Publications

The Belgrade and Sarajevo offices of the Heinrich Böll Foundation, together

with our editor Miloš Ćirić, have invited relevant voices to reflect on what was

achieved over the past decades in the fields of documentation, memorialization, and

processing of recent history.

The analytical commentaries of this issue discuss the prospects for a just green transition in the Western Balkan countries and their particular contexts of structural injustices in the societies and transition legacies. The fundamental economic and technological changes for a decarbonisation of the widely coal dependent economies in the region need to be accompanied not only by another attitude to nature and biodiversity but also by a new set of social relationships and innovations in governance and civic participation.

The 10th issue of Perspectives Asia takes a look at how the pandemic is reshaping state/society relationships in different Asian countries; it also shares down-to-earth Covid-19 experiences from different regions and cultures, on issues as diverse as trust in government institutions, the situation of migrant workers, and gender relationships. 

In the history of social movements in African societies, generations of women have fought against patriarchal domination to achieve gender equality. However, it is only in the last few decades that feminism in Africa has evolved as a political concept.

This issue of Perspectives is about women. Their rights and struggles for gender equality, which have existed for generations in the Western Balkans, are presented by authors who are themselves part of the feminist struggles.

This issue of Perspectives Asia examines intersections of sports and politics. We look at how, through sports, identities are shaped, myths and heroes are born, and unconventional truths are buried.

Lateinamerika hat in Bezug auf Geschlechtergerechtigkeit viel erreicht. Doch Benachteiligung und Ungleichheit zwischen den Geschlechtern sind noch lange nicht beseitigt. Hinzu kommen neue Problembereiche wie Frauenhandel und Organisierte Kriminalität. In der zweiten Ausgabe der perspectivas Lateinamerika lassen wir Autorinnen und Autoren aus unterschiedlichen Regionen zu Wort kommen.

Der Abbau von mineralischen, fossilen oder agrarischen Ressourcen für den Export, der Extraktivismus, dominiert die Ökonomien Lateinamerikas. Dieser Entwicklungspfad ist jedoch zunehmend umstritten. Es mehren sich die Stimmen, die sozial und ökologisch gerechtere Alternativen fordern. In Perspectivas kommen sie zu Wort.

Wir möchten mit Perspectivas Nr. 3 den Blick auf den Umgang mit Migration in Lateinamerika lenken. Unsere Autorinnen und Autoren analysieren Ursachen und staatliche Politiken, zeigen auf, welche Auswirkungen das für Migrantinnen und Migranten hat, und berichten von Solidaritätsstrukturen, die praktische und politische Unterstützung leisten.

80% der Bevölkerung in Lateinamerika leben in städtischen Gebieten, die ein hohes Maß an sozialer Ungleichheit und räumlicher Trennung aufweisen. In der vierten Ausgabe von Perspectivas beschreiben und analysieren lateinamerikanische Autorinnen und Autoren die verschiedenen Aspekte von Mobilität und die Herausforderungen einer Verkehrswende in Lateinamerika.

In Lateinamerika wird ein Großteil der Energie aus fossilen Quellen oder großen Wasserkraftwerken gewonnen. Doch nicht nur diese, sondern auch erneuerbare Energieproduktionen haben oftmals negative Auswirkungen auf die lokale Bevölkerung und lösen vielfach Proteste aus. Perspectivas 5 setzt hier an und zeigt, dass eine nachhaltige Energiepolitik immer auch den gesellschaftlichen Kontext einbeziehen und soziale, ökonomische und ökologische Faktoren gleichermaßen berücksichtigen muss.

For this edition of Perspectives, the Heinrich Böll Foundation offered Africa-based thinkers and commentators an opportunity to critically reflect on what a “transition towards sustainability” means or should mean for the region. The articles gathered here go beyond ideological debates to also provide some case studies where green-economy principles have been applied.

For this edition of Perspectives the Heinrich Böll Foundation asked a number of African intellectuals, writers and analysts to provide their take on Africa’s relationship with Europe. The result is a small collection of interviews, short essays and comments that throw light on the complexities and complexes of this relationship, using analysis, imagery, experience, provocation and humour.

With this edition of Perspectives, the Heinrich Böll Foundation explores some of the approaches and instruments that communities and their NGO partners have developed to create room for community-centred stakeholder participation, and to champion community interests and rights.

Informed by the discussions at an international conference jointly organised by the German Development Institute, the Heinrich Böll Foundation and Stanford University on “Emerging Power or Fading Star? South Africa’s Role on the Continent and Beyond”, held 12–14 July 2016 in Cape Town, the articles gathered in this edition of Perspectives shed light on some of the nuances and challenges that define South Africa’s place in the world today.

This edition of Perspectives contributes to the ongoing debate on infrastructure development in Africa by sharing snapshots of experience from around the continent, exploring questions about democratic participation, the role of human and environmental rights, and economic transformation.

This edition of Perspectives tackles questions of state capture, and how the concept can contribute to understanding and strengthening democracies across Africa. Our contributors also open the possibilities that emerge when “state capture” is released from particular institutional settings and national boundaries.

This special edition of Perspectives was compiled with the Heinrich Böll Foundation’s North Africa offices and the Transform Africa project. It is dedicated to the emerging conversation of alternative approaches that challenge the historical bias towards the industrialisation of agriculture and the food system as the main strategy to address food insecurity while preparing for a +2°C world.

Twenty years on from the Kosovo War, the collective memory of both parties in the conflict remains burdened by myths and incontestable truths about what actually took place. In this issue of Perspectives we aim to highlight the fact that Kosovo is not just a toponym, but a country burdened by its recent violent history, where common people are struggling to rebuild the broken societies that the conflict has left behind.

This edition of Perspectives Asia presents the work of climate change activists in Asia who are calling their governments and people to action. With contributions from Thailand, Myanmar, Cambodia, India, China, Malaysia, South Korea, Vietnam, and Hong Kong.

Against a background of political and cultural disruption, Perspectives approached writers to inquire, speculatively or not so speculatively, into an African future. The result is an eclectic mix of contributions and conversations across the arts, culture, philosophy and politics. They offer glimpses of African futures – fantastic, idealistic, or sober, but always self-confident – that place the continent at the centre of a world to come.

The latest issue of Perspectives Asia aims to draw a fine line between different forms of nationalism. The articles from various Asian countries focus on strategies and political styles adopted by populist leaders and explain how nationalistic and religious ideas are distorted by politics.