ABSTRACT
Area Studies are on the verge of change. Inherited concepts that once served to aggregate countries within regions are being re-examined, as is the art of studying them. This volume explores the construction and present existence of Eastern Europe: where it is situated, what are the fundaments of its identity and how it has been apprehended as a subject of “area studies” analysis. Four authors – Robert Bideleux, Alex Cistelecan, Katalin Miklóssy and Dieter Segert – seek to make sense of the political and cultural identity of Eastern Europe in the current conjuncture. Following the end of the Cold War and the ongoing process of EU enlargement, they ask in what sense does Eastern Europe continue to exist as a meaningful geopolitical concept? With its western segments subsumed within the European Union, have all salient commonalities with the “rest” disappeared – except insofar as they too aspire to membership of the club? In addressing these questions, they tease out the implications for an Area Studies approach to the region, asking how the nature and evolution of Area Studies has affected the scholarly lens. In this introduction, we sketch the terrain of this debate, situating the major topics to be explored in the chapters that follow.
