An important current topic of historical research is the global interdependence that came about since the Early Modern period. The widening, deepening and acceleration of worldwide interconnectedness is known as globalisation. This affects all aspects of social life, from the cultural to the criminal, the financial to the spiritual. In this research theme we focus on the social and economic responses to increasing interconnectedness.

Globalisation has many dimensions and can be studied by distinguishing between extensity,intensity, velocity and impact. Key themes in this research cluster are international contacts, interaction and the effects of interdependencies on society and economy. We distinguish between the movement of goods, services, capital, people and ideas. Geographical emphasis is on Europe and the United States, but also on the Middle East, Central Asia and Southeast Asia. What impact did global connections have on cultures, state formation, economies and societies? We examine how people have coped with global interdependence and how people attempted to control and manage these processes. This includes the study of individual (migration) and collective reactions (institutions, states, EU, multinationals). The research within this research theme can be divided into three sub-themes: (a) migration, membership regimes and cities; (b) state formation and frontiers; (c) political economy, networks, and the role of institutions.

Migration, membership regimes and cities
Research in the field of migration history includes the mobility of people, settlement processes of migrants, and, finally, the effects of migration on state formation and the formation of minorities. The migration theme is not restricted to a particular period or region, although the focus is on the period from the Middle Ages onwards. In addition, we study the colonisations and conquests in which the native population was forced to adapt to the newcomers, resulting in processes of extinction, marginalisation and creolisation. In order to study migration the comparative method (in time and space) is most appropriate. An important issue is how migrants integrated in new communities and the role of different political opportunity structures in the outcome of such processes. Here we use the new-institutionalist approach as advocated by scholars as Richard Alba and Victor Nee, which is well suited for global comparisons of various membership regimes. Within the migration theme special attention is paid to differences according to gender. The importance of gender, as an analytical category, is studied in combination with class and ethnicity in relation to migration to the Netherlands in the period from 1945 until 2000.

Cities & Civil Service
Migration, settlement processes of migrants and the formation of minorities (and discrimination) are mostly studied in an urban context. For this reason, this research theme focuses on the city as a framework for research. Urban environments can be seen as a laboratory, in which processes of migration, integration and formation of minorities take place. Depending on the specific research question, social processes can be studied with the city as the ‘site’ or explicitly be linked to the demographic, physical, spatial and political opportunity structure of specific cities. Two concrete projects should be mentioned: one is the diachronic analysis of demographic changes in pre-war and post-war The Hague, when both Dutch and foreign migrations repeatedly and significantly changed the character of the city. The central question in this project is the extent to which the diminished social cohesion of the last decades of the 20th century should be viewed as a new phenomenon.

The second project looks into the development of civil services in the Netherlands by focusing on the area of tension between citizens, church and government. In this way we aim to discover the nature of the interaction that existed between the civil initiatives undertaken by the government, citizens and churches in the transition from private to public. This research focuses on the period between 1500 en 1800 when citizenship moved from town to nation and the effects of bureaucratisation on the ideal of citizenship and the involvement of citizens in civil services.

State formation and frontiers
The term globalisation refers primarily to an increase in the exchange of goods, persons and ideas between various parts of the World. Borders, at local, national and supra-national level, play a vital role. In the Early Modern period the boundaries of cities were often more important than national borders. In the modern period national borders have not proved to be very stable. Numerous new states emerged and the borders between states changed constantly. Moreover, changes of regimes, for example as the result of decolonisation have given new meaning to existing boundaries. In the case of the EU national borders have lost salience to some extent, which in turn influenced the mobility of people, capital, goods and ideas, as well as the status of citizenship.

Political economy, networks and the economic role of institutions
The distribution of incomes, means of production and legislations changed dramatically since the 16th century and even more so in the 19th and 20th centuries, leading to an increasing intensity, velocity and impact of the globalisation process. These developments are related to the consumption revolution, which started already in the 18th century, involving trade networks, industrialisation, decolonisation, and more recently the European unification. Closely related are the changes in labour relations and the competition between various economies on a world scale. Specific attention is given to institutions through which people build their networks and social capital. Instead of juxtaposing the Early Modern and the Modern period we are more interested in similarities and continuities with respect to the emergence of networks and institutions in a globalising world since 1600.