Launching the European Alternatives Journal Issue 1

Last year, the year of our 15th anniversary, when we wrote our last biannual report of activities (read here), it was clear that we wanted 2023 to be the year in which we would relaunch our magazine of arts, politics and reflection. It was precisely 16 years ago when we published the first edition of our transnational journal – a space to map out visions, ideas and pathways for an alternative, open and radically more democratic Europe.

In that first issue, Etienne Balibar set out his theses for an ‘Alter-Globalizing Europe’. The theses called for a postcolonial European identity that overcomes the ‘East-West’ divide and the ‘West then the Rest’ mentality;  an open Europe that invents a variable geometry, acknowledging its constitutive interpenetration with vast Euro-Atlantic, Euro-Asian, Euro-Mediterranean and Euro-African spaces; as American hegemony declines, a Europe that positions itself as mediator not a power bloc – tending towards conflict reduction, redistribution, egalitarianism and decentralisation; and a Europe whose relationship with the so-called global ‘South’ is characterised by a genuine reciprocity of possibilities of co-development.

We are very happy to finally launch the first issue of the new European Alternatives journal, a space to grapple with the specificities and challenges of constructing a new geopolitical imaginary.

The journal seeks to further our organisational aim: to promote democracy, equality and culture beyond the nation-state. We’re here to show that an alternative Europe already exists as something that we, collectively, can imagine, demand and enact. We would like to remind you that if you have an idea for an article, a feature, interview, review or photo essay, please get in touch at editors@euroalter.com. Pitches will be considered on a rolling basis, but we strongly encourage you to submit them by the end of June or earlier to be considered for the next issues.

We hope this journal can be a critical and accessible space where ideas and actions can interact to foster new connections, systems, temporalities and imaginaries – linking social movements, academics, civil society, artists, activists and the very earth we inhabit to build together and live the alternatives we dream.

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