Contemporary Environmental History of the Soviet Union and its Successor States, 1970 - 2000. Ecological Globalization and Regional Dynamics

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This cooperative Franco-German project in the field of (post) Soviet contemporary environmental history will move beyond national borders in terms of both its research and its organization. In its research, the project will analyze the sometimes tumultuous processes associated with the ecologization and de-ecologization of politics and society in the last three decades of the 20th century. The individual studies, with their overlapping global and regional historical perspectives, will contribute to a more in-depth analysis of a) the reciprocity within processes of cross-border interaction, b) the formative powers of centralized state politics, and c) practical activities at the regional level. In doing so, they will provide an innovative and highly insightful perspective on the contemporary East Side Story of global environmental history.The project has five primary research goals:1.To look more closely at the social importance and scope of environmental politics and environmental awareness by examining the role of political ecology in the late Soviet and post-Soviet eras (= ecological structural change of environmentalism)2.To determine the role played by the Soviet Union and its successor states in global environmental history by analyzing cross-bloc interactions and global institutions (= ecological globalization) 3.To re-conceptualize the collapse of the Soviet Union and the post-communist transformation by questioning conventional periodization and characterizations from an environmental history perspective (= reconceptualization of late Soviet and post-Soviet history)4.To gain new insights into the changing dynamics of power during this period by studying Russian, Siberian, Central Asian, Caucasian, and Baltic border regions and domestic contexts (= regional ecological dynamics and the reconfiguration of power and space)5.To underscore the socio-political relevance of environmental history scholarship for the post-Soviet states by historicizing current environmental problems and ecological debates (= history of current ecological issues).Furthermore, the project aims to create a Tübingen - Regensburg - Paris research triangle with a strong international network and innovative research program that can become a gravitational center for (East) European environmental history. Joint conferences, workshops, archival research, and publications will productively bundle together German and French scholarly resources.