The five articles that form the main focus of the present issue address very different dimensions of the digital transformation of our time: the development of governance principles and structures in the field of artificial intelligence (Dignum), the prospects for public service media in a growing digital communication ecology (Štětka), the potential of digital platforms in Africa as channels for inclusive growth (Napoli), a computational vision of society in the thought of a leading intellectual of the right in the United States (Rosenberg), and the function of digital technologies as channels of private grief in wartime (Herasym). The last essay’s focus on private memory stands in stark contrast not only with the heroic narratives of public memory politics but also with one-dimensional and frozen images of official historiography, whose political implications Snyder discusses with reference to Belarus.
In a small section on migration, Bojadžijev discusses the relationship between migration policy and democracy ten years after the summer of 2015, while Idzikowska considers the efforts of Poland’s government to repatriate members of the diaspora. Wężyk’s essay also focuses on Poland, examining the early implementation of women’s suffrage there. Three articles address very different ways of challenging Western hegemony in the past and their legacy in the present: the epistemic resistance of racialized groups (Pereira), the New International Economic Order (Stubbs), and the rather contradictory idea of Eurasianism (Torbakov). The bizarre inclination of rich and powerful people today to break down boundaries of all kinds is the subject of the articles by Schürz and Shore. Further essays draw attention to the relevance of the work of Karl Mannheim (Ktenas, van Rahden) and José Ortega y Gasset (Strupp) in times of crisis.
The issue also contains three contributions with a reference to Vienna or the IWM. Bolea discusses the esoteric dimensions of Modernism on the occasion of the exhibition Hidden Modernism in Vienna. Hagedorn honors the memory and achievements of sociologist and long-time friend of the IWM Claus Offe, who passed away in October. Finally, we would like to draw your attention to the IWM publication Geschlechtsidentität: Die Karriere einer Kategorie by Rogers Brubaker, which will be released in spring 2026.
I hope you enjoy the read!
Evangelos Karagiannis
Download the IWMpost 136 as a PDF
Content
Dimensions of Digital Transformation
Governing Intelligence: A Short History of, and Reflections on, AI Policy / by Virginia Dignum
Curtis Yarvin: Postliberalism with Computational Characteristics / James Rosenberg
Can Public Service Media Survive in the Digital Age? / by Václav Štětka
A Deal With the Algorithm in the African Gig Economy / Ivan Napoli
Private and Public Memory
Reclaiming the Soldier: Mediating Private Grief and Public Memory / by Halyna Herasym
Die Geschichte der Autokraten: Der Fall Belarus / von Timothy Snyder
Migration
Poland Wants Poles Back. Again. / by Ula Idzikowska
Zehn Jahre 2015 / von Manuela Bojadžijev
Challenging Gender Inequalities
Emancipation in the National Interest (Terms and Conditions Apply) / by Katarzyna Wężyk
Challenging Western Hegemony
Challenging Europe’s Racialized Knowledge-Production Politics / by Bruna Cristina Jaquetto Pereira
The New International Economic Order: Useful History for a Multipolar World? / by Paul Stubbs
Eurasianism and the Paradoxes of Russia’s Postcoloniality / by Igor Torbakov
Without Limits
Unsterblichkeit – ein Projekt für Helden? / von Martin Schürz
In a Post-Truth World: The Fate of Birth, Death, and Other Boundaries / by Marci Shore
Through the Lens of Karl Mannheim
Knowledge in Times of Generalized Suspicion / by Yannis Ktenas
Der Fluch der Condottieri / von Till van Rahden
Philosophy
José Ortega y Gasset – Philosoph der Krise / von Alexander Strupp
Vienna
The Secret Modernity of Vienna / by Ștefan Bolea
IWM
„Triumphgefühle retardieren nur das Lernvermögen.“ / von Ludger Hagedorn
IWM Publications
Rogers Brubaker über Geschlechtsidentität / Neuerscheinung
