Europe as Social Practice: Towards an Interactive Approach to Modern European History

In: East central Europe: L' Europe du centre-est : eine wissenschaftliche Zeitschrift, Band 36, Heft 1, S. 20-36

Abstract

AbstractThe article starts with analyzing the inherent comparative frameworks influencing the way Europe is usually mapped with regard to historical regions. Such regions have been frequently devised in terms of dualistic spatial and temporal concepts contrasting central vs. peripheral and "progressive" vs. "backward" entities. Rejecting these concepts, the study advocates a reconsideration of the spatial dimension in terms of "entangled history"/history of transfers, becoming more sensitive to the complex interplay between different regions. At the same time, the author rejects the one-sided application of "entangled history" as it absolutizes the interaction and excludes the possibility of structural analyses of the differences between transmitting and recipient societies. Therefore, he pleads for a creative combination of the comparative method with the more recent methodological precepts stressing transnational interaction.