© Development Dimensions Int’l, Inc.,Tongro. All rights reserved

© Development Dimensions Int’l, Inc.,Tongro. All rights reserved.

DEVELOPMENT OF AREA STUDIES AS

ACADEMIC DISCIPLINE

CHEOL WOOK LEESEONG MIN BYEON

IndexDisciplinary discourses on Area studies

Definitions of area studies & disciplines

Debate

Area studies and Social science

Cold war and area studies

Contents

Disciplinary Discourses on Area Studies

Contents Disciplinary Discourses on Area Studies

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 con-

scious (though rarely theory driven), no scholar can gain a hearing for

his or her work unless it is solidly grounded in the empirics and lan-

guages 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.

Contents Disciplinary Discourses on Area StudiesGeography; 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 his-

tory, 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 universi-

ties?

Several prominent universities closed their geography departments to the

detriment of area studies.


Anthropology, by contrast, has not struggled; its role in area stud-

ies is quite prominent and comfortable

“All anthropologists are expected to gain a sense of the lan-

guages, histories, and political-economic structures of the ar-

eas where they work...ALL anthropologists are defined as area people. Be-

cause the connection with History has been especially strong

for much of the 20th C and now as well, any good anthropologist is also learn-

ing 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 espe-

cially history and anthropology differ radically from the pro-

fessions.

Architecture and urban planning advantaged

using the contextual expertise of area stud-

ies 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 in-

quiry. 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 pur-

sue a more "area studies" focus.... Within (my region) the more interdisciplinary ap-

proaches 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 in-

terdisciplinary dialogue that is happening around other broader questions of po-

litical memory, political action, political rhetoric, political performances, or politics more

generally.”


This disciplinary debate shows how prominent political sci-

entists 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 in-

terests.

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 re-

gions might find greater affinity with sociologists, espe-

cially those who have moved with the comparative and historical

turn.

“For sociology, it has been important to move away from a disci-

plinary approach 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 con-

texts play out....Sociology's classical theories were formed in early modern Eu-

rope, 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 sci-

entists 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 in-

terests.

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 as-

sumptions, 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 We-

ber and others.

The place of area studies in sociology is relatively comfortable, espe-

cially 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,

is not necessarily connected to such an am-

bition, 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 stud-

ies needs to be much more self conscious

about this methodological and theoretical ambition and di-

versity. Indeed, its own golden age suggests just such

virtue.

Contents

Definitions : Area studies and Disciplines

Ricahrd D. Lambert

Blurring the Disciplinary Boundaries Area Studies in the United States

Contents

Name : Ricahrd D. Lambert

- University Affiliation:A.B. 1946, M.A. 1947, Ph.D. 1951Chairman of the South Asia Regional Studies Depart-mentDirector of the Office of International Programs

“Blurring the Disciplinary Boundaries Area Studies in the United States”

ABOUT THE AUTHOR

Contents DEFINITIONS OF AREA STUDIES& DISCIPLINES

• Area Studies:

– Interdisciplinary fields of research of a particular geo-graphical, national or cultural region.

– Fields are defined differently from one academic insti-tution 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. Ex-ample: social sciences such as Sociology, Anthropol-ogy, political science..

– Disciplines are defined and recognised by academic journals in which research is published.

Contents

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 disci-plinary 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 disci-pline.

- The distribution of scholars by degree of specializa-tion, world area, and discipline is the result of a lais-sez-faire system of recruitment and growth in the American universities setting.

DEFINITIONS OF AREA STUDIES& DISCIPLINES

Contents AREA STUDIES AS DISCIPLINARY

Area studies as a transdisciplinary enterprise Area studies are viewed as transdisciplinary and subdisci-plinary. 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 perspec-tives:

1. Conferences, symposia, and thematic sessions at pro-fessional association meeting

2. Research of individual area specialistArea specialists will often start to choose topics that natu-rally belong in a variety of disciplines.

Contents

• 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-techni-cal, 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 disciplinary col-leagues.

– The social science research in area studies leans toward the human-ities, 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 AS DISCIPLINARY

Contents

Area studies & Social Science

Robert H. Bates

Area studies and the discipline: A useful controversy?

Contents

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 Uni-versity.

ABOUT THE AUTHOR

“Area studies and the discipline: A useful controversy? “

Contents

Area studies specialist Social scientist

-researchers from many discip-lines,

-devoted their scholarly life to work on the region or nation.

-Rather than seeking a deeper understanding of a particular area strive to develop general theories and to identify, and test, hypotheses derived from them.

-attack with confidence polit-ical data extracted from any region of the world.

AREA STUDIES AND SOCIAL SCIENCE

Contents AREA STUDIES AND SOCIAL SCIENCE

- 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 as-pects are more helpful for further studies.

Contents AREA STUDIES AND SOCIAL SCIENCE

-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.

- 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, aca-demic studies also turned their main focus from the only language skills and cultural related trainings to subfield studies

- Lucian W. Pye. “The Confronta-tion between Discipline and Area Studies”

Contents

COLD WAR & AREA STUDIES

Ricahrd D. Lambert,Robert H. Bates

Contents COLD WAR & AREA STUDIES

reductions in spending for higher education and lower priority on area training.

Government and the cold war :

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

Contents

Debate

Contents Debate topic

1. Your view of points- Global society/Eclipse of nation state/maintain/stronger

2. What is Future alternative of Na-tion-State- Cautious predict

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