Ideas | openDemocracy

“Only war makes it possible to mobilize all of today’s technical resources while maintaining the property system.”

- Walter Benjamin, 1936

Unpacking the idea of “Islamophobia”

Meredith Tax 20 May 2013

The term “Islamophobia” is everywhere, but its meanings work at cross purposes - to liberals, it refers to discrimination and hate crimes that can be addressed through existing laws, but to fundamentalists, it refers to offenses against religion that must be addressed through censorship or death.

Dying and killing, killing and dying

Jim Gabour 19 May 2013

Our columnist explores the language and the headlines of dying and killing, from Tibet to the United States to Iraq.

Europe’s seven most endangered species of monuments and sites

Costa Carras 17 May 2013

How best to preserve the archaeological record of the past, which so often obtrudes on political objectives of the present? And what happens when nation states are effectively bankrupt? Are its monuments to be allowed to collapse into decay?

“Unpredictability” in Bhutan’s elections

Medha Bisht 17 May 2013

Some issues flagged up in the candidates’ manifestos are revealing. These are protecting the rule of law, youth employment, balanced economic development, pro-poor laws and strong institutions.

Legacy of a feminist revolutionary

Kathleen B Jones 13 May 2013

American radical feminist Shulamith Firestone was a leading theorist of 70s feminism who died a lonely death last summer. Responding to Susan Faludi’s psychological profile of Firestone in The New Yorker last month, Kathleen B. Jones examines Firestone’s contribution to women’s liberation

How to challenge the patriarchal ethics of Muslim legal tradition

Ziba Mir-Hosseini 13 May 2013

One lesson from the 1979 Iranian revolution and the 2011 Arab revolutions is that activists seeking to promote women’s rights, human rights and the transition to democracy must challenge patriarchy from within the Muslim legal tradition.

Avoiding responsibility in the Boston marathon bombing

David W. Montgomery 12 May 2013

Placing them within a pre-existing history of resistance simplifies our perception of who they “really” are

Citizenship, knowledge and the limits of humanity

Walter Mignolo 11 May 2013

The question of citizenship lies at the heart of the legitimacy of rule and political subjectivity, but its origins are European and orientalist. In a dewesternizing world, how can citizenship be reconceptualised? (Video, 33 minutes)

Full steam backwards

Daniil Kotsyubinsky 10 May 2013

Repressive laws, socialist icons, and the promotion of Eurasian identity amount to a regression to the Soviet past, says Daniil Kotsyubinsky. Russian society has moved on, however, and the Kremlin will have to tread very carefully to avoid an explosion of protest.

The contested spaces of the politics of universalism

Sudeep Dasgupta 10 May 2013

A recent Dutch asylum case offers an opportunity to explore how universalism is being renegotiated within the frames of location, culture and citizenship. (Video, 15 mins)

Between colonizer and colonized: the political subjectivity of the settler

Jack Harrington 10 May 2013

'Settler colonialism' has greatly influenced the way we think about colonialism and orientalism. But analysis of the writings of British settlers in the United States reveals that the political subjectivity of the settler is distinct from that of the colonizer (Video, 20 mins)

Byron, Brewdog, and the recuperation of radical aesthetics

Jonathan Moses 10 May 2013

'Dirty Burger' rebellion versus the experience and traditions of genuine anti-capitalist space. This week's Friday Essay.

The politics of piety and secularism

Saba Mahmood 8 May 2013

In this video interview from the Oecumene project's second symposium, Saba Mahmood discusses Malala Yousufzai, women's reform movements in the Middle East and the politics of piety.

Religious liberty, the minority problem and geopolitics

Saba Mahmood 8 May 2013

In a keynote lecture from the Oecumene project's second symposium, Saba Mahmood shows that religious liberty is a mechanism of statecraft and discusses the implications for religious minority populations.

When cooperation is collaboration

Boris Akunin 7 May 2013

How should liberal Russians interact with an increasingly illiberal regime? Writer and Putin critic Grigory Chkhartishvili (a.k.a Boris Akunin) delivered a simple message at yesterday's opposition rally in Moscow.

This week's editor

Niki Seth-Smith is a freelance journalist and co-editor of OurKingdom.

Europe from the bottom up

European Union stars in Paris. Flickr/notarim. Some rights reserved.

A new Europe can only come from the bottom up
Etienne Balibar

A social Europe must be a political Europe
Bo Stråth

As Europe is provincialized: a reply to Etienne Balibar
Sandro Mezzadra

European debate

A republican call for a basic income
Daniel Raventos and Julie Wark

Nuclear non-proliferation

Women and the Arab Spring

oDRussia at journalismfestival .com

Mali - the plot thickens

Remote control war

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Conference coverage from 50.50

Conference. Moving beyond Militarism and War to a Nonviolent World: A Forum Devoted to Sharing Women-Driven Solutions

Articles exploring the themes of the fourth international Nobel Women's Initiative conference May 28-31. Jennifer Allsopp and Heather McRobie will be reporting for 5050

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Lis Howell On broadcasting

Dan Hancox Revel, Riot and Rebellion

Martin Rose Bliss Was It in that Dawn to Be Next Door

Vron Ware Up in Arms

Jim Gabour Sunday Comics

James Warner Standing Perpendicular, as books do

Markha Valenta Inter Alia: religion, politics, culture

Paul Rogers on Global security

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Arab Awakening

In the months following the start of the Arab Revolutions, articles and analysis poured into openDemocracy from contributors across the Middle East and Europe. Gradually, the impact of Tahrir Square began to extend well beyond the Middle East as democratic inspiration travelled from east to west. Arab Awakening tries to capture that inspiration and use it to help us read a rapidly changing world.

"As students of politics is it is vital to study the power of imagination." -Professor Charles Tripp, SOAS

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Columnists | This week's window on the Middle East

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Europe from the bottom up

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Democratic Wealth

Nuclear non-proliferation

Women and the Arab Spring

oDRussia at journalismfestival .com

Mali - the plot thickens

Remote control war

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