Publications / Made in IWM

How can today’s liberal democracies withstand the illiberal wave sweeping the globe? What can revive our waning faith in constitutional democracy? Tocqueville’s Dilemmas, and Ours argues that Alexis de Tocqueville, one of democracy’s greatest champions and most incisive critics, can guide us forward. Drawing on Tocqueville’s major works and lesser-known policy writings, Ewa Atanassow shines a bright light on the foundations of liberal democracy. She argues that its prospects depend on how we tackle three dilemmas that were as urgent in Tocqueville’s day as they are in ours: how to institutionalize popular sovereignty, how to define nationhood, and how to grasp the possibility and limits of global governance. These are pivotal but often neglected dimensions of Tocqueville’s work, and this fresh look at his writings provides a powerful framework for addressing the tensions between liberalism and democracy in the twenty-first century. Recovering a richer liberalism capable of weathering today’s political storms, Tocqueville’s Dilemmas, and Ours explains how we can reclaim nationalism as a liberal force and reimagine sovereignty in a global age—and do so with one of democracy’s most discerning thinkers as our guide.

​​​​„Österreichs renommiertester Sozialforscher“ (trend) im Dialog über Quarantäne und Wege aus der Corona-Krise. Wie kann Leben, Arbeit und Wohlfahrt nach der akuten Gesundheits- und Wirtschaftskrise nachhaltig erneuert werden? Aus Interviews entwickelt sich ein neues Format als Mix aus sozialwissenschaftlicher Studie, investigativer Recherche und Publizistik. Eine informative Chronik der Verschränkung von objektivem Pech und institutionellem Versagen – etwa am Beispiel der „italienischen Tragödie“ und ihrer europäischen Bedeutung. Denn in der Pandemiepolitik interagieren schicksalshaft schierer Zufall, also Glück/Unglück, einerseits und Geschick/Ungeschick anderseits. Wir sehen kuriose bürokratische Fehlleistungen, Dummheit und Indolenz neben kollektivem Lernen, kluger Strategiewahl, intelligenter Steuerung und administrativer Improvisationsgabe.  Das Buch bietet verständliche Antworten auf häufige Fragen zur Corona-Krise; genaue, evidenzbasierte Beobachtungen; Zahlen und Fakten; spannende Fallgeschichten; anregende Denkanstöße; und originelle Reflexionen über Europas mögliche Zukünfte inmitten großer Ungewissheiten und Halbwissen.

Vesna Velkovrh Bukilica is a Slovenian translator living in Ljubljana. In 2015, she was a Paul Celan Visiting Fellow at IWM, where she translated Thomas Piketty’s Capitalism in the 21st Century into Slovenian.   

Till van Rahden ist Historiker und lehrt Deutschland- und Europastudien an der Université de Montréal in Kanada (Canada Research Chair). Ferner ist er Adjunct Research Professor an der Carleton University. 

From September 2018 to May 2019 and from February to September 2020, Ruth Wodak was a Senior Visiting Fellow at the IWM. During her fellowship she worked on the second, revised edition of her book “The Politics of Fear. The Shameless Normalization of Far-Right Discourse,” which was released by SAGE in December 2020. In January 2021, Ruth Wodak was awarded the Bruno Kreisky Prize 2021 for her Lifetime Achievements (publizistisches Gesamtwerk).

From February to March 2019, Geoffrey Galt Harpham was a Visiting Fellow at the IWM. During his stay at the Institute he undertook an inquiry into the connection between the concepts of freedom and the practice of scholarship. He developed his general arguments about scholarship through detailed studies of three scholars: W. E. B. Du Bois, Bernard Lategan, and Linda Nochlin. His book Scholarship and Freedom was published by Harvard University Press in August 2020.

This book critically examines the question of migration that appears at the intersection of global neo-liberal transformation, postcolonial politics, and economy. It analyses the specific ways in which colonial relations are produced and reproduced in global migratory flows and their consequences for labor, human rights, and social justice.

We continue the presentation of books written by IWM Fellows during their stay at the Institute with Holly Case’s The Age of Questions. The author is Professor of History at Brown University and recurrent IWM Visiting Fellow. Largely written at the IWM The Age of Questions was published by Princeton University Press in July 2018 and received the 2018 Hont Prize for Best Book in Intellectual History.

Eines jener bemerkenswerten Werke, zu deren Entstehung das IWM einen Beitrag leisten durfte und das wir in der neuen Rubrik “Made in IWM” vorstellen möchten, ist Martin Schürz’ Buch „Überreichtum“. Es erschien im September 2019 im Campus Verlag und wurde im selben Jahr mit dem Bruno-Kreisky-Preis für das Politische Buch ausgezeichnet. Schürz, der neben seiner …

The Flame of Eternity, Krzysztof Michalski’s last book before his untimely death in 2013, is about Nietzsche. James Dodd considers the nine essays contained within a volume that does not limit itself to interpreting Nietzche's text, but uses it as a starting point for a wider meditation on time.