Departing from the standpoint that intellectual property represents a key mechanism of governance in the modern world, the project investigates the institutionalization of authors’ rights in the societies and cultures of Southeast and East Central Europe in the course of the 20th century, and analyses the transfer and enculturation of this legal instrument in the context of the European peripheries. Based methodologically on a broad interdisciplinary approach combining legal, social, cultural, political, literary and media history, the project seeks to assess the role of intellectual property rights in the development, organization and regulation of modern culture and knowledge at the interface between the various nationalization and globalization processes of the 20th century. The project’s strengths are twofold: 1. By adopting a longue durée perspective, it targets a multilevel analytical approach that is able to address long-term patterns of development. 2. It pays attention to the dynamic and interdependent relationship between regional, European, international, transnational, global and national developments.