EU/North America

Sexual and gender-based violence seems to be inherent in the surroundings of extractive projects. More than often, it is on the instruction of the mother companies in the global North that security forces commit atrocities and severe human rights violations in communities affected by extractive projects.

Initiated by the rise of extremist right political parties and movements of various guises in Greece and in other EU member states, which has been recorded after the European Parliament elections in May 2014, this report inquires the “extremist right” in Greece.

In which fields is investment needed in order to drive forward a green economic remodeling and generate sustainable growth? How should the financial system be organised in order to release enough capital for ecological innovations and investments? This publication attempts to answer the above questions from various perspectives.

This issue features two special dossiers: the democracy dossier analyzes the current situation and strategies of significant political actors towards the Presidential elections. The second one is a gender and macroeconomy dossier, which hopefully would provide an introduction to a gendered reading of macroeconomic issues in Turkey, who will be hosting the G20 summit in 2015.

This issue opens with an article by Yunus Sözen that evaluates the local elections which were held on 30 March. Our special dossier is on capital and capitalists in Turkey. We analyze the varieties of business groups from Gülen community to capitalists of the Kurdish region. Democracy section features an article on recent internet censorship efforts by the government.

Political socialization has been an absolute failure in the new Hungarian democracy. Facts and figures from "Political Capital - Policy Research & Consulting Institute" in co-operation with Heinrich Böll Stiftung.

Nearly 25 years have passed since the collapse of communism in Hungary. Has this period allowed for the emergence of a new generation of democrats? Empirical findings from Andrea Szabó.

Germany’s energy transition, or Energiewende, has been a success story. But one lesson to be drawn is that energy policy decisions taken in one EU member state affect other EU member states as well. For these reasons, the Heinrich Böll Foundation initiated a project entitled “The German Energy Transition in the European Context”.

As Turkey enters into a period of elections, Perspectives analyzes the strategies of main political actors and emphasizes the role of urban politics for the municipal elections in March 2014. The Democracy section is supported by two extensive articles on the foreign policy of Turkey and cultural politics of the Gezi Protests.

We prepared this issue for highlighting ongoing reforms in the field of rural development and agriculture in Turkey. Gökhan Günaydın, Abdullah Aysu and Sibel Caşkurlu are some of the authors who contribute in our feature articles section.