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

Fears
Hopes
(lives and jobs are threatened
(finally achieve a global society)
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 The Mellon
MacArthur Foundation: a
Social Science
Foundation program on
Research Council
(1993): a joint cross-regional
project on issues
globalization

“… 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 context-
rich knowledge of a specific society or region to
develop propositions of more general applicability

Make more
broadly
Knowledge applicable
about generalization
particular
regions
Detailed
descriptions
of individual
nations or
regions
3) Interdisciplinary teaching or research in a
program focused on a particular region

Sociologists Anthropologists

politicians Environmentalists

Economists
Area historians
Studies
 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) Benedict R. Anderson

did at the Russian Research wrote at Cornell University’s
Center at Harvard University 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 Direct contact with research agendas

and approaches to research being
part of the world 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?