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Dar visai neseniai buvo neįmanoma net įsivaizduoti, kad taip sunkiai išsivadavę iš ilgalaikės priespaudos ir tapę liberaliosios Vakarų demokratijos dalimi, po palyginti trumpo atokvėpio vėl susidursime su plataus masto ir vis labiau sutelktomis, gerai organizuotomis pastangomis užgniaužti kai kam nepageidaujamas žodžio laisvės apraiškas, nutildyti kitaminčius, esą savo nuomones jie reiškia pernelyg įžeidžiamai, net agresyviai. Kartu, matyt, siekiama ir kitų tikslų – užčiaupti burnas ideologiniams oponentams ir kritikams bei visiems tiems, kurių pasaulėžiūra nesutampa su dominuojančiu politiniu, socialiniu ar ekonominiu šiuolaikinio globalaus kapitalizmo diskursu. Panašu, kad ateityje vis dažniau susidursime su veiksmais, kuriais bandoma bet kokia kaina suvaldyti, apriboti ir kuo griežčiau kontroliuoti viešąją sferą. Tai vyksta ne vien Lietuvoje, o globaliu mastu. The author of the article – former president of Lithuanian PEN argues that recently freedom of speech and expression has been strangely marginalized and overshadowed by an ideological discourse of hate speech. He overviews developments in academic culture that brought political correctness – a concept borrowed from chairman Mao’s vocabulary that perhaps was introduced with good intentions but finally brought confusion and culture of double speech in western academic culture. It is noted that hate speech is ill defined, yet nevertheless it is used to further marginalize the freedom of speech and criminalize certain forms of self-expression. Shall we lose more important things while criminalizing some verbal discourses that most or some of us don’t like?

Apie sovietinių viešųjų monumentų arba paminklų šalinimą Lietuvoje. Po įvairių svarstymų, kurie priešokiais vyko ištisus dešimtmečius, pastaruoju metu dėmesio centre vėl atsidūrė Vilniuje esantis paminklas Petrui Cvirkai. Tam tikroms politinėms grupėms Cvirkos paminklo nukėlimas – tiesiog puiki proga pademonstruoti ištikimybę nepriklausomybės idealams. O už gražaus ideologijos ir viešosios politikos fasado veikiausiai slypi pragmatiški verslo interesai – pasiglemžti šiuo metu gerokai apleistą viešąją erdvę arba „įsisavinti“ lėšas, kurių neišvengiamai bus skirta rekonstrukcijai, nukeldinus Cvirką nuo pjedestalo. Many monuments – symbols of Soviet monuments were demolished immediately after the and even before the reestablishment of independence and the reasons are quite understandable – society aimed to get rid of the symbols of colonial regime and occupation. The process of demolition of monument eventually slowed down but occasionally it gets accelerated. The author, analyzing the reasons behind renewed attempts to remove monument to Soviet Lithuanian writer Petras Cvirka who actively collaborated with the Soviet establishment presents a somewhat more complex case: these days attempts to remove monuments go beyond the practice peculiar to the “age of innocence”. Now these actions are manipulated by various political groups that have their own individual goals and reasons.

The authors discusses the most essential consequences of two recent attempts to reform the Lithuanian system of higher education during the period of 2009–2018. Though two ministers of higher education and their teams were forced to resign without completing the attempted reforms both of them were inspired and fueled by neoliberal ideology that was intoxicated with dogmatic economism, efficiency and quantitative approach. By examining the legacy of the current transformations and some of the writings of former “architects” of these reforms the author demonstrates their futility and the lack of vision.

Critics have often discussed African novels on postcolonialism as subversive and counter-discursive to European representations of Africa with limited attention paid on the layers of inscriptions relating to pre-colonial, colonial, and postcolonial Africa embedded in these texts. This study uses the metaphor of the palimpsest to explore the layers of writings ranging from the pre-colonial culture, the colonial textual depictions of Africa and the postcolonial response and re-portrayal of Africa within selected African novels. It argues that these novels encourage Africa to reflect on its pre-colonial and colonial past with the intention of learning from its mistakes, the positive aspects of its culture and the colonial experiences, and forging a future based on hindsight rather than continually blaming colonialism for its development maladies. To achieve this, palimpsest in this paper becomes a self-reflective metaphor for understanding the effects of colonialism, the complicities of Africa in the colonial enterprise and the need to forge a future that transcends the colonial experiences. While the palimpsest provides a means of understanding the past, the ‘metaphors of transformation’ by Hall provides the impetus for progress.

The problems of public spaces in contemporary urban context as well as their historical roots are being examined. The author claims that the legacy of the past was pushed aside as well as theoretical alternatives that could change the urban planning and urban design paradigms of the last century. As soon as concept of Camillo Sitte (as alternative to visions of Le Corbusier) was ignored, the functions and role of urban public spaces has been interpreted in a simplified way. Pioneering research done by Christopher Alexander and revised by his close associate Nikos Salingaros focuses on the “pattern language“ and can be useful intellectual tool in rethinking and reconsidering the shape and role of public spaces in larger Lithuanian cities. Some contemporary examples of the formation of urban spaces taken from different locations of the world are discussed in the context of insights of Christopher Alexander and Nikos Salingaros.

A review of the book Culture in the Network Society, collection of essays by Lithuanian, French, Polish and American authors, edited by Odeta Žukauskienė and Rita Repšienė.

The article is focused on the cultural phenomena of architectural iconism that has become globally widespread due to the continuous pressure of ongoing economic, ideological and cultural globalisation and the reigning interests of the web of building industry that appropriates architectural design for its own financial purposes as well as local political stakeholders who often seek to replicate the success of previous internationally renowned iconic buildings by aspiring to the status of world-class cities. While discussing the global and local cultural contexts in which the so-called ‘Bilbao effect’ triggered the current pursuit of iconic buildings, the author of the article analyses the much publicized recent example of iconic architecture in Eastern Europe – the MO Modern Art Museum that was designed by Daniel Libeskind and opened in Vilnius, the capital of Lithuania in 2018 on the site of an abandoned and eventually demolished cinema in the vicinity of the historical Old Quarters. It is argued that despite of publicity and largely overcooked praises of international architectural media, the museum’s architectural design remains an example of ‘signatory architecture’ that largely ignores the aesthetics of its local urban environment and peculiarities of local historical and cultural context. It is suggested that that despite of claims of being contextual, in fact the building is not and on the contrary: it exhibits most of the aesthetics features that plaque iconic buildings in various localities on different continents.

The author overviews recent suggestions to cut down the number of Lithuania‘s universities that is suggested as a sort of therapy for problems burdening higher education. He argues that before remedies are offered a serious diagnosis should be made first otherwise it might happen that remedies are offered for a wrong illness. Mysticism of numbers obviously is most unhelpful in this case.

The author of the article discusses why Russian propaganda directed against Lithuania and other Baltic states disguised in various shapes from popular movies to creation and dissemination of absurd fake news has been neglected until recently in Lithuania. Examining a number of publications in Lithuanian media published during the last decade the author shows that a number of journalists and so-called experts failed to realize that this propaganda discourse has strong potential to reach the audience, moreover some of the experts contributed to dissemination of propoganda cliches themselves. Only recently the scope and range of Kremlin‘s propaganda became a public issue.

There are more and more examples that Lithuanian higher education has entered a rat race: universities and other institutions of higher education are pressed to become competitive, to gain international reputation, to get higher positions in global ratings of universities and colleges. These kind of games are a direct result of neoliberalisation of higher education politics all over the globe. Few attempts, are made to understand more essential things – what higher education is all about, what goals do we pursue in the sphere of higher education and thus, calls of politcians urging that that Lithuania should seek to have world-class universities are destined to remain futile and devoid of purpose.

Several attempts at reforming Lithuania’s higher education during last two decades were abortive. The latest one that is being implemented now by the new government is no exception. Those academics and students that were expecting serious reform were instead served with well-known neoliberal agenda of „no alternatives“. The author shows that the group that drafted present reform failed to elaborate guidelines for systematic change and offered instead a half-boiled plan of minimazing the number of exhisting institutions attempting to merge those that have hardly anything in common.

The author analyzes the failures of making urban design of new center of Vilnius that did not match the expectations: what we have is a cluster of comteting yet dull high-rise buildings in conventional Modernist environment where there is no social or public life. Developments of this kind were diagnosed and forecasted a few decades ago by insightful American urban observer Lewis Mumford. His critique remains penetrating and explains many flaws of present urban planning in Lithuania as well as post-Soviet space.

Samalavičius, A. L.; Giroux, H. 2016. Higher education and neoliberal temptation : a conversation with Henry Girou, Elektroninis išteklius. Eurozine. [www.eurozine.com] : the netmagazine. Vienna : Eurozine, 2016. ISSN 1684-4637. p. [1-7]

In a cycle of essays the author discusses various aspects of the development and fate of Vilnius‘ urban public spaces. In this particularly essay he analyses why some campaings that were expected to defend city dwellers‘ rights to public spaces ended in disaster, however, especially campaign of „defending“ Lietuva cinema initiated and directed by artists Gediminas and Nomeda Urbonas and a group of their supporters. The result of this campaign was disastrous and even though many art critics still praise its experience, in fact the campaign was nothing more than a public spectacle.

The audit culture resulting from neoliberal policies has had a deleterious effect on all sectors of society, and no less so on the universities, says higher education expert Jon Nixon. Clearly, the logic of austerity constitutes an existential threat to the great humanistic traditions of scholarship.