Dörte Dinger, PhD Fellow

Universität Bremen
Graduate School of Social Sciences
University of Bremen
FVG / Wiener Strasse
E-mail: ddinger@bigsss.uni-bremen.de

Dörte Dinger is pursuing a Ph.D. in Social Sciences and is specialising in the field of Global Integration.

Dissertation topic:

From Friends to Collaborators? A constructivist analysis of changes in Italo-German relations with the end of the cold war.

Abstract:

For quite a long time, Italo-German relations have been treated like a red-headed stepchild. Neither do they matter in research on foreign policy or European politics, nor in domestic circles within both countries. Despite such widespread indifference, however, among observers of Italo-German relations an inspiring debate on the relationship’s actual status and developments has broken out. My dissertation project aims to contribute to this debate and take it one step further. I build on insights of social constructivism in order to propose a three-layer-analysis examining interaction, interest and identity patterns within bilateral relationships. Applied to the German-Italian empirical case,  results in fact point to profound changes going on at all these three leayers.

Academic Supervisors:

Prof. Dr. Rainer Baumann, BIGSSS, University Bremen

Prof. Dr. Bernhard Zangl, Ludwig-Maximilians-Universität Munich

Prof. Dr. Stefano Guzzini, University of Uppsala