East Central Europe as a Historical and Conceptual Space: On the Production of Knowledge from an (Historical) Area Studies Perspective

Abstract

This chapter takes a historical look at the emergence and transformation of the concept of East Central Europe. In doing so, a dual perspective is adopted. On the one hand, it is necessary to ask for historical justifications for the specific state of the region’s “in-between-ness” at least since the early modern times. On the other hand, it will be reflected how the political and scholarly discourse about an imagined region, or a region characterised by socio-economic or political-institutional structures contributed to produce knowledge and to solidify the specific disciplinary take of “area studies.” The aim is to question the apparent aporia between structuralist essentialism and constructivist approaches and, above all, to work out to what extent East Central Europe can be used to produce theories for modern regional studies (instead of just being used as a testing ground for theories developed elsewhere). This seems to be even more important because the region, especially since the historical upheaval of 1989, has been placed in a perspective of catching up that assumes a linear temporality and does not do justice to the intrinsic value of East Central European spaces of experience.