SFB 640 II: Tansnationale ?ffentlichkeiten und Repr?sentationen im Vergleich: Europa, arabische Welt, Russland, 1850er-1910er Jahre und 1990er Jahre (TP A 5)

This sub-project examines representations of Europe which are to be compared in two different time periods and in terms of a contrast between the centre and the periphery.

The first assessment timeframe is the period from 1880 to roughly 1914. On the one hand, Russian political actors' representations of Europe and the role of these representations in reform discussions in the late Tsarist Empire are examined. On the other, the discussions between Asians and Europeans in Germany and the United Kingdom are investigated. The particular point of interest here is how Asians attempted to influence discussions regarding the modernity or decadence of Europe.

In the second assessment period, the 1990s, the key concern is politicians' and intellectuals' representations of Europe in their confrontation with the non-European world. Two projects examine EC/EU member states' representations of Europe. One of these focuses on France and Germany at the national level, comparing public debates with discussions between politico-scholarly experts. The other project primarily considers the European level with regard to the tensions between national and supranational politics in Spain and Germany. In particular, this project is concerned with how these representations shaped the partnership initiatives and expansion negotiations with the Arab world surrounding the Mediterranean and the EU's eastern expansion. The third project in this time period analyses representations of Europe among Arab intellectuals and the bureaucratic elite, focusing on Morocco, Tunisia and Egypt.

Newspaper articles, parliamentary debates and statements by the actors in question in diaries, books or records provide the main sources, while discourse analysis is the predominant method used.

The project expands disciplinary limits in many areas. To date, neither the representations of Europe of politicians nor those of non-European actors and intellectuals have been examined in this way. The project is resolutely interdisciplinary and transregional, with collaboration between historians of Eastern and Western Europe and scholars of Islamic studies.

In its use of the concept of representation the sub-project is concerned with the issue of how these representations of Europe determine social order and shape the actors' deeds. The question of how representations of Europe influence worldviews and thus prefigure action is of special interest here. The project is thus not concerned with abstract concepts of Europe but rather with concepts which in some cases unconsciously influence decision-making processes. It might thus provide a response to the question of why various processes of expansion and modernisation gave rise to unintended results lying outside the framework of a rational logic of action.