Suchergebnisse

Seit der Annahme der Ostseestrategie im Jahre 2009 durch den Europäischen Rat kommt dem Ostseeraum innerhalb der Europäischen Union besondere Aufmerksamkeit zu. Stefan Ewert entwickelt einen Index, mit dessen Hilfe die These des region-building-Ansatzes überprüft werden kann, nach der Hochschulen im Prozess der Regionalisierung im Ostseeraum eine zentrale Rolle spielen. Zudem untersucht der Autor mittels qualitativer Verfahren die Relevanz der regionalen politischen Organisationen (Ostseerat, Ostseeparlamentarierkonferenz, Nordischer Ministerrat) im Regionalisierungsprozess.

Research on Baltic Sea region building processes emphasizes the discursive elements of the emergence of the region in the beginning of the 1990s, yet lacks the analysis of policy-specific developments of regional integration around the Baltic Sea. My article argues that the neo-functionalist approach opens useful insights in order to understand these developments. Starting from marine environment protection as a nucleus of regional integration, I demonstrate spill-over effects to the field of education policy and higher education co-operation in the Baltic Sea Region. Following this, I analyze why there are no spill-over effects to the adjacent policy area of agriculture up to now.

While the Baltic Sea Region is considered to be a pioneer region in the development of regional integration and identity, the Black Sea Region is regarded to be a laggard in terms of regionali¬zation and region building. My paper summarizes the role of regional higher education co-operation in the Baltic Sea regionalization process in theory and analyzes the empirical background of these assumptions. Yet, inasmuch an evaluation of the regions` status as a pioneer is possible only in a comparative perspective, I propose to compare the Black Sea and the Baltic Sea Region regarding their higher education networks systematically. My paper asks for the transferability of arguments in favor of a strong regional higher education co-operation in the Baltic Sea Region since the 1990s to today's situation of the Black Sea Region. It concludes with some fundamental considerations on a comparative research project.