Why Area Studies?
Globalization and Area Studies:
When Is Too Broad Too Narrow?
Subject: Theories of Area Studies
Professor: LEE Kyu Young
Presenter: Xiao Wei (I37027)
Think about them…
Do we still need Area Studies in a
globalized world?
Does globalization constitute an
ascendant paradigm in International
Studies?
Contents
Over Emphasis on Globalization & Ignoring Area Studies
Causes of Ignoring Area Studies
3 Connotations of the Concept of “Area Studies” and its Value
Considerations of Area Studies
Why is Area Studies Necessary?
Debate
Globalization
International
Forces
More
Developments in
the World
Hopes
(finally achieve a global society)
Fears
(lives and jobs are threatened
beyond their control)
Always Globalization?
e.g. a lecture on government’s pension
reform in Italy made by the leader of
the largest federation of Italian unions
Globalization
Italy’s domestic problems
Strong Support for Programs of Globalization
Ford
Foundation &
The MacArthur
Foundation
(1993): a joint
project on
globalization
The Mellon
Foundation: a
program on
cross-regional
issues
Social Science
Research
Council
“… its traditional support for area studies … must be
built on general theoretical frameworks that highlight
global trends, such as rising levels of ethnic conflict.”
----Kenneth Prewitt (President of SSRC)
Globalization
Area Studies
Are international forces responsible for a
growing range of domestic problems?
“There is an odd sort
of agreement between
the left and the right to
pretend that exotic
global forces are at
work even when the
real action is
prosaically domestic.”
----in International
Herald Tribune
Paul Krugman
Economist, Massachusetts Institute of Technology
Example: a government’s attitude
towards rising levels of unemployment
Global pressures
Structural problems of domestic
economies
Other Reasons:
The end of the Cold War cutbacks in government
support for studies on Communist bloc and the 3rd
world
The rise of new academic paradigms
devalue
culturally specific knowledge in disciplines as
political science and sociology
Limit support for area studies while preserve
teaching international studies
3 Connotations of the Concept of
“Area Studies” and its Value
1) A detailed description of a nation or region
Scholars committed to the development of “portable truths”
Want to produce accurate generalizations
Rely on area-specific
2) Studies that build on a relatively deep and contextrich knowledge of a specific society or region to
develop propositions of more general applicability
Detailed
descriptions
of individual
nations or
regions
Knowledge
about
particular
regions
Make more
broadly
applicable
generalization
3) Interdisciplinary teaching or research in a
program focused on a particular region
Sociologists Anthropologists
politicians
Economists
Environmentalists
Area
Studies
historians
Considerations of Area Studies
Continuing value of Area Centers
1) Influential work in social sciences generated by scholars
informed by the interdisciplinary exchange that area centers
facilitates
Barrington Moore (1996)
did at the Russian Research
Center at Harvard University
Benedict R. Anderson
wrote at Cornell University’s
Southeast Asia Program
2) The presence of area centers would seem to be a
small, yet much-needed on their control over the
organization of knowledge and teaching
3)
Foreign visitors
Students and faculty members
Insights about other
part of the world
Direct contact with research agendas
and approaches to research being
developed else where in the world
4) International studies should concentrate
more heavily on comparisons, not just among
nations, but among regions.
5) The fate of Area Studies is especially
consequential for graduate training
Why is Area Studies necessary?
1) International Relations needs Area Studies.
The international system has become so complex that
a general survey of international politics can no
longer cover many important problems.
2) Area Studies serves as the starting point for
examining certain theoretical propositions, as
opportunities for testing such propositions or even as
launching points of new theoretical inquiries.
3) It is necessary to watch the world from within and
outside an area.
Debate
1) If you know about Islam and Islamic
culture, do you need to study particular
countries for doing the research in the
field of International Relation?
2) Dose an international issue exist which is
merely related to “Globalization” rather
than “Domestic Problems”? Please
simply explain it. If no, why?