ABSTRACT This study employs print colonialism as its core theoretical lens to analyze how The North-China Daily News (NCDN), the most influential 19th-century foreign-run press in China, systematically constructed narratives of Chinese national character; in addition, this study examines NCDN’s historical function in the colonial context. By examining original newspaper materials, it is demonstrated that NCDN functioned as an instrument of print colonialism; the newspaper actively reshaped China’s informational ecosystem through Eurocentric civilizational hierarchies; it legitimized imperial domination through continuous and systematic production of Chinese national character discourse since its founding in 1864 to the collapse of the Qing dynasty in 1912. Crucially, this study argues that NCDN’s discourse of Chinese national character went beyond ethnographic observation and developed standardized concepts for human identity, thereby forming a knowledge system which served dual and paradoxical roles: advancing imperial agendas while unintentionally enabling transnational counter-narratives. This analysis offers a novel framework for deciphering the dynamic contradictions of Chinese society from the past to the present by reconceptualizing media’s dual nature in mediating social complexities and making modern identities.

ABSTRACT This article examines the European Green Deal (EGD) from a critical realist perspective and engages with two key approaches in eco-Marxist thought: the theory of metabolic rift and the world-ecology framework. Although these approaches have not directly addressed the EGD, they provide conceptual tools to analyze it as a hegemonic project of restructuring capital accumulation. The purpose of the study is not only to compare these approaches but also to explore how each can comprehend the EGD and, more importantly, what they offer in terms of emancipation, revolutionary agency, alternative forms of social organization, and transformative political imagination. Critical realism’s ontological view of nature as a material and autonomous domain, independent of human perception, together with Roy Bhaskar’s conception of emancipation as the ultimate goal of social knowledge, provide a unique foundation for rethinking the transformative relation between structure and agency. From a critical realist perspective, the metabolic rift approach conceptualizes the EGD more clearly in terms of class antagonisms and praxis, whereas the world-ecology framework tends to obscure the role of the revolutionary subject and thus limits political imagination.

ABSTRACT The article is a review of the book written by Marek Hrubec entitled Towards Justice: A Critical Theory of Global Society and Politics. The review analyses Hrubec’s exploration of justice, mainly social justice, in its multifaceted global contexts. It explains how the book offers a critical rethinking of foundational social and political philosophies and theories in the West and reorients the reader towards the formulation of justice from the perspectives of the Global South across cultural and civilizational boundaries, addressing especially China, Latin America, and Africa. The review explores how the book examines the issues from the perspectives of democratic socialism and socialist democracy. While the book is a complex and extensive theory of society and politics, the review focuses on its main characteristics concerning three special aspects that the reviewer considers the most relevant and innovative: first, methodological trichotomy with a complex historical interpretation; second, perspectives of the Global South related to a critique of Western-centric hegemony; and third, a global comparative perspective leading to a theory of global social justice. The review evaluates the book as an important contribution to interdisciplinary scholarship at the intersection of philosophy, sociology, political science, and global studies.

ABSTRACT This article examines Domenico Losurdo’s concept of the “idealism of practice.” This concept denotes a theoretical misunderstanding of the material objectivity of social institutions like the state or the market that subsequently endows practice with an illusory ability to shape, transform and even eliminate such institutions. Typically arising out of revolutionary enthusiasm, this ideological regression represents an internal danger for social movements insofar as they risk losing sight of social objectivity and thereby overstepping the real limits of the concrete situation. This article then turns to the Burkinabè revolution of 1983 to illustrate how this idealism specifically arises under neocolonial domination. The reality of underdevelopment, comprador mismanagement, and imperialist exploitation as well as the immense practical effort required to overcome these challenges establish the conditions for a potential backslide into the idealism of practice. This article demonstrates how a momentary lapse of this type is evident in Thomas Sankara’s battle with the Burkinabè trade unions and his dramatic decision to fire 1380 striking teachers. Given the recent developments in the Burkina Faso and the formation of the Alliance of Sahel States (AES), this examination offers a lesson in critical history for the ongoing anti-imperialist struggle in the region.

ABSTRACT This article argues that “fundamentalism” is best understood not as a pejorative label for religious extremism, particularly Islam, but as a specific sociological and political reaction to intense cultural collision. Originating as a self-description among early 20th-century American Protestants, fundamentalism arises when a culture, feeling threatened by an aggressive, often Western, universalism, constructs a rigid, exclusive identity by selectively reviving tradition. This reaction is modern, led by educated elites, and seeks political empowerment, not a return to the past. The article, drawing on historical examples from Jewish Zealots to American nativists, demonstrates that fundamentalism is a recurring pattern in conflicts between dominant and subordinated cultures, amplified by globalization. It critiques the Western tendency to stereotype this dynamic as a “clash of civilizations,” arguing this view is inaccurate and exacerbates conflicts. The proper response is not a crusade but a balanced critique of Western hegemony alongside an acknowledgment of mutual cultural influences.

ABSTRACT Since the late 2000s, the simultaneous convergence and deepening of structural crises within global capitalism have heightened the salience of socialism, with socialist China offering valuable lessons, particularly in confronting pressing challenges such as the environmental crisis. Using an analytical-evaluative framework, this study reveals that China’s approach to eco-civilization integrates environmental sustainability with socialist development, spearheaded by the leadership of the Communist Party of China and strengthened through Xi Jinping Thought on Socialism with Chinese Characteristics for a New Era. This is also supported by a robust legal framework characterized by the creation of specialized environmental courts, public interest litigation, and environmental taxes. Against this backdrop, China launched eco-civilization pilot zones and developed its own system of ecological indicators, positioning China as a model for sustainable development tailored to its national conditions. Importantly, China’s eco-civilization policy outcomes are most evident in four key areas: a clean energy revolution, a sustainable land management revolution, a green urban revolution, and a stronger leadership in global environmental governance.

ABSTRACT The world order is undergoing significant changes, as China and Russia augment their global influence at the expense of US and Western hegemony. In this evolving landscape, various regional contexts are becoming the scene of geopolitical competition among major powers. This article examines, from a realist perspective, the dynamics of great power competition in Mali from 2012 to 2022, focusing on the strategies for survival. While much attention has been given to the decline of liberal and military interventionism in Africa and the growing influence of China and Russia on the global stage, this article is based on a realistic theoretical framework and empirical data from interviews and investigates China and Russia’s interests in expanding their influence in Mali that undermines Western domination. The findings suggest that, while the United States has increasingly relied on France to hold Western influence in the region, China and Russia have focused on cultivating win-win partnerships with local actors. Positioning themselves as reliable alternatives to the local authorities, they have strengthened their influence by capitalizing on the strategic opportunities arising from the 2020–2021 popular uprisings, which ultimately resulted in France’s full withdrawal from the area.

ABSTRACT China’s Africa policy may be divided into three separate, albeit interconnected periods. The first, with its main focus on diplomacy and politics, was between the 1950s and 1970s. In the second period, ranging from the 1980s to the beginning of the 1990s, Sino-African cooperation and common development were promoted with the goal of mutual benefit and equality. The third period, which started at the end of the 1990s and is still going on, is characterized by large scale Chinese investments in African nations. Somalia, which is one of the most impoverished countries in the world and where civil war and the presence of al-Shabaab have severely hindered its progress and development, has not received much academic attention. Despite local and regional initiatives aimed at reducing the terrorist threat, there is a lot to be done before long-lasting peace and security can be achieved in the country. The current study, with its focus on bilateral relations, seeks to bridge a much-needed gap and examine the diplomatic, political and economic relations between China and Somalia from 1960 to 2020. Apart from mutual benefits, the article mainly aims to understand Somalia’s key motivations in engaging with China.

ABSTRACT In Marxist theory, class structure establishes the conditions for workers to organize and oppose a ruling class with conflicting interests. In a much more pervasive manner than in the past, late capitalism tends to transform vertical conflict into horizontal conflict. Specifically, through processes of “class segmentation”—by introducing new mechanisms of labour force division into the production system, such as outsourcing and precarious employment—capitalism fosters competition within the working class. Nonetheless, Karl Marx and Frederick Engels emphasized that capitalism’s development inherently relies on one class generating profit by exploiting other classes. The perspective of this contribution is that the Marxist theory of class remains essential for understanding the conflictual dimension of contemporary capitalist society, and class is capable of “adapting” to the developments and transformations of the productive system. Aiming to demonstrate that class does not lose its relevance as a category of recognition for workers in late capitalism, this article proposes a discussion on the formation of class in Europe, tracing its development from the “social question” of the 19th century to the wage-based society of the late 20th century, and briefly examining the new forms of labour conflict in which independent unionism plays a central role.

ABSTRACT Black movements, unlike other social movements, have been theorised within the black community to provide the frameworks for fleshing out solutions to black problems over many decades. The theoretical current that underpinned these black movements, especially in the United States, has developed into a flood of normative discourses around black nationalism, black liberalism, and black radicalism. The review of these theories has revealed that despite the progress that the African American community has made in the last fifty years, the problem of race consciousness implicit in these perspectives continues to impede black progress. Whilst race consciousness has been the rallying point of mobilising African Americans for collective actions, it has also inhibited understanding of their problems beyond race, deepened division and racism, and prevented the scrutiny of the American capitalist system and its capitalist ruling class, who have been the culprit responsible for black problems for more than four centuries. This article concludes that an alternative perspective is therefore needed in the twenty-first century to conceptualise blackness around class solidarity, class struggle, and socialism to challenge the global capitalist order and imperialism that undermine black liberation and sustain existing black problems.