April 2017 Culture and Society
Read the articles selected in April 2017
Charting trends in apocalyptic and post-apocalyptic fiction
Source: The Economist, 12 April
Apocalyptic narrations express the popular fears for real technological and geopolitical changes. From the end of the second world war the apocalypse literature has told differently mankind’s end: first were carnivorous plants or aliens, then nuclear war, today are climate change, robots or bioweapons.
Consulta l’articolo:
http://www.economist.com/blogs/prospero/2017/04/writing-end-world
L’antiquité grecque 2.0
by Vincent Azoulay
Source: Le Monde, 14 April
The Greek antiquity, flourished on the competition, in absence of a central power, of the City-states, seems to inspire Silicon Valley model of the knowledge economy, but at the same time, it shows how technological innovations can change sign when the political climate changes.
Zimbabwe’s mental health solution – “grandmothers”
by Ranga Mberi Harare
Source: The Guardian, 14 April
Mental health in Zimbabwe is cared by a programme that may be a blueprint for developing States. In a country where one in four suffers from mental illnesses, a no conventional approach based on talks with trained “grandmothers” helps many people to speak about.
Marathon struggle of runner who changed athletics
by Alexandra Topping
Source: The Guardian, 19 April
Kathrin Switzer, the first women to run officially the Boston marathon in 1967, has run it again, only 25 minutes slower. She has become an icon of feminist history as a serious official tried to force her off the until then all-male race.
“Les écrivains du XVIIe siècle parlaient du livre exactement comme on parle de l’intelligence artificielle aujourd’hui”
by Florence Noiville
Source: Le Monde, 7 April
Louisa Hall’s “Speak” is a novel that imagines a near future where through the machines we will have a better understanding of ourselves discovering how weak are the differences between the different forms of intelligence as well other unknown factors that shift further and further the borders of the human quid.
The security threat to the global economy
Source: The Economist, 6 April
Geopolitical tensions threat global economy, but at the same time, economic disputes and interests don’t help to solve global conflicts. The world seems unable to deal with geopolitical crises, and the security problems we face today remember the League of Nations era.
Read more:
http://www.economist.com/blogs/buttonwood/2017/04/half-league
Digital music tools are reshaping music education
Source: The Economist, 30 March
Augmented-reality can improve the experience of learning music through programmes inspired by music and rhythm games and karaoke videos, and computer-connected keyboards, whereas Youtube, digital sheet music and smartphone apps have replaced the books of scales.
Read more:
http://www.economist.com/blogs/prospero/2017/03/casual-learner-era
Was heisst schon rechts, wo liegt links?
by Joachim Müller-Jung
Source: Die Frankfurter Allgemeine Zeitung, 12 April
After a study published in the review “Nature Human Behaviour”, brains chemistry and morphology do influence not only emotions and decisions but also inclinations and political tendencies. That’s how to certain disciplines are mainly devoted conservative minds and to other ones more minds set on left.
Read more:
Junge Europäer brauchen keine Religion
Source: http://www.faz.net, 6 April
After the German study “Generation what?” based on the answers of 200.000 young people aged between 18 and 34, they can be happy even without believing in a God. A considerable percentage doesn’t trust religious institutions.
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L’historien Vincent Debiais décrypte le rôle des textes dans les images du Moyen Age
by Étienne Anheim
Source: Le Monde, 31 March
In the medieval images, in continuity with the Jewish- Christian tradition, writing doesn’t completely adhere to the figures, but it is in the difference and discrepancy with it that matter takes form and life, before the moving eyes of the spectator.
“Queer British Art” explores the diversity of desire
Source: The Economist, 5 April
A new exhibition at Tate Britain shows chronologically along the period between 1861 and 1967 how painters expressed in their works hidden and forbidden “non-conforming sexualities and gender identities”, taking off the veil of “ purified art object” to the traditional female nude.
Read more:
http://www.economist.com/blogs/prospero/2017/04/adding-colour
Looking good can be extremely bad for the planet
Source: The Economist, 5 April
The clothing industry has a big environmental impact both for the use of chemicals on tissues and for greenhouses gas consumption. Although some firms have tried a more ecological production, they need to develop new materials and to package more durable products.
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Europe’s future is multi-speed and multi-tier
Source: The Economist, 23 March
Europe’s future is multi-speed and the current political crisis urges to rethink the structure of its project. A multi-tier model would be more inclusive for those countries that can’t keep pace with a rigid Europe, while it would allow a deeper integration of the euro-zone center.
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Tailler l’Europe comme un rosier
by Arnaud Leparmentier
Source: Le Monde, 30 March 2017
After Brexit, the EU must start again on the one side leaving out those partners that don’t respect the policy of rules and the democratic values, and on the other side refastening the ties with the own citizens to reduce the democracy lag and open the way to a Confederation of States.
The two-year countdown to Brexit has begun
Source: The Economist, 29 March
On March 29th the UK has begun the negotiating process for leaving the EU in the perspective of a “deep and special partnership” with the EU. Reaffirming to breach the EU’s principle of free movement of people, Theresa May has expressed the willingness of a bespoke free-trade deal.
Read more:
Can Europe be saved?
Source: The Economist, 25 March
Prolonged economic pain, great powers unenthusiastic about EU make Europe weak and divided. If a closer Europe is not possible, a multi-tier Europe would attract widely differing countries, but that means changing mindset more than treaties.
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- Pubblicato il : 19/12/2017 Modificato il : 04/04/2019