Periodic Reporting for period 1 - RESEE (Revisiting Europeanization in Southeast Europe. An Historical Approach)
Reporting period: 2020-09-01 to 2022-08-31
The future of Europe will vitally depend on its ability to transform and unify the continent. The southeast region of Europe, despite its complex historical trajectories and own particularistic Europeanness, has been portrayed and studied as the antidote, the other, - or at best, - the periphery of Europe. The debate on Southeast Europe has been overridden by the enduring conservatism of conflicts and wars, and only after 2008, the focus has been shifted toward the Europeanization research agenda.
Given this background, the RESEE project aimed at establishing Europeanization research on Southeast Europe as a complex historically grounded process, with its specific objectives of: (O1) reviewing and synthesizing primary research on Southeast Europe since the beginning of the 20th century (even earlier) through clustering and visually mapping the intellectual historiography, the conceptual content and dynamics of Southeast European studies in order to identify the most prominent works, the active research themes and the emerging trajectories in this area study; (O2) revisiting the historical usage of the term Europeanization over time and trying to comprehensibly describe the phenomenon it defined, how it has related to other social science concepts and what its historical usage can inform us in today’s context and in the case of Southeast Europe; (O3) explaining how the process of the Europeanization of Europe has unfold over time and evolved over the different EU enlargement rounds allowing to comparatively trace the process, its explanations, dilemmas and their implications in the current (unfinished) round of EU enlargement Southeastward of Europe.
Thus, the RESEE project has societal importance i) as it provides an interactive visual representation of a large amount of information on Southeastern Europe (often difficult to interpret), making it available and easy to be explored by the general public; ii) it contributes to re-frame and shift the contemporary thinking and understanding of Southeast Europe into the current EU political project.
Given this background, the RESEE project aimed at establishing Europeanization research on Southeast Europe as a complex historically grounded process, with its specific objectives of: (O1) reviewing and synthesizing primary research on Southeast Europe since the beginning of the 20th century (even earlier) through clustering and visually mapping the intellectual historiography, the conceptual content and dynamics of Southeast European studies in order to identify the most prominent works, the active research themes and the emerging trajectories in this area study; (O2) revisiting the historical usage of the term Europeanization over time and trying to comprehensibly describe the phenomenon it defined, how it has related to other social science concepts and what its historical usage can inform us in today’s context and in the case of Southeast Europe; (O3) explaining how the process of the Europeanization of Europe has unfold over time and evolved over the different EU enlargement rounds allowing to comparatively trace the process, its explanations, dilemmas and their implications in the current (unfinished) round of EU enlargement Southeastward of Europe.
Thus, the RESEE project has societal importance i) as it provides an interactive visual representation of a large amount of information on Southeastern Europe (often difficult to interpret), making it available and easy to be explored by the general public; ii) it contributes to re-frame and shift the contemporary thinking and understanding of Southeast Europe into the current EU political project.
RESEE employed a mixed-methods approach of quantitative and qualitative inquiry and three sequentially interconnected work sections for each of the research objectives. The first part of the research was focused on the quantitative systematic literature review on Southeast European studies, collecting, processing, and analyzing a large-scale bibliographical dataset published from 1854 until 2021. Different methods and techniques were performed in the research mapping process, including the direct citation analysis, the co-word analysis, and the temporal analysis. A dynamic map of the bibliographic and thematic clusters in Southeast European studies has been designed and can be accessed at the project’s website. The second research part, explores the historical usage of (the term) Europeanization in the academic literature published before the ‘90s. Initially, we look at the different ranges of usage and of repertoires of terms used in historical dictionaries, encyclopedias, and other scholarly publications. Then we extend the scope of qualitative analysis to a more quantitative approach, analyzing a corpus of sentences using the term Europeanization (1867–1990). We found the word ‘process’ as the most immediate collocate, whereas the processes more collocated with Europeanization are ‘modernization’ and ‘westernization’. The last research section focus on tracing back the (political) process of EU enlargement, both from a historical and comparative approach, and seeing how it has unfolded over time and evolved over the different enlargement rounds. Particularly, we look at the historical factors behind ‘whether’ and ‘when’ a country has joined European Union, and draw lessons for the ongoing accession process with the countries of Southeast Europe. We considered a more pluralistic and inclusive perspective of a combination of material (rational choice model), ideational (constructivist model), and time (historical model) factors to guide us explain the different cases and timespans, and the individual (cross-)rounds of EU enlargement. Special focus was put on understanding (from a historical perspective) the main EU enlargement dilemmas and their implications for the current (unfinished) enlargement round in Southeast Europe.
In order to achieve our research goals, numerous training activities were undertaken by the RESEE Fellow, ranging from advanced concept and comparative historical analysis to computational data analysis (text analysis, cluster analysis).
The RESEE project results have been disseminated to a range of different audiences and exploited by different means (scientific publications of one article and two book chapters, a draft proposal for a special issue, public lectures, a JM module proposal, policy documents, and media interviews). We have presented our work at different international conferences and also given a number of open talks at other universities. The main research results were published as open access in a peer-reviewed journal article and as chapters in academic book editions. Particular attention has been given to cross-dissemination and cooperation with other relevant Marie Skłodowska-Curie initiatives. We organized a workshop and are in the process of writing a proposal for a special issue in a peer-review journal. We also did participate in policy forums and (co)-drafted policy documents. We participated in the European Researcher Night, gave public interviews in different TV programs, and have been posting on social media updates linked to the project. In addition, we have created the project website as the main means for future exploitation and we will continue to maintain and update it in the upcoming years.
In order to achieve our research goals, numerous training activities were undertaken by the RESEE Fellow, ranging from advanced concept and comparative historical analysis to computational data analysis (text analysis, cluster analysis).
The RESEE project results have been disseminated to a range of different audiences and exploited by different means (scientific publications of one article and two book chapters, a draft proposal for a special issue, public lectures, a JM module proposal, policy documents, and media interviews). We have presented our work at different international conferences and also given a number of open talks at other universities. The main research results were published as open access in a peer-reviewed journal article and as chapters in academic book editions. Particular attention has been given to cross-dissemination and cooperation with other relevant Marie Skłodowska-Curie initiatives. We organized a workshop and are in the process of writing a proposal for a special issue in a peer-review journal. We also did participate in policy forums and (co)-drafted policy documents. We participated in the European Researcher Night, gave public interviews in different TV programs, and have been posting on social media updates linked to the project. In addition, we have created the project website as the main means for future exploitation and we will continue to maintain and update it in the upcoming years.
The RESEE project went beyond the state-of-art in Southeast European studies mostly through its historical depth and innovative computational data analysis which opens up new avenues and advocates for further engagement with large-scale bibliographic metadata and the vast scientometric methods and tools to advance our knowledge of the intellectual, cognitive and social structure of Southeast European studies. More specifically, the project offers answers to the questions of what is the historiographic research development and the dominant research themes (at different periods of time) employed in studying the Southeast European area, what has been the historical usage of the term Europeanization over time, and what are the main dilemmas and factors explaining the different cases of the political process of EU enlargement. Future research could exploit and build on this pioneering project. This is because the literature is vast and dynamic, evolving with time, and as time passes by, new analytical technics and more research data will become available.
Besides the scientific advancement in the study of Southeast Europe and Europeanization, the RESEE project has additional societal implications as it helps to raise public awareness of the very different issues and themes about Southeast Europe. Moreover, the project pushes forward and fosters the debate on the process of EU enlargement and Europeanization of Southeast Europe by offering evidence-based policy options in understanding the reasons and overcoming the challenges of the current EU political integration.
Besides the scientific advancement in the study of Southeast Europe and Europeanization, the RESEE project has additional societal implications as it helps to raise public awareness of the very different issues and themes about Southeast Europe. Moreover, the project pushes forward and fosters the debate on the process of EU enlargement and Europeanization of Southeast Europe by offering evidence-based policy options in understanding the reasons and overcoming the challenges of the current EU political integration.