A European review of contemporary culture and society is a periodic publication, most often digital, that intersects the disciplines of the humanities (history, sociology, philosophy, art) to analyze the political, social, and cultural transformations of the continent. Its scope exceeds that of a national academic journal: it mobilizes contributors from several countries and publishes in multiple languages.
This editorial format has developed as questions of democracy, heritage, or identity have arisen on a scale that transcends the borders of a single state. Understanding how these journals operate, what they cover, and what distinguishes them from other types of publications helps to better navigate the European intellectual landscape.
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Open science and European culture journals
In recent years, the European Commission has encouraged journals funded by public money to adopt open science policies. The principle: to make articles, research data, and, when relevant, the codes used for analyses freely accessible. This direction is formalized in framework programs such as Horizon Europe.
For a journal dealing with culture and society, open science changes the relationship with the readership. An article on cultural policy in France or on the history of European heritage is no longer reserved for subscribers of a university library. It becomes accessible to a journalist in Paris, a student in Warsaw, or a local elected official in Lisbon. The potential audience expands, and with it, the public debate around the topics addressed.
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The most advanced journals in this area also encourage preprints, that is, the dissemination of a text before it is peer-reviewed. This mechanism accelerates the circulation of ideas, even if it raises questions of reliability that each editorial board manages in its own way. The platform eurozine.be is part of this logic of open dissemination of European reflection on society and culture.
Hybrid formats: podcast, video, and social media in service of European debate
The model of the quarterly paper journal, distributed by postal subscription, is no longer sufficient to reach a broad audience. In recent years, several European humanities publications have been experimenting with hybrid formats to disseminate their content.
These formats take various forms:
- Native podcasts where a researcher summarizes in twenty minutes a dense article on democracy or social life in Europe, with a tone more accessible than academic writing.
- Visual dossiers designed for Instagram or TikTok, which synthesize an argument in a few commented images, often around topics related to art, heritage, or cultural policies.
- “Augmented” issues that integrate audio or video capsules directly into the online version of the article, allowing the reader to switch from text to image without leaving the page.
The goal is not to simplify research, but to multiply entry points. A podcast listener can then read the full article. An internet user who discovers a topic on social media can delve deeper via the online issue. The journal remains the foundation, and digital formats serve as bridges.
Limits of this hybridization
Producing a podcast or video content requires skills and a budget that not all editorial teams possess. Journals affiliated with universities sometimes have studios, but independent publications often have to arbitrate between editorial quality and investment in new formats.
There is also a risk of fragmenting the argument. An argument developed over thirty pages loses nuance when condensed into three minutes of video. The journals that successfully make this transition are those that adapt the format to the content, and not the other way around.
European funding and cultural co-creation
The Horizon Europe program, in its cluster “Culture, Creativity and Inclusive Society,” has been funding projects for several years that explicitly associate journals or cultural platforms with knowledge production. The principle of co-creation is based on the idea that research in social sciences benefits from integrating artists, cultural mediators, or community actors from the very beginning of a project’s design phase.
Concretely, this means that an issue of a journal dedicated to the social history of a European region can be designed in partnership with a local museum, a theater company, or a neighborhood association. The published texts are no longer just articles by researchers: they include testimonies, artistic creations, or cross-analyses between academics and practitioners.
What this changes for the reader
The reader gains access to content that blends analytical rigor with field perspectives. A dossier on European cultural policies does not just compare public budgets: it provides insights into the concrete experiences of those who bring culture to life daily, whether it be a festival programmer in France or a heritage curator in Central Europe.
This editorial model remains minority. The majority of European humanities journals still operate on a classic scheme: call for contributions, peer review, publication. But the trend towards co-creation is growing, driven by the demands of European funders and an increasing demand for content rooted in reality.
European society journal: what distinguishes a transnational publication
A national culture journal publishes authors from the same country, in a single language, for a local readership. A European journal operates differently. It aggregates voices from different intellectual traditions, which requires clarifying references that would be implicit in a national context.
A French article on participatory democracy can rely on familiar concepts for a Francophone readership without defining them. In a transnational journal, this same article must define its terms, situate its references, and engage in dialogue with German, Italian, or Scandinavian works on the same subject. This constraint produces texts that are more rigorous and more readable for a non-specialist audience.
The other particularity lies in the choice of subjects. European journals address questions that cross borders: the rise of populism, the Union’s heritage policy, the circulation of artworks, transformations in public life. These themes do not always find their place in national journals focused on a specific political or social context.
The European editorial landscape in the humanities includes publications with very different formats and ambitions. Identifying those that practice open science, diversify their formats, and rely on co-creation allows for filtering an abundant offering and accessing analyses that go beyond current commentary.