Dimensions of the “Back”. (Re-)migration and transformation in Eastern Europe

The project explores historical processes and socio-cultural dynamics of return, remigration, and transformation, and how they interrelate in Eastern Europe. Based on qualitative and desk research (interviews, analysis of secondary sources, of policies and media discourses), and on analysis of a rich body of literature (both scientific and fictional) and of visual materials (i.e. film), the projects sheds light on the causes and consequences and on experiences of return and remigration to Eastern Europe with a specific emphasis on the transformation period since the late 1980s. Historical-anthropological, sociological/ social anthropological, and cultural-anthropological approaches are providing a multi-layered transdisciplinary view on the phenomenon of return and remigration. The project builds up on and further expands a previous book edited in 2018 (LIT Verlag, Vienna) by dr. sc. Caroline Hornstein Tomić / Institute of Social Sciences Ivo Pilar (project lead), Dr. Robert Pichler/ Austrian Academy of Sciences ÖAW, and Dr. Sarah Scholl-Schneider/ Landeszentrale für Politische Bildung Rheinland-Pfalz; http://www.erstestiftung.org/en/publications/remigration-to-post-socialist-europe/). As research team they now have been commissioned to author a book (in German language) by Wallstein Verlag, which subsequently will be licensed by the Federal Agency for Civic Education (https://www.bpb.de/shop/buecher/schriftenreihe/). Both, Wallstein Verlag and the Agency are partners in the project. The Institute of Social Sciences Ivo Pilar and the Austrian Academy of Sciences have signed a cooperation agreement for the work on the project, including exchange and hosting of the researchers at both institutions, for desk research and presentations of the project progress. A scientific expert workshop will be organized by the project partners in Croatia in late 2022/ early 2023.