Exchange of Views on the Article “In Search of the Global East” by Martin Müller

Abstract

This section presents exchanges between intellectuals from Eastern and Western Europe, Russia, and North America who kindly agreed to read and comment on Martin Mueller’s article “In Search of the Global East”, relying on the situation in their own academic disciplines, work experiences, and the twists and turns of their scientific research and creative challenges. Researchers, academic teachers, exhibition curators, writers, and architects reflect on the power and influence which geographical names exert on academic life, politics, and culture. Starting from Mueller’s article on the Global East, as well as his other text wherein he expresses his skepticism of the concept of post-socialism, the commentators, evaluating Mueller’s arguments critically, raise a number of fundamental questions. Among these questions is the need to historicize scientific concepts, the issue of the regularly-reproducible misunderstanding (or even exclusion) of the East by Western intellectuals, the tasks the inclusion of the Global East in the overall geographical picture will contribute to, as well as the question of whether the concern that the Global East is not sufficiently heard in the world is narrowly academic. This indirect debate between the author of the key text in this thematic issue and his commentators is significant as an episode of the joint search for a more democratic, creative, and inspiring future for the region that unites Eastern Europe, Russia, and Central Asia.