Vol.: 9 CULTURE REPORT CULTURE REPORT EUNIC YEARBOOK 2018 EUNIC YEARBOOK 2018 “On today’s market, we find a whole series of products deprived of their malignant property: coffee without caffeine, cream without fat, beer without alcohol. And the list goes on: what about virtual sex as sex without sex? The Colin Powell doctrine of warfare Cultures with no casualties (on our side, of course) as warfare without warfare? The contemporary redefinition of politics as the art of Kulturen des Wir” expert administration, as politics without politics? of We? This leads us to today’s tolerant liberal multiculturalism as an Die Rolle der Kultur experience of the Other deprived of its Otherness – the decaffein­ Europe and ated Other. Slavoj Žižek EUNIC YEARBOOK 2018 inthe searchEuropa for a new narrative Trump, Putin, Erdoğan: Europe faces many challenges. nach innen und außen What role can culture play in overcoming xenophobia, hate, an- ger 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. CULTURE REPORT • 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 nation alist 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. ISBN 978-3-95829-542-1 CULTURE REPORT EUNIC YEARBOOK 2017/2018 CULTURE REPORT EUNIC YEARBOOK 2017/2018 With Brexit and the election of Donald Trump, the world has changed. And so have the para- meters for Europe’s external relations. It is time to reconsider the continent’s role in the world. How can it respond to isolationism and populism, but at the same time to wars in Syria and the Ukraine, the refugee crisis and climate change? What answers can Europe find to these challenges, while still defending its own democratic structures and the core values of human rights, multilateralism and international solidarity? How is it possible to bridge the divide within European societies and prevent the rise of populist movements and nationalism, xenophobia and extremism? What role can culture play in finding solutions to these problems? 30 contributors from 25 different countries seek answers to these and other questions. Foreword In search of lost meaning By Sebastian Körber 4 Chapter 1: GLOBAL CHALLENGES Cultures of We? By Chandran Nair 8 Strong and flexible By Timothy Garton Ash 16 The governance gap By Ladislau Dowbor 22 The promise of the city By Nicholas Cull 28 A cultural civil war By Jochen Hippler and Fatemeh Kamali Chirani 36 Responsibility not fantasy By Bernd Reiter 42 New poles in uncertain times? By Xin Xin 48 Post-rapprochement By Thorsten Jelinek 54 In defence of universalism By François Matarasso 60 A bastion of democracy By Can Dündar 64 2 Contents Chapter 2: POPULISM, NATIONALISM AND EUROSCEPTICISM IN EUROPE – HOW CAN WE OVERCOME ‘EUROPEAN ANGST’? The Erasmus generation under pressure By Heribert Prantl 90 Not just wizened old people’ By Claus Leggewie 108 What does Europe want? By Slavoj Žižek 112 How do we love Europe in the 21st century? By Jagoda Marinić 130 Demos or populus? By Vladimíra Dvořáková 141 Europe in the year 2032 By Navid Kermani 148 An answer to populism By Mafalda Dâmaso 151 My Europe By Beqë Cufaj 158 Passports, wedding bells and wallabies By Glenn Patterson 164 The split skull of Europe By Sigitas Parulskis 170 Chapter 3: AGENDA FOR CHANGE – A NEW STRATEGY FOR EUROPE'S INTERNATIONAL CULTURAL RELATIONS It’s culture, stupid! By Helga Trüpel and Jochen Eisenburger 178 Strategic flexibility and willingness to engage By Mai’a K. Davis Cross 184 The next steps for a vision of the future By Anna Triandafyllidou 190 Tools to rebuild the social fabric By Pietro Matteis 196 No more paternalism By Ayoko Mensah 200 An agenda for change By Gottfried Wagner 208 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 218 EUNIC 2017 223 Spotlight on EUNIC: A living network – Reports and features from around the globe 224 European Life is the name of the series of photographs by Berlin- based photographer Edgar Zippel that is featured in this edition. Zippel travelled around Europe capturing people as they went about their daily lives, unfurling Europe from its easternmost edges. The people appear strangely disconnected, fragile, turned in upon themselves. The scenery is rather sad, seldom glamorous. As we look at the photos, we ask ourselves “What’s worse, their mood or their situation?” They seem to be far removed from the vibrant continent that is Europe. 3 Foreword In search of lost meaning of societies we are living in, and who our ene- mies are.’ Political scientist Claus Leggewie sees European culture as being in resistance mode, he European Union is suffering a se- and Slovenian philosopher Slavoy Žižek gets vere crisis of confidence. All over Eu- straight to the point when he says: ‘The trouble rope, populist and Eurosceptic move- with defending European civilisation against Tments are attracting support. Fear of terrorism the immigrant threat is that the ferocity of the and social decline go hand-in-hand with natio- defence is more of a threat to “civilisation” than nalism, xenophobia and mistrust of elites, esta- any number of Muslims’. Journalist Heribert blished parties and the media. European insti- Prantl warns that political extremism may not tutions have always been perceived as remote, be a natural event like a volcanic eruption, but so they are particularly affected by this. Europe it is certainly spreading around the world like is not currently in a position to shape its future wildfire. Most of our contributors agree that in a constructive way. What is holding Europe the populist rhetoric of the nationalists is syste- together? Can culture help to breathe new life matically exploiting two areas of weakness: the into the concept of a European community of EU's remoteness from its citizens, and the crisis values? Do we need a new narrative that offers of representation in its Member States. It disse- an explanatory context and sheds light on the minates nationalist narratives and fuels people’s meaning of Europe? Or perhaps it’s not that bad emotions and fears. Refugees and Muslims are and Timothy Garton Ash is right when, in a va- portrayed as invaders, a threat – with the help riation on Winston Churchill's famous quote, of outlandish conspiracy theories and talk of he says that this is the worst possible Europe, ‘population replacement’ and ‘saving the West’. ‘apart from all the other Europes that have been Our political culture is being systematically un- tried from time to time.’ Garton Ash is one of dermined. Parties, media, governments, courts, the contributors to this edition of the EUNIC in short, the pillars of the political system, are Yearbook who takes a sceptical view of the ar- constantly being accused of conspiring against gument that democracy is in crisis. After all, their own people. Social media serves as an echo the continent of Europe has never been home chamber that reinforces our existing views and to so many liberal democracies. Political scien- promotes radicalisation. tist Mai'a Davis Cross from the United States But when it comes to developing suitable agrees that the ideal of democratic governance counter-strategies, the only thing our authors has also become widely accepted international- agree upon is that appeasement and waiting ly, especially at the United Nations. for the nationalists to be found out is not an And yet the division between those who option. They also criticise the arrogance of the welcome global economic, political and cultu- elites for rushing to call disagreeable opponents ral interdependence and those who resist chan- ge is growing to such an extent that authors such as Jochen Hippler and Fatemeh Kamali Chi- rani even speak of a ‘cultural civil war’: ‘This war is not being fought violently and with wea- pons, but in the minds of people. This war is not fought for territory but for cultural hegemo- ny. It is about defining who we are, what kind 4 populists and for denigrating people who have but to see cultural diplomacy on some level as lost out because of globalisation. According to a form of resistance.’ She believes that network migration expert Jagoda Marinić, it is the job propaganda has become a serious problem, of culture to remind citizens of the ‘higher pur- with right-wing thought leaders such as An- pose’ that the EU should be serving. ‘We will drew Breitbart and Stephen Bannon speaking not see Europe catapulted back into the Middle openly of weaponising the narrative. Ages’, and watch culture even being used as an Just as we find ourselves in a time of existen- argument for reverting to nationalism. Free- tial crisis, the European Union has been wor- lance writer François Materasso, stresses that: king on new strategic proposals for internatio- ‘Europe is not a place. It is not a government or nal cultural relations. Will it provide urgently administration.’ It is a place of encounter, and needed answers to the problems threatening if culture is only diverse and tolerant enough, it the Union's cohesion? If Europe wants to hang can help to heal divisions.