Forschungsforum: Deutsche Akademie für Landeskunde (DAL)
Cluster für Europaforschung (CEUS)
Arbeitsgruppe Europastudien an der Universität des Saarlandes
Transformation Processes in Europe and Beyond – Perspectives for Horizontal Geographies
Florian Weber, Olaf Kühne & Julia Dittel (eds.)
Publication of an anthology
Europe in all its diversity and complexity has always been – and continues to be – in a state of change. The origin of the term “Europe” is in itself quite spectacular: according to Greek mythology, the Phoenician princess Europe was abducted to Crete by Zeus, who appeared to her in the form of a bull – and thus she became the
namesake for the surrounding regions. In ancient times, Europe was understood as a rather diffuse space north of the Mediterranean Sea, based on Greek culture and Roman law – alongside the other two continents known at the time, Asia and Africa. From a geographical perspective, it is quite striking that the borders of Europe as the “Occident” gradually shifted towards the East. Since the epochal turning point of the two World Wars, the construction or (re)production of “Europe” has been inextricably intertwined with the construction of the European Union (EU) and of its respective member states as a process “emanating from the West of Europe”, and has further been accompanied by far-reaching (internal) reorganisation processes of the nation states, by spatial conflicts, and shifting regionalisation processes.