Some historical events do not stop releasing their powerful lessons even years or decades later. That is beyond doubt the case with the fall of the Berlin Wall, and the rest of the chain of events which marked the collapse of the Soviet system over 1989. Its significance for Europe, and for ourselves, still merits being investigated thirty years later. That is what this Dossier tries to do, with the accounts and reflections by Riccardo Cristiano, Simone Disegni, Marta Facchini, Siegmund Ginzberg, and Lorenzo Monfregola.
  • In the country once famous for its multiculturalism and its civil rights, today the wind seems to have changed. A new extreme right has appeared and risks changing the political landscape at the next European elections. Thierry Baudet, the leader of the Forum for Democracy, is educated, dandy, histrionic, quotes philosophers and speaks to young people and citizens. In the Dutch populist competition, it seems that Geert Wilders’ star has found a worthy competitor.
  • An “illiberal trend” is haunting Europe. And the United States. It is a virus that is eating away at our democracies, which seem ever less to resemble “Liberal Democracy.” Freedom of the press and freedom of religion are being squeezed across Europe; independent institutions are contested by political parties that enjoy significant public support. The fundamental respect for human rights is no longer the guiding principle of the democracies that emerged from the Second World War.
  • From Zuccotti Park in NYC to Tahrir Square in Cairo, occupy movements and other forms of urban protests have been powerful resistance movements against increasing inequality and marginalization as consequences of global neoliberal processes. These resistance movements also challenged the institutions of representative democracy, which have been irresponsive to the demands of the masses.
  • Islam is no longer a transitory phenomenon but European societies seem to consider Islam, in recent years, more a threat than an advantage. Our dossier presents some reflections which consider Islam as an element of European society and as a propagator of Europeanization. An analysis is also given of the implications of the role of Islamic organizations working in Europe but connected to governments of other countries, such as the Turkish Islamic organizations active in Germany. Lastly, we propose two essays on two recent films concerning a rapidly increasing phenomenon, the radicalization of younger generations in Europe and a book review on the Burkini debate.
  • Family is one of the most “natural” and fluid social constructs of human history and can be easily affected in different ways by social, cultural and religious changes. So why does the pluralisation of ways of forming a family seem to be a new phenomenon, and such a radical one, that to some it appears to be a risk as far as social cohesion is concerned? This question inspired the conference organized by Reset-DoC on “Family regulations in a society with fluid borders”, from which the following papers were drawn. Here, we are trying to understand new ways of conceiving and creating family in our globalized world, as well as the transformations occurred in the definition of citizenship and the legal framework behind new “types” of families.