Sources

Eastblog is the blog of the Eastern Europe research group at the Institute for Political Science at the University of Vienna. It is intended to make research on Eastern Europe understandable and to stimulate discussions. The aim of the research focus is to record current processes and developments, actors and structures in Eastern Europe and to contribute to a new and better understanding of the region through analyzes. The dialogue between Eastern and Western Europe is to be improved with the help of numerous collaborations with scientific institutions in Eastern and Western Europe. The Eastern Europe region is shaped by the state socialist past. However, there was great heterogeneity both before 1989 and since the transformation phase. The aim is to identify the specifics of individual countries as well as the subregions. In times of growing inequality and post-democratic tendencies, “Eastern Europe” often functions positively and negatively as a benchmark for the resilience of democracy. In doing so, however, it is important to critically question essentializing notions of “West vs. East” and to bring differentiated, context-sensitive analyzes to the fore.