Activism and Dissent under State Socialism: Coalitions and Campaigns in the 1970s and 1980s

This article introduces a special Labour History Review issue on the subject of Challenges to State Socialism in Central and Eastern Europe: Activists, Movements and Alliances in the 1970s and 1980s. Our piece highlights different stimuli for dissent and opposition in the Eastern bloc, drawing attention to three strands that helped to inform political activism. First, it discusses the way in which various forms of dissident Marxism informed critiques of ‘actually existing socialism’ and helped activists to envision alternative ways of organizing society and state. Second, it emphasizes intersections between different actors and motivations, including links between the labour movement and forms of activism that have sometimes been categorized as ‘new social movements’. Third, it notes the relevance of transnational inspirations and alliances, with a particular consideration of those that cut across the two power blocs. As a whole, the essay establishes the broader context for the case studies of activism and dissent that feature in this special journal issue.

On the Program of Russian Research in the Field of Controlled Thermonuclear Fusion and Plasma Technologies

The main scientific problems solved within the “Development of controlled fusion technologies and innovative plasma technologies” federal project, part of the comprehensive program “Development of equipment, technologies, and scientific research in the field of atomic energy use in the Russian Federation for the period up to 2024” are described. A brief history of development of the project is given, and the description of its main components, participants, anticipated results, and possibilities for the future is p-resented. This paper is a foreword to the materials of the journal issue entirely devoted to the Tokamak with Reactor Technologies (TRT) project, which is to be developed within the federal project.

Dealing Positively with World Crises: Our Contribution to World Peace

Humanity’s search for a new and effective orientation will bring with it a changing relationship between cause and effect. Individuals disillusioned by culture, society, politics and religion, who seek refuge and help in their private worlds, will in turn multiply the collective problems because of these shifting relations. This shows us once again that none of these cultural systems is good in itself. Their qualities only reveal themselves in the ways in which they are effective for the people who live within them and to the extent to which the rules of their games allow for constructive encounters with other sociocultural systems and their members. So, there is much that the members of various cultural systems could learn from each other – even if they only learn to understand one another. First published in Hessisches Ärzteblatt Journal. Issue 3 (2002) in German.

Is It Human Service Cartels or the Power Elite That Promote Societal Control and Repression? A Reaction to David Stoesz’s Human Services Cartels Article

This article is a reaction paper to the article in this journal issue entitled Human Service Cartels: The Soft Repression of the Mediocracy by David Stoesz. As such, it addresses two significant questions about the Stoesz article. One question is as follows: Are we really talking about a cartel? The other question is as follows: Isn’t it the power elite that promotes societal control and repression?

Some Interrelations between Geometry and Modal Logic

This is a reprinting of Ken Pledger’s PhD thesis, submitted to the University of Warsaw in 1980 with the degree awarded in 1981. It develops a one-sorted approach to the theory of plane geometry, based on the idea that the usually two-sorted theory “can be made one-sorted by keeping careful account of whether the incidence relation is iterated an even or odd number of times”.The one-sorted structures can also serve as Kripke frames for modal logics, and the thesis defines and studies two such logics that are validated by projective planes and elliptic planes respectively. It raises questions of logical completeness for these systems that are addressed in the first article of this journal issue.

Enlightening religion: Light and darkness in religious knowledge and knowledge about religion

This introduction elaborates how the relationship between religion and light can and should be addressed as a key theme for the critical study of religion. It synthesizes the principal arguments of the 6 articles collected in this special journal issue and locates them in a broader theoretical framework, focussing especially on the politics of knowledge production.

Online Deliberation and #CivicTech: A Symposium

Online deliberation is one important instance of civic tech that is both for and by the citizens, through engaging citizens in Internet-supported deliberative discussions on public issues. This article explains the origins of a set of symposium articles in this journal issue based on the 2017 'International Conference on Deliberation and Decision Making: Interdisciplinary Perspectives on Civic Tech' held in Singapore. Symposium articles are presented in a sequence that flows from designing decision making systems to platforms to specific technological nudges.