social question, media pluralism under pressure, the challenges facing contemporary cultural journalism and the relationship between the internet and democracy.

The opening discussion and all of the main panel discussions were all live streamed on Eurozine’s Facebook page and an embedded playlist of the panel discussions can now be found at the top of this page.

Programme:

Click on the event titles to make event descriptions appear/disappear. All times in CET.

02.11 - 19:15
Europe first!
In light of the rise of nationalist, illiberal populism throughout the continent, what is to be done for a free, open and just Europe?

Daniel Cohn-Bendit and Claus Leggewie
Click here to watch a (German-language) video of this debate

03.11 - 09:30
Populism and the representation gap
Two reasons are commonly cited for the rise of the populist right in Europe and the US: the socioeconomic effects of neoliberal globalisation and the Left’s abandonment of the social question in favour of identity politics. This panel will ask whether economic justice and cultural identity are indeed opposed; how far the social-democratic parties’ abandonment of class is to blame for their electoral demise; and what a solidary and progressive politics beyond right-wing populism might look like.

Dominika Kasprowicz | Director of the Villa Decius Association
Cornelia Koppetsch | Professor at the TU Darmstadt
Reka Kinga Papp | Hungarian Journalist & new Editor-in-Chief of Eurozine
Marc-Olivier Padis | Director of Terra Nova Think Tank & former Editor-in-Chief of Esprit
Mario Ricciardo | Director of Rivista il Mulino
Click here to watch a video of this debate

03.11 - 11:15
Media pluralism under pressure
With the rise of the New Right in Western Europe, questions arise as to how to reconcile democratic militancy with a liberal commitment to a plural public sphere. While there are good reasons to argue that exclusion is the proper reaction to far-right opinion, there are also reasons to be critical of this reflex. Panelists will exchange experiences of the challenge posed by the New Right to liberal public spheres, with particular emphasis on the comparison with Central Eastern Europe.

Ismail Einashe | Investigative Journalist & Correspondent for Index on Censorship
Simon Garnett | Eurozine Editor
Ernst Gelegs | Eastern Europe Correspondent for ORF [Austrian Broadcasting Corporation]
Ola Larsmo | Author, Novelist & former Chairman of Swedish PEN
Claire Potter | Professor of History at The New School, New York & Executive Editor of Public Seminar
Click here to watch a video of this debate

04.11 - 10:00
Worlds of cultural journals
Since the Enlightenment, journal-making has been an important cultural technology that deeply influences the way we argue, narrate, write and think. While cultural journals retain a strong presence in public spheres, there is also uncertainty about their form and sustainability. This panel will discuss how the study of the history of journals can help us understand the challenges of cultural journalism today.

Sally Davison | Co-Editor of Soundings
Marit Kapla | Editor-in-Chief of Ord&Bild
Waldemar Kuligowski | Editor-in-Chief of Czas Kultury
Roman Schmidt | Head of Department for Contemporary History at the Heinrich Böll Foundation, Berlin
Click here to watch a video of this debate

04.11 - 13:30
Internet technologies and democracy
The internet once stood for a democratic, global network society. That promise is now obsolete. Instead, the internet has become a space of manipulation by political actors and powerful corporations. Can the power of corporations be limited through legal regulation or do we need a new collective movement of users? What does government control of the web in Russia and China mean for freedoms in these countries? And, how can we use internet technologies for the benefit of an open society?

Rachael Jolley | Editor of Index on Censorship
Daniel Leisegang | Editor of Blätter für deutsche und internationale Politik & Member of the Eurozine Editorial Board
Kathrin Passig | Founding Member of the Zentrale Intelligenz Agentur & Author
Andrei Soldatov | Journalist and Founder/Editor, Agentura.ru
Click here to watch a video of this debate

Media:

The panel discussions listed above were all live streamed on https://www.facebook.com/eurozine/ and we will put together an embedded playlist with videos of these discussions at the top of this page post-conference.

You can keep informed of the availibility of media content from all TTT debates by following us on our social media and/or media platforms, where we post information on forthcoming events and publish all new recordings

Organisers, partners and sponsors:

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