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The 2009–2014 research programme of the Centre for Area Studies aims at analysing in greater detail the relationship between increasing economic, technological, social and cultural entanglements on the one hand, and the emergence of new forms of political orders on the other hand. Thus, CAS examines how new forms and sizes of flows of ideas, people, goods and capital lead to new patterns of control over such flows. The fact that since the mid-19th century this has been occurring more and more on a worldwide scale can be described as the “global condition”, a conceptual framework that allows one to compare world regions that are as increasingly interconnected and interacting. In order to analyse these multiple and interrelated topics, an interdepartmental and interdisciplinary approach is taken involving both the expertise from area studies as well as from social, historical, political and cultural sciences.

Nowadays, interactions between societies and cultures are gaining in importance as they become essential resources of change that are increasingly observed and experienced throughout the world. Therefore, it is necessary to examine in depth the causes, modes and consequences of these cultural encounters by using both macro- and microlevel designs of study. Based on this insight, over the past two decades there are now a number of studies that have both increased in number and improved in quality, as well as have turned their focus on bi- and multilateral cultural transfers. In order to analyse these emerging dialectics of flow and control at the appropriate global level, CAS mobilises expertise from the various area studies represented at the University of Leipzig by inviting scholars to place at least two world regions into relationships in their research projects. Since this is to some extent a challenge to the traditional understanding of area studies of focusing on only one region, CAS insists on a self-reflexive discussion of the history of area and global studies as an integral part of the research programme. At the same time, we argue in favour of a very comprehensive understanding of the concept of cultural encounter, thereby including the adoption of political ideas and models, adaptation of social practices and cultural patterns, as well as interaction along the lines of commodity chains and production networks.

In relation to these different contexts, area studies have provided critical impulses to these debates. In keeping with their traditional roles as cultural mediators, regional studies have provided much of the basic research with regard to not only the analysis of resources but also to the development of methodological tools for the analysis of interculturality. The philological tradition of regional studies is based on a strong sensitivity for the different stages involved in translation processes, whereby the issue of “cultural encounters” becomes the centre of attention. Similarly, the research on economic geography within area studies has pioneered the analysis of commodity chains under conditions of asymmetric terms of trade and power relations.