The Rebirth of Area Studies by Milutinovic Zoran;

Author:Milutinovic, Zoran;
Language: eng
Format: epub
Publisher: I. B. Tauris & Company, Limited
Published: 2019-11-27T16:00:00+00:00

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Disciplinarity, interdisciplinarity and the plurality of Area Studies: A view from the social sciences

Mark R. Beissinger

After the end of the Cold War, Area Studies programmes faced severe challenges, as government and foundations cut funding, universities came under financial pressures and academic departments came to place increasing value on theory and method rather than knowledge of place. These latter issues were particularly acute in the social sciences, where traditional Area Studies scholarship grew devalued and departmental hiring practices, in many cases, came to ignore area altogether. With the number of social scientists working in Area Studies dwindling, many Area Studies programmes faced the predicament of how to continue to function as multidisciplinary intellectual enterprises – at least if multidisciplinarity were understood to include the social sciences. Area Studies scholars frequently complained of the ‘death’ of Area Studies in the social sciences, expressing frustration over their inability to influence the ability of social science departments to hire Area Studies scholars.

I believe that such lamentations are premature. In this chapter I outline the ways in which Area Studies knowledge remains deeply implicated in social science research. But Area Studies as currently practised in the social sciences is significantly different from Area Studies as it was traditionally imagined during the Cold War (as an interdisciplinary enterprise aimed at a deepened understanding of place), or from Area Studies as it is currently practised in the humanities (focused on promoting a deepened knowledge of particular cultures). In short, what we have witnessed is not so much the ‘death’ of Area Studies in the social sciences as the emergence of multiple models of Area Studies that function parallel to one another, with each model serving different purposes. Area Studies in that sense needs to be treated as the plural noun that it is, in that what is often touted as a singular enterprise hides within it multiple purposes.

As I outline in this chapter, there are at least three models of organizing Area Studies knowledge: 1) the traditional area-driven model (Area Studies as a space for conversation between humanities and the social sciences to promote a deepened understanding of particular cultures or places); 2) discipline-driven Area Studies (an Area Studies that fosters research at the cutting edge of disciplinary knowledge); and 3) problem-driven Area Studies (the use of area knowledge to promote cross-area conversations around a particular problem). The social sciences have been involved in all three models (as have the humanities). As Area Studies serves multiple purposes, we need to think more imaginatively about how to achieve these multiple purposes and how Area Studies intersects with the variety of outcomes that we care about. In this chapter, I provide some ideas, based on my own experience as a long-time scholar and administrator working in Area Studies, about ways of achieving these outcomes. The quality of our knowledge about the world, the production of experts who can apply that knowledge and our ability to foster a citizenry capable of making informed decisions about the world all rest significantly

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