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Short abstract

The paper examines how social science researchers from Central and Eastern Europe make sense of and navigate European academia. Drawing on interviews and mapping exercises, it explores liminality, precarity, and the re-enactments of “East” and “West” in European research spaces.

Long abstract

Europe is often described as a centre of epistemic privilege. But how is it experienced and perceived by researchers moving from and on its "edge"?

A growing body of literature has pointed out the underrepresentation of Central and Eastern European voices in European research. While this imbalance has been documented in a number of fields and theorized at a conceptual level, a practice-oriented, STS approach seems to be missing. Combining postcolonial and postsocialist frameworks with the concept of epistemic living spaces, this paper seeks to address that gap by examining how CEE researchers make sense of, navigate and negotiate the research spaces they move through, and how they position themselves – and their region – within European research landscapes.

Drawing on interviews and mapping exercises with social science researchers from Czechia, Croatia, Hungary, and Russia, it analyzes the dividing lines, power hierarchies and symbolic regimes that shape researchers' mobility, shedding light on liminality, precarity, and othering across different research spaces. In doing so, it seeks to uncover the meanings of 'East' and 'West' that are re-enacted there, and contribute to broader debates on global asymmetries in knowledge production. Ultimately, by tracing the (semi)peripheries of European research, it aims to problematize Europe and 'the West' as unequivocal centres of epistemic privilege and shed light on its inner differences and varities.