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The German Institute of Global and Area Studies (GIGA) hosted a conference on "Adapting Institutions: A Comparative Area Studies Perspective" in April 2014. Within mainstream political sciences, approaches are often shaped by experiences in Western and Northern societies. Therefore, perspectives from other regions are frequently neglected and the "hybrid" institutions of Southern societies – which mix the Northern and UN system with unique Southern experiences – are overlooked. The conference examined these institutional variations through cross-regional comparison.The report and videos of the conference can be found here.