Whither Eastern Europe? Changing Approaches and Perspectives on the Region in Political Science
Whither Eastern Europe? Changing Approaches and Perspectives on the Region in Political Science

Summary/Abstract: The study of Eastern Europe as a region in political science faces a tripartite crisis. First, the very concept of Eastern Europe has lost coherence, and many in academia and outside see this field as obsolete—a mere residuum of the Cold War. Second, the support for research on Eastern Europe and the training of specialists, which was more substantial though never abundant in past decades, is drying up. Third, political science, and in particular the subfield of comparative politics, has moved away from an area-centered approach and is driven by both theoretical and methodological concerns in which the specificities of area are less important. These three developments are, obviously, related.

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