The next print edition of the Green European Journal will explore what freedom means in an era of deep polarisation and geopolitical tension. We are open to essays, photo essays, interviews, and graphic stories. The deadline to send your pitch is Wednesday, 26 March 2025.
The ways in which we experience and conceive both individual and collective freedom are under pressure from all sides.
On the one hand, the extreme right has grown into a global movement, accumulating cultural and political power by exploiting and fuelling a climate of deep polarisation and culture wars. This movement is successfully appropriating the discourse on individual and political freedom: it claims to stand for freedom of expression against the “woke mind virus”; it interprets democracy as a winner-takes-all contest, where institutional checks and balances and civil society stand in the way of the “will of the people”; and it asserts the freedom of the strongest to impose its vision, dismissing multilateralism and self-determination.
On the other hand, rapid technological change has huge implications for freedom. From gene editing to Artificial Intelligence, advanced technologies are redrawing the borders of individual freedom and are set to revolutionise education, policing, healthcare, work, and more. At the same time, psychology and neurosciences have exposed how our political ideas, identities, and allegiances are deeply intertwined with our emotions and biases. These developments have been used politically to sow further (algorithm-driven) polarisation.
From its origins, the green movement has been critical of conventional understandings of freedom as the right to enrich oneself beyond measure, wreaking environmental and social destruction. Instead, it put forward notions of self-determination and autonomy within planetary boundaries. Today, that critique and those values are as relevant as ever. But the world has fundamentally changed, and our ways of doing politics and communicating about it must evolve too.
How do we equip our vision of freedom for an era of far-right politics, deep polarisation, technological revolutions, geopolitical upheaval, and climate breakdown? How can we successfully master emotions and affect, using them as mobilising forces for progressive politics? Can the fight for freedom be the uniting factor of inclusive and democratic communities?
The aim is not to introduce a new, abstract notion of freedom, but to provide a picture of how freedom, autonomy, liberation, and self-determination are experienced and desired by individuals and communities, from the local to the global level – and how this experience can become the seed of a different politics.
Here are some of the angles you could focus on:
- Psychology and neurosciences applied to politics
- The political role of emotions such as anger, resentment, shame, pride, joy, etc.
- Political-ecological perspectives on freedom: how has green politics talked about and fought for freedom in the last decades? What needs to change?
- AI and other technological developments: implications for individual and collective freedom, including for work, education, and healthcare
- What are the implications of geopolitical needs and realities – peace, security and protection – for freedom? And what does the end of transatlanticism mean for European freedom?
- Economy: Crisis/critique of neoliberalism and neoliberal globalisation
- Democracy: Freedom as democratic participation, municipalism, etc. ; liberal democracy in crisis, post-liberalism
- Perspectives on polarisation and identity politics
Editorial requirements
We are looking for all kinds of contributions that stimulate debate, reflection, and imagination. We are open to formats such as essays, interviews, photo essays, and comics/graphic journalism.
Pitches should be sent to editor-in-chief Alessio Giussani at: alessio.giussani@gef.eu. The fee for accepted contributions will be agreed upon with the editor.
The Green European Journal strives to be an inclusive space, bringing together a diverse range of voices and perspectives. We welcome contributions from everyone. Contributions from those belonging to the following groups are especially encouraged: women, people of colour, people with a physical or mental disability, LGBTQIA+ individuals, and ethnic, cultural, and religious minorities. Contributions from southern and eastern Europe and from outside the European Union are particularly welcome.
If you would like to make a submission but require some support to do so, we invite you to contact us directly. Send us a summary of your proposed contribution and introduce yourself before submitting a draft. We’re happy for contributors to write in a language of their choosing. Before contacting us, check our editorial guidelines carefully. Submissions may be published in print or online.
The deadline to send your pitch is Wednesday 26 March 2025. Pitches will be reviewed on a rolling basis.