Central and Eastern Europe in Academic Internationalization: Peripherality, Neoliberalism, and Knowledge Production

Abstract

The article reflects on knowledge production in the context of research internationalization, seen as an aspect of a broader trend in the changing higher education and other academic institutions. It focuses on Central and Eastern Europe as a post-communist and (semi)peripheral region, which has been the subject of historical and theoretical analysis often accompanied by epistemological reflection among researchers. As an introduction to the theme of the issue, the article addresses questions concerning epistemic approaches to Central and Eastern Europe via critical reflection on the “post-socialism” framework. The authors discuss major analytical responses of scholars in this research field, including the authors of articles published in this issue of Studia Litteraria et Historica, such as peripherality, postcolonialism, and rethinking of the category of the “East”. In the concluding part, they outline possible directions for further inquiry, including a spatial-temporal conceptualization informed by Wallerstein’s historical social science as well as ethical considerations in the current political context shaped by international security concerns as much as epistemic ones.