GIGA German Institute of Global and Area Studies in Hamburg emerged from the German Overseas Institute (founded in 1964) after a restructuring process in 2006. The institute is the largest German and one of the largest European research institutes of Area Studies and Comparative Area Studies. Its research is focussed on political, economic, and social developments in Africa, Asia, Latin America as well as North Africa, Near and Middle East. The Area Studies are furthermore concerned with developments in North-South and South-South relations.
Legal Status: Foundation of civil law based in the Free and Hanseatic City of Hamburg
Funding: The GIGA is financed jointly by the Federal Republic of Germany (Federal Foreign Office) and the state of Hamburg (Department of Economy and Labor) within the so called "blue list". The budget amounts currently to € 6 million per year.
Tasks: GIGA's main task is research; in addition it is concerned with the advancement of junior researchers, consulting, and information. The GIGA defines itself as think tank directed at science, politics, economy, and a general public.
Co-operation: The GIGA is part of a national and international research network and co-operates with universities and other research institutions, plus political foundations and associations.
Memberships: The GIGA is a member of the Leibniz Association as well as of the European Consortium for Political Research (ECPR). Furthermore, the institutes are members of national and regional associations like AEGIS, EuroMeSCo, the Latin American Studies Associations or the European Alliance for Asian Studies.
GIGA holds a unique position in the international scientific community as a Research Institute which combines area studies and comparative area studies. The research activities combine systematic and comparative area studies within the framework of a two-dimensional organisational structure: specialists on different world regions are simultaneously assigned to four area studies Research Institutes and three overarching Research Programmes.
Each Institute combines within its research agenda an area studies approach with theory based approaches taken from different disciplines. The research agenda and methods are drawn from political science, economics and sociology. The research itself is based on the fundamental expertise of the staff dealing with these regions and subjects and requires a long-term and profound involvement with the research region.
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