Institutes
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Institutes

Institute for European Global Studies

Projects & Collaborations

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'Lessons to Learn? Unfolding a Global Market in Difficult Times'; The British Chamber of Commerce for Switzerland 1920 - 1950

Research Project  | 1 Project Members

The project develops a research rationale with digital methods enabling a line of inquiry that reveals the function of chambers of commerce beyond institutional history and sheds light on the closely guarded secrets of Anglo-Swiss(-German) relations during World War II. Until now, historical research investigated chambers of commerce as institutionalized interests of trade and industry. Focusing thereby on a national context, on the instruments that gave liberal access to the market, but less on their practices, the function of networks, individual actors, and their ties to the global market. With the British Chamber of Commerce for Switzerland (BSCC), established in 1920 in Basel, as an example, the classical understanding of a chamber of commerce is challenged by the fact, that their members acted as foreigners in the specific local environment of Basel, although shaping, contributing and addressing connectivity with the British market in its global dimensions at the same time. Since the BSCC not only survived World War II but was also operative in times of war, this example allows discussing how global networks developed in times of crises and war. The newly accessible fond provides insights in more than 3,000 different actors and trading conditions for more than 1,400 goods. While this information is overwhelming and nearly unprocessable within an institutional history, the use of currently developed methods within the fields of Digital Humanities, in particular network analysis and the creation of a member database, allow unfolding practices and interdependencies of global market structures even and especially in situations, when paper trails are hidden or destroyed.The dissertation investigates the unfolding of a global market in difficult times with three goals on the methodological level: I. The investigation of another unit, the individual actors, of the institution under consideration with new (digital) methods, allows to reveals new insights on their practices, networks, ties and activities and therefore on very real economic circumstances. II. Focusing on the World War II. period will shed new light on market practices and individual actors, which are hard to identify, since they avoided to leave paper trails. III. The creation of a member database of the BSCC. This approach enables to reframe the institution and its actors locally and globally and understand them in their multi-layered complexity. Therefore, the project is relevant in both respects, as insights in global networks during crises and war, and in the use of digital methods, to the research fields of the Digital Humanities and micro-global History. Since, the proposed narrative is multidimensional in respect to the methods, data, sources and especially the individual actors and subjects, it allows to investigate far-reaching (international) trade networks and market relations and at the same time the consideration of specific actors which shaped and made use of these, with the specific microcosm of Basel as starting point to unfold a global market.

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Dissertation Morell: Security abroad: How the People's Republic of China defends its interests in the Horn of Africa

Research Project  | 2 Project Members

This dissertation interrogates the apparent irreconcilability between the People's Republic of China's (PRC) long standing non-interference policy and the ongoing expansion of its economic, political, and military presence abroad. Specifically, it aims to understand how the PRC mediates the tensions arising from this irreconcilability, and those that may emerge between the different aspects of its overseas presence. To explore how these tensions manifest on the ground, the dissertation focuses on the Horn of Africa (HoA) region1, particularly the Republic of Djibouti. The research question is as follows: Does the PRC's intensified economic, political and military presence in the HoA region challenge the credibility of existing foreign policy practices and conceptualizations related to the PRC's broader non-interference doctrine? Djibouti represents a unique case study to address this question, as it is the locus of the PRC's very first overseas military base while also hosting multiple projects within the Belt and Road Initiative (BRI) framework. Furthermore, the PRC has also increasingly made use of 'non-traditional' means of securitization beyond military actors and infrastructures in Djibouti to stave off threats against its overseas nationals. Building on recent advances in Critical Security Studies and writings on the CCP/PRC's global influence networks, this dissertation takes the securitization of the PRC's overseas nationals and their economic and political embedment in Djibouti as a point of departure to study potential rifts in the PRC's non-interference policy. Unlike other diaspora groups, the PRC's overseas nationals are closely managed by the PRC and the ruling Chinese Communist Party (CCP). Methodologically, two approaches are pursued: On the one hand, the dissertation reconstructs the institutional links between the Chinese presence in Djibouti and the party-state through Chinese language open source research. On the other hand, it employs a field-based Qualitative Network Analysis (QNA) to examine the co-presence of PRC-associated people, companies, security details, and the military base in their local contexts. This research makes a key contribution to scholarly debates concerning an increasingly powerful and globally present PRC. Crucially, it also provides valuable insights for the formulation of government policy that addresses the political frictions that emerge between the PRC's non-interference doctrine and its expansive economic and political-military strategies overseas.

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Dissertation Hilpert: The Regulation of Novel Foods in the European Union and Switzerland: A Pursuit of Safety, Security and Sustainability

Research Project  | 2 Project Members

The rapidly increasing world population and climate change have put a strain on current food systems resulting in an increase in the demand of food. Since food systems have an impact on land degradation, loss of biodiversity, degradation of the environment and human health, studies have indicated that a change in dietary habits could improve health and environmental sustainability. The current food systems do not only negatively impact the environment, but have resulted in loss of food security, unhealthy diets causing diseases and obesity while the rest of the population struggle to access safe and nutritious food.

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Basel's Global Paradise. Research in virtual reality and global history

Research Project  | 7 Project Members

In 2019, the Institute for European Global Studies moved into the so-called "Sandgrube," the former summer house of the silk ribbon manufacturer Achilles Leisler. This location ideally represents the research field of European Global Studies: Starting from this house, a wide variety of economic and cultural connections have emanated to Europe and around the world since the 18th century. These connections reflect the local representation of the global as well as the global influences on the city's local self-understanding. Among these connections are the original Chinese wallpapers used to furnish the Chinese Room on the second floor of the house, the exotic gardens staged for global cosmopolitanism, or the far-reaching financial and commercial relations of its residents. Today, the "Sandgrube" is an artifact for all traces left over in a local Basel environment by centuries of global exchange. In this Project, we follow these traces, starting in the Chinese Room, at the intersection of global history and virtual reality.

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Dissertation Schlauri: Actors and networks shaping Xi Jinping's New Era's messages dissemination in European media

Research Project  | 2 Project Members

The project will research the CCP's and the PRC's relations with foreign traditional and new media in the German speaking European region in order to disseminate CCP/PRC positions and favorable messages. The project also analyzes the current structure, with a focus on the (external) propaganda (publicity) system and its recent restructuring. Ultimately, this subproject aims to disentangle the channels of information going from China to Europe. To take the recent shifts of the propaganda system into account, the time period analyzed will range from the 19th Party Congress in October 2017 (including a five-year program on the revision of central party regulation released in 2018, which prioritizes the promulgation of Rules on Propaganda Work (宣传工作条例)) to the 20th Party Congress in October-November 2022. To understand how the PRC's communication apparatus engages European media, the subproject's research questions are: How does the CCP's external propaganda system and other relevant actors disseminate their messages to European media entities? What are strategies and actors involved in this dissemination processes? To find answers to these questions, the project combines institutional analysis of the relevant (political) party structures in Beijing with media analysis of European media of the German region and thus attempts to find relevant intermediaries which contribute to message dissemination.

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FV-90 The importance and Characteristics of Patent for Innovation in the Chemica-Pharmaceutical Industry

Research Project  | 3 Project Members

With this research project, we want to investigate the effects of intellectual property protection on the pace of innovation in Swiss pharmaceutical and related industries. More specifically, we are interested in finding out the impact of patents and their characteristics on the process of innovation in the respective parent industry as well as in other related technological fields and industries. The gained insights may help us to understand better (1) the conflicting positions among current stakeholders of the pharmaceutical industry regarding patent protection, R&D and innovation and (2) the alleged significance of the lack of patent protection for the emergence of the Swiss chemical-pharmaceutical industry at the end of the 19 th century.