South Eastern Europe, often perceived as a historically and socioculturally distinctive space, is a well-established example of the interdisciplinary fields of research called “area studies”. Given its unstable political history, a good share of scholarly literature in history, cultural studies and social sciences deals with transterritorial subjects, applies methods such as comparison, or focuses on phenomena like cultural transfers or historical relationships. But at a closer look, scholars and literature seem to be split along the lines of historical and historiographical traditions. Habsburg studies, the Hungarian-Romanian relationship and the case of Transylvania, the Balkans “proper”, former Yugoslavia and others constitute sub-regions, both topologically and in reference to the respective scholarly communities.

To what extend do methodological approaches contribute to that picture? Do they predetermine the spatial extent of scholarly questioning and collaboration? Comparative, transterritorial approaches are in use mostly where societies share a common history or common problems in the present. Would distant, contrastive comparisons change the idea of South Eastern Europe in scholarly debate, or maybe even question the authority of the “area studies” at all? Would methodological variation in research dealing with the region’s relation to “the West” show other patterns of unity and variety in South Eastern Europe?

After the end of the Cold War and in the face of a globalising world, the former well-defined regions have become fluent and vague. These developments had raised questions about relevance of and the need for an academic discipline called “area studies”. To what extent is the restriction to one region still useful today? Or in reverse: Isn’t it or shouldn’t it be common practice anyhow to approach regional issues with a universal idea of scientific research? Thus, the question of the overall future of area studies in the era of globalisation implicates also the question of universality of scientific research and interdisciplinarity – and with regard to South Eastern Europe the question of distinction and demarcation.

Accepted are electronic submissions only e-mailed in word format to: redaktion@fpsoe.de. Please use the following Stylesheet: http://www.fpsoe.de/fileadmin/PDFs_Sonstige/FPSOE_Stylesheet.pdf. Selected papers will be published on the Research Platform South Eastern Europe.

The Research Platform South Eastern Europe is an interdisciplinary forum for information, publication and discussion. It provides information on scientific research projects concerning South Eastern Europe and offers the opportunity to publish research papers. The interdisciplinary network is open to historical and cultural studies as well as to research in the fields of ethnology, anthropology and other related disciplines.
 

Source: Balkan Academic News, February 9, 2010.