aims to build collaborations based on the exchange of knowledge and information by using advanced information technology. Besides in-person collaboration, ISRA strongly supports the idea of virtual teams which can bring together scholars to build an effective knowledge platform and environment where people can work across disciplines, functions, and geographies.

• current project - The Other Eastern Europe from 1956 to 1989. Dissent in Politics and Society and Alternative Models in Culture (2007-2009) is a three-year research project based on comparative analysis of dissent in politics and society and of the attempts to establish an autonomous culture in Eastern Europe. Four projects are planned in cooperation with the partner institutes in Eastern Europe in order to comparatively analyze the overlapping questions of dissent, contemporary history and culture: 1) Dissent in Politics and Societies, 2) Discourses of the Parallel Culture, 3) Biographies in Dissent and 4) Policies of Censorship. appendix
Head of the Project: Wolfgang Eichwede This e-mail address is being protected from spambots, you need JavaScript enabled to view it
[http://www.forschungsstelle-osteuropa.de]

• current project - Alternative Culture Beyond Borders: Past and Present of the Arts and Media in the Context of Globalization (2007-2010) aims to explore the continued relevance and significance of the concept of alternative culture in the era of globalization. This exploration of contemporary alternative culture begins from a comparative, cross-cultural analysis of the phenomenon and idea of ‘alternativeness’ from the nineteenth century to the present, with a special emphasis on the recent history of Central and Eastern European societies after World War II and their similarities and difference to Western 'Cold War' culture. [http://www.alternativeculture.org]