Europe and the search for a new narrative
Trump, Putin, Erdoğan: Europe faces many challenges. What role can culture play in overcoming xenophobia, hate, anger and anxiety? How should Europe deal with post-truth populism, nationalism and Twitter democracy? And can culture be one of the keys to restoring Europe’s lost confidence and breathing new life into European values? It is a historical irony that, just as we find ourselves in a time of existential crisis, the European Union has been working on new strategic proposals for international cultural relations. Will they provide urgently needed answers to the problems threatening the Union’s cohesion? What chance does the proposed concerted approach have in the face of growing nationalist tendencies? These are just some of the questions to which Slavoj Žižek, Timothy Garton Ash, Navid Kermani, Heribert Prantl, Claus Leggewie and other contributors to this volume seek answers.
FOREWORD
In search of lost meaning. By Sebastian Körber
CHAPTER 1: GLOBAL CHALLENGES
Cultures of We? By Chandran Nair
Strong and flexible. By Timothy Garton Ash
The governance gap. By Ladislau Dowbor
The promise of the city. By Nicholas Cull
A cultural civil war. By Jochen Hippler and Fatemeh Kamali Chirani
Responsibility not fantasy. By Bernd Reiter
New poles in uncertain times? By Xin Xin
Post-rapprochement. By Thorsten Jelinek
In defence of universalism. By Francois Matarasso
A bastion of democracy. By Can Dündar
CHAPTER 2: POPULISM, NATIONALISM AND EUROSCEPTICISM IN EUROPE – HOW CAN WE OVERCOME ‘EUROPEAN ANGST’?
The Erasmus generation under pressure. By Heribert Prantl
Not just wizened old people’. By Claus Leggewie
What does Europe want? By Slavoj Žižek
How do we love Europe in the 21st century? By Jagoda Marinić
Demos or populus? By Vladimira Dvořakova
Europe in the year 2032. By Navid Kermani
An answer to populism. By Mafalda Damaso
My Europe. By Beqë Cufaj
Passports, wedding bells and wallabies. By Glenn Patterson
The split skull of Europe. By Sigitas Parulskis
CHAPTER 3: AGENDA FOR CHANGE – A NEW STRATEGY FOR EUROPE’S INTERNATIONAL CULTURAL RELATIONS
It’s culture, stupid! By Helga Trupel and Jochen Eisenburger
Strategic flexibility and willingness to engage. By Mai’a K. Davis Cross
The next steps for a vision of the future. By Anna Triandafyllidou
Tools to rebuild the social fabric. By Pietro Matteis
No more paternalism. By Ayoko Mensah
An agenda for change. By Gottfried Wagner
CHAPTER 4: EUNIC AND THE CULTURAL INSTITUTES – HOW CAN THEY ADVANCE INTERCULTURAL UNDERSTANDING AND MUTUAL TRUST?
European cultural policy at home and abroad: an interview with Walter Zampieri, Andrew Murray and Koen Verlaeckt
EUNIC 2017
Spotlight on EUNIC: A living network – Reports and features from around the globe
