A socio-political movement developed in the United States by activists denouncing systemic racism and structural violence against ethnic, sexual and religious minorities, wokeism demands social justice and emancipatory change in the way we live and inhabit the Earth. Based on the concept of awakening (‘woke’), it attacks the ideological barriers and mechanisms of domination that oppress minorities.

In the ‘Metropolitan’ section of this issue, the Italian architect Martino Tattara reflects on the way in which cities have responded to their housing crises. Analysing the relationship between property and housing, he recounts his experience of collective housing construction, as carried out by the architectural practice Dogma. In Berlin, Venice, London and Chicago, Tattara has taken part in the most important international forums of debate on the major challenges facing contemporary architecture and urban planning.

Yves Michaud, a philosopher and art critic, and Salvatore Settis, an art historian and archaeologist, discuss a subject of great relevance today: the issue of returning artworks and ‘important objects’ to their original source. Taking the example of the marbles Lord Elgin removed from the Parthenon at the beginning of the 19th century, which are housed in the British Museum, Settis shows how there are many misconceptions and a long history that need to be known to realise what is in play in terms of the claims for repatriation; Michaud, looking at the issue from an anthropological viewpoint, demonstrates that these operations are hugely complex and that they often end up being used to back up a concept of museums as spaces for chauvinistic propaganda.

This diary travels between Lebanon and Argentina, between father and mother, love and sex, freedom and danger, and life and death. The author is a filmmaker called Anthony El Chidiac who was born in Beirut 32 years ago and whose documentary Room for a Man, sombrely beautiful and with a powerful innocence, examines the subject of fear and the desire to be oneself in a private and public world where homosexuality is condemned. In this ‘Book of Hours’ written for Electra, Chidiac states: ‘I grew up in a shattered family, in a divided society, and a non-conforming body & mind.’ There are echoes in this diary of a world in crisis. There is a confession that becomes accusatory in tone, a dry precision that seeks an escape. The name for it is poetry.

I see the question of a critical edition of Céline’s anti-Jewish pamphlets quite differently from Pierre-André Taguieff. He would like, if possible, to be the editor of such a publication, being the most qualified for the task, together with Annick Duraffour, with whom he co-authored Céline, la Race, le Juif. I have the utmost respect for this monumental work and read it almost in one go as soon as it was published. The two authors gave a thorough explanation of Céline’s antisemitism, explored all its sources, dismantled all his subterfuges and lack of moral principles.

The American writer and journalist Lisa Abend, who regularly writes about food for Time magazine, looks at the role of chefs and discusses how, since the 1990s, they have developed into stars, celebrities and heroes with a cultural and political status that goes far beyond their role in the kitchen.

The cultural policies of democratic governments adhere to the principle that they cannot dictate taste, as they once did under totalitarian regimes, and therefore they must be protected by a series of interventions and bureaucratic protocols. This complex issue, the source of constant criticism, controversy and protest, is examined by writer and performance artist Patrícia Portela.

The subject of the dossier in this issue of Electra is a scarce and therefore highly controversial resource that has been the centre of an all-out competition war to manage to attract it. We are talking about attention, the faculty that is the subject of countless alarmist discourses assuring us that it is in crisis, that our brains are suffering the dangerous effects of new technologies and that there are clear signs that our mental processes are deteriorating.

– Goooooooal!

This cry, which echoes inside itself and extends until it seems inextinguishable, has been endlessly shouted around the world since it was heard on 22nd January, 1927, during the first football commentary broadcast by the BBC, allowing this match to enter English homes.

The fashion industry today is a complex, governed by the laws of vulgarity, futility, waste and acceleration typical of fast fashion: this is how Rosie Findlay, professor at the University of Kent and author of research works in this area, describes the effects of an industry that commands: ‘Don't think, buy’.