December 2024

Current events

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December 2024
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MON02. December, 07:00pm

WOHIN DRIFTET DIE SLOWAKEI?

Lecture Genial Dagegen
Curator: Robert Misik
Lecturer: Michal Hvorecký, Anna Durnova

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Robert Misik im Gespräch mit Michal Hvorecký und Anna Durnova

WOHIN DRIFTET DIE SLOWAKEI?

Der Autor Michal Hvorecký über den Autoritarismus in unserem Nachbarland

 

Michal Hvorecký ist einer der führenden slowakischen Romanciers und Essayisten der Gegenwart – und zugleich eine der mutigsten Stimmen der demokratischen und liberalen Zivilgesellschaft. Immer wieder erhebt der in Bratislava lebende Autor das Wort gegen den autoritären Kurs der Regierung Robert Fico, dessen nationalistisch-populistische SMER-Partei seit rund einem Jahr in einer Koalition mit rechtsextremen „Slowakischen Nationalpartei“ regiert. Unser Nachbarland wird in „orbanistischen“ Stil umgebaut, der öffentlich-rechtliche Rundfunk zerschlagen, Kunstinstitutionen wie etwa das Slowakische Nationaltheater werden im Handstreich ihrer Leitung entledigt. Nachdem Hvorecký die Kulturministerin Martina Šimkovičová eine „Neo-Faschistin“ nannte, hat sie ihn wegen „Verleumdung“ geklagt, ein Delikt, auf das in der Slowakei bis zu fünf Jahre Haft stehen. Das Geschehen in der Slowakei sei eine „absolute Katastrophe“, sagt Hvorecký. „Die SNS ist nicht bloß eine nationalistische Partei, sie vertritt eine völkische Ideologie, steht für Verschwörungsmythen und Verständnis für Putin.“ Als Romanautor hat Hvorecký die autoritären Gefahren früh erspürt, etwa in seinem Buch „Trol“, einer Dystopie darüber, wie Trollarmeen im Internet ganze Gesellschaften vergiften. Premier Fico beschimpfte ihn als „Unruhestifter und Krawallmacher“.

Anna Durnová, Wiener Soziologieprofessorin mit tschechischen Wurzeln, kommentiert das Abdriften der Slowakei aus einer breiteren mittel-osteuropäischen Perspektive. Ist Zentraleuropa – mit Ungarn, der Slowakei, in gewissem Sinne auch Österreich – eine Brutstätte der autoritären Versuchungen und einer „Politik der Angst“?

 

Michal Hvorecký, slowakischer Schriftsteller und Journalist
Anna Durnova, Professorin für Politische Soziologie am Institut für Soziologie der Universität Wien

Moderation:
Robert Misik, Autor und Journalist

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TUE03. December, 07:00pm

OPPOSITION IN RUSSIA – A FUTURE WITHOUT PUTIN

Lecture Zeitenwende
Curator: Cathrin Kahlweit
Lecturer: Anna Arutunyan

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Cathrin Kahlweit in Conversation with Anna Arutunyan

OPPOSITION IN RUSSIA – A FUTURE WITHOUT PUTIN

 

There are not many Russia experts with an expertise as big as Anna Arutunyan. She was born in Russia, raised in the United States and then went back to the country of her birth as an analyst, author and journalist. Anna covered Russian politics as a reporter for The Moscow News. She served as Russia’s senior analyst for the International Crisis Group, is a Kennan Institute Fellow and is being printed in USA Today, Foreign Affairs and other renowned publications.

Anna Arutunyan is also the author of several books on Russia, including „The Putin Mystique“ on Russia’s war in Ukraine and „Hybrid Warriors: Proxies, Freelancers and Moscow’s Struggle for Ukraine“. Currently she is working on „Rebel Russia”: an exploration of the Russian rebel and dissident movement, and how it has shaped the govenment. Together with her famous british husband Mark Galeotti she has, amongst other publications, written „Downfall; Prigozhin, Putin and the fight for a new Russia“.

At the Kreisky-Forum she will talk with the publicist and expert for Eastern Europe and Ukraine, Cathrin Kahlweit, about the way, the Russian autocracy works, how it might be threatened from inside and destabilised from outside. How influencal, if at all, is the Russian opposition, and how far will Wladimir Putin carry the onslought on Ukraine and the West?

 

Anna Arutunyan, Russian American journalist, analyst, and author. She is a global fellow at the Wilson Center.

Cathrin Kahlweit, Journalistin und Publizistin

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THU05. December, 07:00pm

HOW TO PREPARE THE EU FOR THE PERFECT STORM?

Lecture In search of Europe
Curator: Helfried Carl
Lecturer: Erik Jones

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Helfried Carl in conversation with Erik Jones

HOW TO PREPARE THE EU FOR THE PERFECT STORM?
The New European Commission FACING TRUMP, PUTIN and the Multi-Crisis

 

True to the slow pace of European decision making, the new European Commission under its President Ursula von der Leyen will take office half a year after the elections to the European Parliament.

The challenges for the new Commission are obvious: the war in Ukraine is still raging, the European economy is comparatively weak and the European Green Deal is an immense challenge. Europe has little or no influence on the ongoing war in the Middle East. In addition, on November 5, 2024, Donald Trump was elected the 47th US president after a triumphant election victory – this time with an even more radical agenda than during his first term. His friends in the EU, like Hungary’s Prime Minister Orbán and his right-wing allies, will try to block any movements towards greater foreign policy cohesion towards his administration, but also that of Putin’s Russia.

Europe is facing a crucial test. How can it manage to protect its interests independently and develop its own defense policy in the face of US disengagement? Will the democratic forces prevail? And what role does the EU Commission play in this?

Prof. Erik Jones is Director of the Robert Schuman Centre for Advanced Studies at the European University Institute and Member of the Scientific Committee of the Institute’s renowned annual State of the Union Conference.  He has published extensively on topics related to European politics, with a special focus on political economy. He is co-editor of the Journal Government & Opposition. His commentary has appeared in the Financial Times, the New York Times, and other major newspapers and magazines across Europe and North America.

Helfried Carl, diplomat, since 2019 partner of the Innovation in Politics Institute in Vienna and founder of the European Capital of Democracy initiative. From 2014-2019 he served as Austria’s Ambassador to the Slovak Republic. From 2008-2014, he was Chief of Cabinet and foreign policy advisor to the late President of the Austrian Parliament (National Council), Barbara Prammer.

 

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MON09. December, 07:00pm

VERLUST

Lecture Genial Dagegen
Curator: Robert Misik
Lecturer: Andreas Reckwitz

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Robert Misik im Gespräch mit Andreas Reckwitz

VERLUST
Ein Grundproblem der Moderne

»Kann der Fortschrittsanspruch der westlichen Moderne noch aufrechterhalten werden, wenn die Erfahrungen und Erwartungen von Verlusten so mächtig werden, wie wir es gegenwärtig erleben?«

Verlusterfahrungen, aber auch nur das Gefühl drohender Verluste, die Empfindung, dass alles auf schwankendem Boden steht und die Zukunft eingetrübt ist – das ist heute ein beinahe dominantes Zeitgefühl geworden und ist mitverantwortlich für Gereiztheiten, Populismus und andere politische und soziale Pathologien unserer Tage. Andreas Reckwitz, der vielgefeierte Soziologe und Zeitdiagnostiker, hat zum Verlust, dem „Grundproblem der Moderne“, nun das Buch der Saison geschrieben.
Verluste bedrängen die westlichen Gegenwartsgesellschaften in großer Zahl und Vielfalt. Sie treiben die Menschen auf die Straße, in die Praxen der Therapeuten und in die Arme von Populisten.
Unter dem Banner des Fortschritts, so legt Reckwitz dar, wird die westliche Moderne schon immer von einer Verlustparadoxie angetrieben: Sie will (und kann) Verlusterfahrungen reduzieren – und potenziert sie zugleich. Dieses fragile Arrangement hatte lange Bestand, doch das Fortschrittsnarrativ büßt massiv an Glaubwürdigkeit ein. Die existenzielle Frage des 21. Jahrhunderts lautet: Können Gesellschaften modern bleiben und sich zugleich produktiv mit Verlusten auseinandersetzen? Ein wegweisendes Buch.

Andreas Reckwitz, geboren 1970, ist Professor für Allgemeine Soziologie und Kultursoziologie an der Humboldt-Universität zu Berlin und war Fellow im Thomas Mann House in Los Angeles. Sein Buch „Die Gesellschaft der Singularitäten“ wurde 2017 mit dem Bayerischen Buchpreis ausgezeichnet und stand 2018 auf der Shortlist des Sachbuchpreises der Leipziger Buchmesse. 2019 erhielt er den Leibniz-Preis der Deutschen Forschungsgemeinschaft.

Moderation:
Robert Misik, Autor und Journalist

Andreas Reckwitz:
Verlust- Ein Grundproblem der Moderne
Suhrkamp Insel, Oktober 2024, ISBN 978-3-518-58822-2; € 32,-auch als ebook erhältlich!

 

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THU12. December, 07:00pm

WE ARE FREE TO CHANGE THE WORLD

Lecture Philoxenia
Curator: Tessa Szyszkowitz
Lecturer: Lyndsey Stonebridge

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Tessa Szyszkowitz in conversation with Lyndsey Stonebridge

WE ARE FREE TO CHANGE THE WORLD
What do Hannah Arendt’s lessons in love and disobedience mean for us?

What a combination: Love and Disobedience. The author Lyndsey Stonebridge, Professor of Humanities and Human Rights at the University of Birmingham, is choosing this combination on purpose. Especially now, when nations vote for authoritarian leaders and democracy is threatened, Stonebridge focuses on Arendt’s writing and these two crucial ingredients for effective and powerful defiance. Love was for Arendt, as Stonebridge writes, “the infinitely precious pleasure in human otherness. Love is the pre-political condition of us being together in the world in the first place”.

And disobedience? In her 1970 essay “Civil Disobedience” the leading public intellectual of her time defended the right of American citizens to dissent from the laws and policies of the government. It was Hannah Arendt’s experience from resistance to totalitarian rule in her first home country Germany which lead her to conviction that every person must decide for themselves when injustice calls for disobedience. Following Immanuel Kant Arendt emphasised that independent thinking is the first defence against tyranny. Arendt’s “The Origins of Totalitarianism” became a bestseller when Donald Trump was elected in 2016. In 2024 it is even more relevant. Trump 2.0 is Trump Unleashed.

 

“We Are Free to Change the World: Hannah Arendt’s Lessons in Love and Disobedience” is one of the most relevant publications of 2024” The New Statesman 

 

Lyndsey Stonebridge is professor of humanities and human rights at the University of Birmingham, UK. She is the author of Placeless People: Writing, Rights, and Refugees, winner
of the Modernist Studies Association Book Prize and a Choice Outstanding Academic Title; The Judicial Imagination: Writing After Nuremberg, which won the British Academy Rose Mary Crawshay Prize for English Literature; and the essay collection, Writing and Righting: Literature in the Age of Human Rights.
We Are Free to Change the World: Hannah Arendt’s Lessons in Love and Disobedience was published by Jonathan Cape and C. H Beck in January 2024, and was shortlisted for the George Orwell Prize for Political Writing.  She is a regular media commentator and broadcaster, and lives in London.

Tessa Szyszkowitz is an Austrian journalist and author. A UK correspondent for Austrian and German publications such as Falter or Tagesspiegel, she curates Philoxenia at Kreiskyforum and she is a Distinguished Fellow of the Royal United Services Institute in London.

 

By participating in this event, you agree that any photos or recordings taken that include footage of your person may be published by the organizers of the event.