Perspectives for the Future: Towards Global Epistemologies

Research in European Global Studies spans questions from pre-modern times to the present and future, and it focuses on a broad range of societal problems. Researchers in European Global Studies use a methodological and theoretical framework of three approaches that addresses new questions of research:

  • From disciplinary methodologies to relational epistemologies: What is the intellectual surplus value in merging different traditions of academic disciplines? To what extent do we need to access new forms of cooperation and collaboration by combining approaches of area studies and of methods-related academic disciplines? Why are trans-temporal and trans-spatial approaches useful to overstep concepts driven by modernization theories?

  • From information to digital data: How can we historicize and localize the changes in the availability of information? To what extent are the existing analytical tools useful for analyzing the production of knowledge in a global and increasingly digital world? How, and to what extent can we use objects and non-textual sources as data? What is the role and value of digital humanities in the fields of law, political science, history and economics?

  • From Eurocentrism to analyzing asymmetric power settings: How do we analyze societal, political and economic asymmetries and relations of power in their global contexts and local impacts? To what extent have established categories and subjects of research, such as citizenship, forms of subjectivity, treaties based on international law, trade regulations, gender, age, race, and sovereignty, changed within the last centuries – and what are the consequences, for both researchers and for society?