ABSTRACT
Comparative historiography – particularly prominent in the 1970s and 1980s when coming into contact with comparative sociology and the then newly emerging subdiscipline of international relations called comparative politics – forms a solid basis for the more recent interest in transregional studies. Exploring so far neglected areas, transregional studies aimed at using such regional case studies for generalizations based upon a more and more sophisticated methodology. The method of intercultural transfer provides an especially insightful entry point not only into a variety of transregional interactions, but also into the methodological debates on how to study them. The study of intercultural transfers has revealed a differentiated landscape of historically changing entanglements between different kinds of places and spaces that merit more systematic investigation. The intercultural transfer approach has not developed into a general theory applicable everywhere. On the contrary, it is rather a key for the discovery of new research constellations, open for investigation and productive appropriation.
