Okategoriserade

How the pandemic has helped officials to control, manipulate and enrich in Azerbaijan

The period of pandemic demonstrated the main problem which affected dynamic of statistics and overall situation in the country – a lack of trust of citizens in the state institutions, adding to their already undermined fabric by many years of exclusive policies of the self-interest driven elite. The pandemic situation could have served as an excuse for solidarity and mobilization of the society vis-a-vis common threat. Instead it was used by the government to strengthen its power.

By Leila Alieva June 17, 2020

The Covid-19 Pandemic in Belarus: Wither the Social Contract?

As the citizens in this time of crisis have found they have to take responsibility for their own and others wellbeing the social contract could potentially be considered broken, or at least breaking. Perhaps this in fact the reason the Belarusian authorities have found themselves faced with a unique volatile situation as the general frustration over how they handled the Covid-19 situation is spilling over to the ongoing presidential election campaign.

By Sofie Bedford June 16, 2020

In Poland, COVID-19 exposes progressing societal militarization

As Poland lifts restrictions and comes out of the lockdown ensued by COVID-19, much has been said on what the pandemic has revealed about our economy, public institutions, gender relations, and state of democratic checks and balances. What has been less discussed, yet not gone unnoticed, is the way this security crisis has revealed ongoing processes of societal militarization, and the shift of society-military relations towards closer ties and interactions. Just like the war in Ukraine and the Refugee Crisis, Covid-19 has further normalized bringing the Polish society into defense through militarized channels. However, a closer look reveals the potential for shifting this process into more civilian-based forms.

By Weronika Grzebalska May 31, 2020

Latvia’s e-parliament does it from a distance

The Covid-19 pandemic created the need to find a new way for 100 Latvian MP’s to debate and pass laws without sitting side-by-side in their historical parliamentary hall. A new e-system now enables Latvian MP’s to perform their legislative functions from anywhere they have an Internet connection.

By Ojars Eriks Kalnins May 28, 2020

Argentinian politics and feminism – a love story?

Argentina has experienced a wave of emerging feminism in recent years. Feminist organizations seems to be appearing everywhere.

By Jenny Ingridsdotter May 25, 2020

Conflicts and alliances in a polarized world Women, gender and

In this issue (2020:1), there are several examples of scholars investigating contemporary feminist mass-struggles from this point of view, asking whether these are examples of or have the potential for forming a feminist populist movement that can effectively counteract neoliberal and authoritarian regimes.

By Jenny Gunnarsson Payne May 24, 2020

Feminism as left-wing populism

The contributions to this issue (2020: 1) of Baltic Worlds aptly show that in country after country the representatives of the right-wing parties join ultraconservative groups and religious authorities in attempts to limit women’s reproductive rights, undermine the legitimacy of gender studies as a field of scientific inquiry, and viciously attack sexual or ethnic minorities.

By Elzbieta Korolczuk May 24, 2020

The pandemic experience and the lockdown in Albania

We can all agree that this pandemic is hard to manage and that the saving citizens’ life is the most important issue to deal with initially, but let us reflect on the consequences of the responses. The pandemic experience and the lockdown in Albania, among other perspectives, can be analysed by answering two main questions: 1. What is the socio-economic cost of the lockdown for almost 3 months? 2. What are the implications for the democratic system, is the freedom challenged?

By Gilda Hoxha May 18, 2020

Baltic Worlds’ Online Coverage: “The Impacts of the Pandemic”

Baltic Worlds' Online Covid-19 Coverage examines how politicians in different parts of the region are reacting to the crisis, and to what consequences.

By Ninna Mörner May 10, 2020

Remembering & reimagining rural communities

Each contribution in this special section here presented, provides different cases and different ways of considering the tensions between local communities and national policies, between pasts that ground people and pasts which hold them back, and between the survival or memorialisation of one form of heritage and its reimagining in another form for other ends. However, for all contributors the heritage itself, and especially various processes of heritagization, are “not about the past but about the use (and abuse) of the past to educate — and at times inculcate — the public.”

By Paul Sherfey and Jiří Woitsch February 25, 2020