Among a myriad of forms and institutions, early childhood education can be heaven on earth when it works well, or a hellscape when it is dysfunctional - kindergartens on this week’s episode of Standard Time. GUESTS: Viktória Szücs is the president of the Democratic Trade Union of Crèche Employees in Hungary, Member of the European Commission Early Childhood Education and Care Working Group. Maria Roth is the director of the Montessori Adult Education Center in Munich with 50 years of experience, specializing in the developmental age of 3 to 6 years Flóra Bacsó is a mediator, restorative facilitator, trainer, and project manager at the Partners Hungary Foundation, invested in the integration of Roma pupils into education systems.

Standard Time: Warehousing children

Standard Time

OKTO

Warehousing children

Are robots replacing us? For translators, this prospect is quite realistic. Though machine translation can be useful with simple and direct text, it still has a lot to catch up on to eliminate language barriers and understand subtle meanings. Let alone irony!

Standard Time: Lost in machine translation

Lost in machine translation

The hustle of engines and the screeching of brakes are noises characterizing life in the city, causing sound and air pollution, and consequences to our health. Environmental activists are advocating for greener measures. GUESTS: Jessica Furseth is a freelance journalist from London who explores the city scene, uncovering the unique and captivating aspects of urban life. Adél Csurök is a representative of the NGO From Streets to Homes, providing the Housing First method in Hungary. Lina Mosshammer is the Co-Founder & CEO of Punkt vor Strich and a Policy Officer at Verkehrsclub Österreich. She’s spearheading initiatives in mobility solutions, striving for a gender-sensitive and sustainable approach to urban transportation.

Standard Time: Green Urbanism - Who’s the city for?

Green Urbanism - Who’s the city for?

During the cold war, the internet offered a lifeline for journals to stay independent. In a time when online publishing was deeply contested, a group of people came together and took a leap of faith. Following a series of conferences, the Eurozine network was established in 1998. Today, with over 100 partner journals across Europe, one goal remains: to turn it into a starting point for European debate. With English being the lingua franca and in the face of multimedia, the fight for space continues. Guests: Judith Vidal-Hall is a member of the Eurozine Advisory Board and has been recently appointed to the board of Centre Librexpression. She is a former editor of the free expression magazine Index on Censorship. Andrea Fredriksson-Zederbauer is co-editor of the Eurozine partner journal Wespennest and a translator from Swedish. Carl Henrik Fredriksson is a Swedish literary critic, columnist, essayist, and translator based in Vienna. He was Eurozine‘s first editor-in-chief from 1998 until 2015, and was previously the editor-in-chief of Swedish partner journal Ord&Bild. Walter Famler is a publisher, harmonium player, and the general secretary of the Alte Schmiede Kunstverein in Vienna. He was one of the founding Editors of Eurozine and has been a long-term editor of Eurozine’s founding partner journal Wespennest.

Standard Time: What has the internet ever done for us?

What has the internet ever done for us?

While some local variations of Valentine’s Day celebrations persist, globalized cultural exports have impacted most of how it is viewed nowadays. There’s no doubt that consumer capitalism is at the forefront of this, but with digitalization, dating has begun to take a different shape, and young people are opening up to ideas of fluidity, non-restrictive commitments, and open communication. Guests: Faris Cuchi Gezahegn is an intersectional LGBTQIA* activist, performance artist, and Ethiopian Queer knowledge and culture producer. They are the co-founder of House of Guramayle and the vice-chair of Afro Rainbow Austria; the first organisation established by and for African LGBTQI+ communities in Austria. Carin Franzen has been a professor of Comparative Literature at the Department of Culture and Aesthetics at Stockholm University since 2020. In her research, she investigates the history of subjectivity in premodern as well as modern and contemporary European literature and deals with formations of subjectivity. She has published on mediaeval and early modern female writers’ appropriations of subject positions in the tradition of courtly love. Leah Jule Ritterfeld is a PhD student in Philosophy at the University of Vienna, doing her research on “Love-less Lives, Isolated Minds: The Epistemic Fallout of Incels.” She works on radicalization, resentment and love from an epistemic perspective.

Standard Time: The ways we love

The ways we love

Disability, physical and mental, acquired and congenital, have been with us literally forever. Disability is not an anomaly; it's simply a part of the human condition, but for disabled people to have self-determination and control of their lives, well, that’s a tougher topic. Disabled people face a higher risk of poverty or social exclusion and abuse. Medical needs are another pressing concern. Guests: Bernadette Feuerstein is an Austrian disability rights activist and public official, known for her significant contributions to disability rights. She has been playing an important part in the Austrian disability movement, including her involvement in creating a barrier-free Austrian documentary on the topic. Walter Mathes is an actor, art therapist, and a cartoonist. He’s also a community worker and theater trainer and has worked with people with special needs, addictions, and with penitentiary facilities. Maria Dinold works on the integration of people with and without disabilities into cultural life and to promote social inclusion through artistic activity. Is a deputy chairperson of "Ich Bin O.K." Association. She’s the President of both the Austrian branch and the European Federation of Adapted Physical Activity.

Standard Time: Disability

Disability

Shelter constitutes one of the most basic necessities for any living being, and is an intrinsic part of the right to life. Yet all across the world, the possibilities to tend to this need are ever-decreasing, owing this to the political and economic systems governing our societies. On a European level, and across European cities, real estate markets have turned into a hotbed for speculation, and finding an affordable place to live is becoming out of reach. If buying a house was already a lost card for this generation, it doesn’t get any better with renting one, either. Guests: Elke Rauth is the editor of the urbanist magazine Dérive, and the co-curator of the urbanize! Festival for urban exploration. She is part of the habiTAT rental house syndicate of the Bikes and Rails House Project in Vienna; a network of self-organised housing projects that aim at buying houses and securing them as self-managed spaces. Lenke Pálfi and Adél Csurök are the colleagues of the From Streets to Homes Association, pioneering the Housing First method in Hungary. They help rough sleepers move into affordable rental housing, as well as advocate for affordable rental housing provision to become the institutional, national policy level solution to homelessness.

Standard Time: Europe got you covered

Europe got you covered

Offensive jokes: we all love them, but nobody seems certain, who gets to tell them. From #politicalcorrectness to #cancelculture staying #woke seems to be the comedian’s new worst nightmare. While humor acts as a response to the crumbling state of the world, how ‘PC’ can someone be when dealing with offensive jokes? Guests Aislin Kane is a California-born, Vienna-based comedian and founder of Gays and They Comedy in Vienna. Jannis Panagiotidis is the scientific director at the Research Center for the History of Transformations (RECET) at the University of Vienna. He specializes in the history of migration. Homer Hakim is a Vienna-based Afghani comedian and founder of the Comedy Pub, the only pub fully dedicated to stand-up comedy in Vienna. We met with them at The Alte Schmiede Kunstverein, Vienna. You find sources and related reads here eurozine.com/authors/standard-time/ Creative team Réka Kinga Papp, editor-in-chief Merve Akyel, art director Salma Shaka, writer-editor Margarita Lechner, writer-editor Priyanka Hutschenreiter, project assistant Szilvia Pintér, producer Zsófia Gabriella Papp, executive producer Management Hermann Riessner managing director Judit Csikós project manager Csilla Nagyné Kardos, office administration. OKTO Crew Senad Hergic producer, Leah Hochedlinger, Marlena Stolze and Clemens Schmiedbauer video recording, Richard Brusek sound recording; Postproduction Nóra Ruszkai, lead video editor Réka Kinga Papp, conversation editor Art Victor Maria Lima, animation Cornelia Frischauf, theme music Captions and subtitles Julia Sobota, Daniela Univazo, Mars Zaslavsky, Marta Ferdebar, Olena Yermakova, Farah Ayyash Hosted by the Alte Schmiede Kunstverein, Vienna. Disclosure This talk show is a Display Europe production: a ground-breaking media platform anchored in public values. This programme is co-funded by the Creative Europe Programme of the European Union and the European Cultural Foundation. Importantly, the views and opinions expressed here are those of the authors and speakers only and do not necessarily reflect those of the European Union or the European Education and Culture Executive Agency (EACEA). Neither the European Union nor the EACEA can be held responsible for them.

Standard Time: Punching sideways: comedy vs. cancel culture

Punching sideways: comedy vs. cancel culture

A back-handed Christmas present: the EU takes dire steps to erode the right to asylum. To celebrate the birthday of a refugee child who famously suggested we love one another, on our holiday episode, we discuss refugees and the issue of asylum. The EU moves toward further restricting asylum. The new pact agreed on 20 December, even refuses a proposed age limit for the detention of irregular arrivals, or family protections. Yet, refugees continue to cross unconventional paths as they face wars, political volatility, persecution and the worsening effects of climate disasters. #refugees #asylum Our Guests Martin Wagner is the Senior Policy Advisor for Asylum at the International Center for Migration Policy Development. He specializes in European and international refugee, human rights, and anti-discrimination law. Wagner has authored several studies on European asylum systems and has experience in providing legal assistance, monitoring law enforcement, as well as capacity-building projects in various countries. Olena Yermakova is an interdisciplinary researcher focusing on Central and Eastern European migration. She was awarded a junior visiting fellowship in the "Ukraine in European Dialogue" program at the Institute of Human Sciences (IWM) Vienna. Yermakova continues her research into Ukrainian labor migrants in Poland at the Research Centre for the History of Transformations at the University of Vienna. We meet with them at The Alte Schmiede Kunstverein, Vienna. To support our work, please go to patreon.com/eurozine.

Standard Time: Not so special treatment

Not so special treatment

Water is, without exaggeration, the most important condition for life to exist, both in biological terms, and for societies to form around. We want water, and lots of it, readily available, at the beach and in our cups, let alone our factories. Precipitation has been steadily decreasing across the past decades in many regions, and we don’t seem to have a good solution to it. In this episode, we ask our Guests why, and how to better understand our relationship to water. Guests: Ana Mumladze Detering, a Co-Founder of Schwimmverein Donaukanal, an urban Swimming Club in Vienna. Amelie Schlemmer, a Co-Founder of Hybrids Dessous, a sustainable fashion brand creating hybrids-suitable on both land and water. Jakub Sigmund from BROZ, an NGO safeguarding the natural waterways for over two decades from the heart of Bratislava.

Standard Time: Right To Water

Right To Water

Do you believe everything you’re told on the internet? Or on TV? And if you don’t, as none of us should, how should we decide? Some people are afraid of migrants - others of losing their homes. Some people don’t believe covid exists - some religiously believe in science and objectivism. Yet others attribute anything they don’t understand to ancient aliens. So, who do we blame for all this? And, more importantly, who’s got solutions? Mercy Abang is an award-winning journalist from Nigeria. She’s a media entrepreneur, co-managing director and CEO of Hostwriter, based in Berlin, Germany. Lina Chawaf is a Syrian journalist, founder of Radio Rozana broadcasting in Arabic to a Syrian audience in Syria and in diaspora. She’s working from Gaziantep, Turkey. Péter Krekó is a political scientist and social psychologist of ELTE University. He is the director of Political Capital Institute a Budapest-based independent think tank. He’s also a long-time recurring author and friend of Eurozine. We meet with them at the spectacular library of the School of English and American Studies at the Eötvös Loránd University, in the heart of Budapest, Hungary.

Standard Time: Whom to trust?

Whom to trust?

Eurozine offers an intervention into the aging conversation - and why women just can’t seem to be allowed to enjoy it. This is the inaugural episode of our new talk show, Standard Time, which will air weekly discussions every Thursday, offering insight and some laughs too. Standard Time will address topics with a cross-European interest, bringing Eurozine’s partner editors, authors and experts to a joint table from all corners of the continent. This show is a Display Europe production - a forthcoming platform to respect your user data and show you content from across 15 languages.

Standard Time: Aging

Aging

This episode comes forth just ahead of 1 December, World AIDS Day, so we chose our topic accordingly. Albeit public discourse seems deeply interested in sexually transmitted diseases, we tend to discuss them as a thing of the past. They definitely did define the whole span of human history so far, but they are far from gone: more than 1 million new infections are acquired every day worldwide, and diseases like syphilis, HIV, chlamydia, trichomoniasis and HPV viruses are on the rise across Europe. Our guests discuss why this news remains under the radar, as well as the stigma of sexual and reproductive health. Guests of the episode Dr. Danae Maragouthakis, medical doctor, sex educator, co-founder of Yoxly Dr. Béla Tamási, dermatologist and STD specialist, National STD Centre in Budapest, HU Trajche Janushev, programme officer at SWAN, the Sex Worker’s Rights Advocacy Network

Standard Time: STD Time: not at all a thing of the past

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