Research

The Field of Excellence Dimensions of Europe examines social transformation processes in Southeastern Europe in a comparative perspective.

Europeanization describes the transnational construction and diffusion of institutions, rules, styles, and shared beliefs. These processes can be driven by divergent actors and are multidirectional. While their origins can vary, the implementation of circulating unification concepts and discourses has been always related to power relations – from antiquity to the present.

Building on the historical research expertise in Southeastern Europe at the University of Graz, the Field of Excellence focuses on this region in understanding and exploring Europeanization. As a region that has participated in processes of Europeanization from antiquity to the present, it is an ideal site for studying dimensions of Europeanization in an historical perspective through multi-perspectival comparisons.