ENRI-East Project: Interplay of European, National and Regional Identities: Nations between States along the Eastern Borders of the European Union. A cross-national study of trans-boundary social and ethnic groups in Europe.
OEI Researcher: Dr. Barbara Dietz
Project coordination: Institut for Advanced Studies Vienna
Funding: This project is funded by the European Commission through the FP7-SSH programme. It is implemented by an international network of researchers that includes eleven teams from ten EU and CIS countries.
Project duration: 2008-2011.
Keywords: Identity, state restructuring
The project aims to galvanise three perspectives on the dynamic relationships between identities and state restructuring. Those three perspectives are the restructuring of the nation-state, the increasing self legitimisation of states (rearrangement of the relationship between state and society) and observation of emerging identities at different levels (supra-national, sub-national and global), and their complex relationships on the level of individual and group experiences and practices.
The main goal of the ENRI-East project is to develop an in-depth understanding of the ways in which the modern European identities and regional cultures are formed and how these are inter-communicated in the Eastern part of the European continent.
The main objects of the study are approximately ten ethnic groups representing "split nations" along the new Eastern borders of the enlarged European Union.
The main method of the study is the triangulation of theories of identities and empirical "facts of life" through the analytical efforts of ENRI-East experts. Their task would then be the verification and adjustment of existing theories of identity formation based on the outcomes of a series of specially designed quantitative and qualitative sociological surveys and systematic observations.
The project is an inter-disciplinary effort (sociology, political science, history, ethnography) and its methodological thrust comprises theoretical, empirical and comparative aspects.
For more information: http://www.enri-east.net/
