“Only war makes it possible to mobilize all of today’s technical resources while maintaining the property system.”

- Walter Benjamin, 1936

About Albena Azmanova

Professor Azmanova (Ph.D. The New School for Social Research, New York) is Director of the MA programme in International Political Economy at the University of Kent’s Brussels School of International Studies. She has published on democratization, social justice, sustainable development, the EU constitution, and the transformation of political ideologies. Dr Azmanova has worked as political consultant to a number of international institutions. She is the author of The Scandal of Reason: A Critical Theory of Political Judgment Columbia University Press, March 2012)

Articles by Albena Azmanova

You want federal Europe? why not start with a European social stability mechanism?

Albena Azmanova 21 September 2012

European federalism is back, says European Commission president Barroso. His call for a "federation of nation states" shows how the tables have turned in the debate about the Union – with former anti-federalists now praising integration and vice versa. But buyer beware - creating an EU federation now could result in a potentially disastrous "coup d'économie".

On social destitution, misdirected protest and the missing crisis of capitalism

Albena Azmanova 9 July 2012

The current crisis was not imposed by technocratic elites, but by democratically elected centre-right and centre-left governments. It is to a great extent due to the weak response from society that neoliberal capitalism is consolidating further, as governments are imposing exactly the ruinous policies that were at the root of the financial crisis.

Democracy against social reform: the Arab Spring faces its demons

Albena Azmanova 16 May 2012

The link between ‘karamah’ and ‘al hurriyah”, the call for dignified existence and the rejection of oppression has given birth to a further crucial concept – that of the social responsibility of public authority. This cannot be achieved by maintaining the economic polices of the old regimes.

Crisis - what crisis?

Albena Azmanova 9 May 2011

Why is widespread social anxiety fuelling xenophobia rather than criticism of neoliberal capitalism? What role has the state played? Have we arrived at the paradoxical situation where the best we can do is to call on the state to do its job?

This week's editor

Niki Seth-Smith is a freelance journalist and co-editor of OurKingdom.

Europe from the bottom up

European Union stars in Paris. Flickr/notarim. Some rights reserved.

A new Europe can only come from the bottom up
Etienne Balibar

A social Europe must be a political Europe
Bo Stråth

As Europe is provincialized: a reply to Etienne Balibar
Sandro Mezzadra

European debate

A republican call for a basic income
Daniel Raventos and Julie Wark

Nuclear non-proliferation

Women and the Arab Spring

oDRussia at journalismfestival .com

Mali - the plot thickens

Remote control war

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