Transcript Area Studies

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How virtually identical area studies and history are
“In regard to history and ethnography, as virtually every respectable piece of
work in these fields
rests on a deep knowledge of the languages
and cultures, politics, and geography of the region. Even as these
fields have become more theory conscious (though rarely theory driven), no
scholar can gain a hearing for his or her work unless it is solidly grounded in the
empirics and languages of the region.”
“My work doesn't
exemplify an ‘interdisciplinary area studies
approach’ to scholarship. I'm not sure what such scholarship would
look like.”
Disciplines vary in how they work across disciplines.
Geography; both quite interdisciplinary and international
“For
geography, interdisciplinary study of a place reinforces both area
studies and the discipline by creating new ways of thinking about
both. This is also true for history. I was greatly inspired by the interdisciplinary study
that came out in 2007, written by Jan Bender Shetler, called Imagining Serengeti.
Shetler is an environmental historian. Her narrative depends on linguistics, archeology,
archival research, oral history, literary studies, geographical information systems, and
ecology. That is quite a range! I tell my students the average historian of, say,
antebellum U.S. history, has nowhere near that skill-base or challenge....”
What happened to geography in the political economy of universities?
Several prominent universities closed their geography departments to the detriment of
area studies.
Anthropology, by contrast, has not struggled; its role in area studies is quite
prominent and comfortable
“All
anthropologists are expected to gain a sense of the languages,
histories, and political-economic structures of the areas
work...ALL anthropologists are defined as area people. Because
with History has been especially strong
where they
the connection
for much of the 20th C and now as
well, any good anthropologist is also learning the history of the region or space s/he will
work in. Because anthropology includes the study of economic, political, social, and
cultural systems, inter alia, whichever of these dimensions we happen to emphasize in
our work leads us to read in the area-studies literature of the adjacent fields. (E.g., I do
political anthropology, and I read political scientists.) Many anthropologists read the
literature of their area and some use it in their work.”
These most compatible disciplines – geography, and especially history
and
anthropology
differ
radically
from
the
professions.
Architecture and urban planning advantaged using
the contextual expertise of area studies but this stands in
stark contrast to the globalizing interests of business schools. (In recent
years, Title VI application guidelines have encouraged area studies
collaboration with professional schools.)
Political Scientists have written about focusing on those interactional fields where there
is potential value to be found.
“The old Bates-Chalmers debate between the discipline of political science and area studies was
overblown, but it reflects the tensions between the two approaches to inquiry. It has also damaged,
in my view, intellectual openness in political science. New graduate students and assistant
professors assume they will not get a job if they pursue a more "area studies" focus.... Within (my
region) the more interdisciplinary approaches have been replaced by "professionalization," meaning
a more mainstream orientation..... I received several comments from those who wrote for my tenure
file a few years ago that they were pleased that someone like me could still get tenure at a first rate
University, meaning someone who used more interdisciplinary approaches and methods. That was a
sad reflection on where the discipline of political science has gone, at least from my perspective...
the political scientists hive themselves off in (area studies) conferences,
without benefiting from the rich interdisciplinary dialogue that is happening around
other broader questions of political memory, political action, political rhetoric, political performances,
or politics more generally.”
This disciplinary debate shows
how prominent political scientists
are in the definition and leadership of area studies
and in
Europe it does not seem complicated that they have managed to find a way to
combine disciplinary and area studies interests.
In that, they are more like historians in general who tend to see a simple affinity
between their discipline and area studies.
We might consider how those political scientists in other world regions might
find greater affinity with sociologists,
especially those who have
moved with the comparative and historical turn.
“For sociology, it has been
approach
important to move away from a disciplinary
that sought universal rules about societies,
toward a more deeply
contextualized understanding of how history, culture and material practices shape
and are shaped by social relations. Over the past thirty years, I think, sociology has been
vastly improved by scholars who take context seriously -- often, because they work
outside the advanced industrial capitalist societies, and have been forced (by their area
studies colleagues) to address more directly the way different historical, political and
economic contexts play out....Sociology's classical theories were formed in early modern
Europe, and there remains a tendency to assume that findings in Europe and North
America will serve as the basis of theory-building.
This disciplinary debate shows
how prominent political scientists
are in the definition and leadership of area studies
and in
Europe it does not seem complicated that they have managed to find a way to
combine disciplinary and area studies interests.
In that, they are more like historians in general who tend to see a simple affinity
between their discipline and area studies.
But in fact, many of the most interesting theoretical insights have come when scholars
use material from outside those contexts to push at theoretical assumptions, to
underscore the historical-specificity and path dependence of patterns that were
previously considered universal.”
Here, rather than area studies being a challenge,
it has become an asset in
developing a core strength of sociology: the return to its classical traditions in
comparative and historical sociology in the tradition of Max Weber and others.
The place of area studies in sociology is
relatively comfortable,
especially in
comparison to what we see in political science. That difference, of course, has to do less
with area studies and more to do with the way in which sociology and political science
are differently organized as disciplines.
Conclusion | Area studies, as our first historian indicated,
necessarily connected to such an ambition,
is not
and rather
is designed to complicate those generalizing approaches. But
complications can work in a variety of ways that are more and less
connected to abstract knowledge. My key proposal is that
area
studies needs to be much more self conscious
about
this methodological and theoretical ambition and diversity. Indeed, its
own golden age suggests just such virtue.
Blurring the Disciplinary Boundarie
Area Studies in the United States
Ricahrd D. Lambert
“Blurring the Disciplinary Boundaries
Area Studies in the United States”
Name : Ricahrd D. Lambert
- University Affiliation:
A.B. 1946, M.A. 1947, Ph.D. 1951
Chairman of the South Asia Regional Studies Department
Director of the Office of International Programs
• Area Studies:
– Interdisciplinary fields of research of
geographical, national or cultural region.
a
particular
– Fields are defined differently from one academic institution
to another.
– Examples: Asian Studies or Korean Studies.
• Disciplines (Academic Disciplines):
– field of study; a branch of knowledge which is taught or
researched at the college or university level. Example: social
sciences such as Sociology, Anthropology, political science..
– Disciplines are defined and recognised by academic
journals in which research is published.
Area studies & Discipline
- The basic reference point for most area specialists is the
discipline in which he or she resides, and the long-term
tendency is for more and more disciplinary specialization.
Area-studies students have to learn a variety of
disciplines as they relate to their area of specialization.
- Area studies is not as an interdisciplinary tradition of
scholarship but as a set of sub disciplines, each of which
lies inside the larger tradition of the discipline.
- The distribution of scholars by degree of specialization,
world area, and discipline is the result of a laissez-faire
system of recruitment and growth in the American
universities setting.
Area studies as a transdisciplinary enterprise
Area studies are viewed as transdisciplinary and subdisciplinary.
The area studies programs in American universities gather
together scholars from different disciplines who share the same
area focus. The area studies program will offer courses in many
disciplines to train specialists.
Area studies as an interdisciplinary enterprise
Two types of activities that blending the disciplinary perspectives:
1. Conferences, symposia, and thematic sessions at professional
association meeting
2. Research of individual area specialist
Area specialists will often start to choose topics that naturally
belong in a variety of disciplines.
•
Area studies as a non-disciplinary enterprise
– The term non-disciplinary refer to the topics often fall in domains where
the conceptual and methodological apparatus of particular disciplines is
least relevant.
– The core of area studies in the social science lies in the non-technical,
frequently non-disciplinary end of the discipline.
– There are four core disciplines in area studies: anthropology, history,
literature, and political science.
– Area specialists have a great deal more intellectual interaction with
humanists than do most of their non area-oriented disciplinar y
colleagues.
– The social science research in area studies leans toward the humanities, it
is likewise considered non-disciplinary.
•
Area studies as a sub-disciplinary endeavor
– There are particular sub-disciplinary domains within each discipline.
– Area studies serve national objectives; in American it serves the need of
the government and business. It is impossible to narrow and direct the
focus of research under the American laissez-faire system.
Area studies and the discipline: A useful controversy?
Robert H. Bates
“Area studies and the discipline:
A useful controversy? “
Name : Robert H. Bates
- University Affiliation:
Robert H. Bates is Eaton Professor in the Department of
Government, and a member of the Department of African
and African-American Studies of Harvard University.
Area studies specialist
-researchers from many disciplines,
-devoted their scholarly life to work
on the region or nation.
Social scientist
-Rather than seeking a deeper
understanding of a particular are
a strive to develop general theori
es and to identify, and test, hypo
theses derived from them.
-attack with confidence political
data extracted from any region
of the world.
- Regional specialists and discipline-oriented social scientists
- Political science clash over value of Area studies.
- Area specialist are hostile to social science theory
- Area studies is still the essential for development of social science.
(culture & rational choice theory)
- Culture is the master concept of all social science.
- Research both on the cultural and the governmental aspects are
more helpful for further studies.
-The article also mentioned the two streams of
social science were divided into before WWII
and post WWII.
- Social science in this article seemed to be
reaching a dead end.
-
Lucian W. Pye.
“The
Confrontation
between
Discipline and
Area Studies”
- The emergence of area specialization has
changed perspectives and raised questions
which go to the foundations of social sciences.
- The conflict in this field was first between theory
builders and data collectors.
-
As the emphasis of social science went up, academic
studies also turned their main focus from the only
language skills and cultural related trainings to subfield
studies
Ricahrd D. Lambert,
Robert H. Bates
Government and the cold war : reductions in spending for higher educati
on and lower priority on area training.
American politics
-Students of American politics viewed themselves as social scientists;
-devoid of variation in political system on which they concentrated,
-More sophisticated increasingly realized that their hard won, cumulative,
scientific knowledge about politics in the United States was itself area-bound.
-Therefore the demand for comparative political research
Area studies : product of cold war
-process of global integration is taking place
-trend-dominant languages and cultures will eventually eliminate.
-western scholars no longer acquire detailed information about history, culture
or languages of most developing countries-reason
1. Your view of points
- Global society/Eclipse of nation
state/maintain/stronger
2. What is Future alternative of
Nation-State
- Cautious predict