Why Area Studies?Globalization and Area Studies:

When Is Too Broad Too Narrow?

Subject: Theories of Area StudiesProfessor: LEE Kyu YoungPresenter: 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 StudiesDiminish cultural,

historical and

political context

Diminish context of

trends in particular

regions

Are international forces responsible for a growing range of domestic

problems?

Paul Krugman Economist, Massachusetts Institute of

Technology

“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

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

Rely on area-specific

Want to produce accurate generalizations

Scholars committed to the development of “portable truths”

2) Studies that build on a relatively deep and context-rich 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

Area Studies

Economists

politicians

Sociologists Anthropologists

Environmentalists

historians

Considerations of Area StudiesContinuing value of Area

Centers1) 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. Andersonwrote 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)

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

Foreign visitors

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?