When the ‘Other’ becomes ‘Us’: the future of Muslims and Islam in Europe

2008 ◽  
Vol 2 (1) ◽  
pp. 67-78
Author(s):  
H. A. Hellyer

Whether one regards it positively or negatively, it is clear that the Muslim presence and the space that Islam is currently negotiating in the European public sphere are having significant impacts on the way that Europe thinks of itself: both as a continent and in member states. What does this mean for European societies, when the “Them” becomes “Us”? What sort of diversity are European societies prepared to accept already, and what is contentious? Are Muslims required to “reform” in order to fit within the parameters of European societies, or is this unnecessary? How should Muslims be represented in Europe, and what forms of representation can European societies manage within their pre-existing political systems?

2020 ◽  
Vol 6 (2) ◽  
pp. 4-22
Author(s):  
Yann LeGall

Debates on the relevance of repatriation of indigenous human remains are water under the bridge today. Yet, a genuine will for dialogue to work through colonial violence is found lacking in the European public sphere. Looking at local remembrance of the Majimaji War (1905–7) in the south of Tanzania and a German–Tanzanian theatre production, it seems that the spectre of colonial headhunting stands at the heart of claims for repatriation and acknowledgement of this anti-colonial movement. The missing head of Ngoni leader Songea Mbano haunts the future of German–Tanzanian relations in heritage and culture. By staging the act of post-mortem dismemberment and foregrounding the perspective of descendants, the theatre production Maji Maji Flava offers an honest proposal for dealing with stories of sheer colonial violence in transnational memory.


Author(s):  
Jenny Andersson

Alvin Toffler’s writings encapsulated many of the tensions of futurism: the way that futurology and futures studies oscillated between forms of utopianism and technocracy with global ambitions, and between new forms of activism, on the one hand, and emerging forms of consultancy and paid advice on the other. Paradoxically, in their desire to create new images of the future capable of providing exits from the status quo of the Cold War world, futurists reinvented the technologies of prediction that they had initially rejected, and put them at the basis of a new activity of futures advice. Consultancy was central to the field of futures studies from its inception. For futurists, consultancy was a form of militancy—a potentially world altering expertise that could bypass politics and also escaped the boring halls of academia.


2020 ◽  
Vol 9 (1) ◽  
pp. 117-147
Author(s):  
Diego González Cadenas

For some scholars, the possibilities for diminishing the European democratic deficit and the Union’s legitimacy crisis are intertwined with the creation of a European demos and a European public sphere, that, in turn, can create a European civil solidarity. The European citizens’ initiative, which has recently been re-regulated, was precisely designed to help to solve these problems. As we shall see, the new Regulation includes a whole series of positive technical issues that will improve the usage of the mechanism. However, the European citizens’ initiative is still far from being a popular initiative and, therefore, to contribute to diminish the perception of distance between institutions and citizens of the EU or promoting the creation of a European demos. In this vein, after an overview of the European citizens’ initiative new Regulation main innovations and weaknesses, I will present a set of measures in order to achieve a more effective development of the mechanism.


2016 ◽  
Vol 47 (2) ◽  
pp. 227
Author(s):  
Matthew Barber

In the Supreme Court decision of Vector Gas Ltd v Bay of Plenty Energy Ltd, Tipping J put forward an approach to contact interpretation that, while indebted to that of Lord Hoffmann, was expressed differently and promoted the use of evidence of prior negotiations. Despite not gaining the support of any of the other sitting judges, this approach was swiftly taken up in the lower courts and, until recently at least, seems to have been accepted as representing New Zealand law. This article attempts a comprehensive examination of Tipping J’s approach. It concludes that, while coherent in principle, the detail of the approach is flawed in a number of ways, especially the way in which evidence of subsequent conduct is assumed to work. The future of Tipping J’s approach is considered.


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