Interaction and Confrontation bet. Area Studies and Disciplines (1) – Blurring the Disciplinary

Boundaries

Liu Yao Zong (I34033)Arifah Raja Falency (I34014)

Area studies and the discipline: A useful controversy?

• Robert H Bates, Harvard University• Argument with a caricature (or more simply an

irony) on the present divide of academic criteria

• area specialists are multidisciplinary

history, literature, and languages

• critical view on social scientistsArea specialists-researchers from many disciplines, -devoted their scholarly life to work on the region or nation.

BUTSocial scientists-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 political data extracted from any region of the world.

-electoral data from South Africa in the same manner as that from the United States --political regularities are area-bound.

-They do not seek to master the literature on a region but rather to master the literature of a discipline.

-Even these problematic ideas are favoured in the graduate studies.

• The shift from area specialization to "social science“• The balance of power within the academy• focus turn to seminars, administrative support,

fellowships, research and travel independent of the department,

• scholars who can apply disciplinary criteria, rather than area knowledge, in evaluating and rewarding professional contributions.

• Also changes happened between generations, young scholars and old scholars due to this point of view.

• government and the cold war

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

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

Students of comparative politics, they have come increasingly to share intellectual orientations

• synthesis -----wasn't only between area studies and disciplines

but between context-specific knowledge and formal theory.

• area studies culture distinctioninstitutions (tradition) game theory help investigate institutions.

• history and beliefs ---shape one's decision----political behaviors.

• both observations of comparing facts and the local knowledge of others.

• area studies and comparative politics are slightly fused, subfield studies are also important.

<Area studies and social science> Introduction: the Area studies

controversy

Introduction: the Area studies controversy

• <Area studies and social science. >-regional specialists and discipline-oriented social scientists

international, comparative, and area studies.

-Political science clash over value of Area studies. -area specialist are hostile to social science theory

• Critique about area studies -lack of rigor-favours description over explanation-no concentration to real world situation-consider behaviour determined by cultural influence, and they place the people they study outside of science.

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

• history, culture or languages these ---foundation of Area studies.

• Claims---area specialists focus only on detailed descriptions of individual nations and regions / ignores the scientific factors.

• 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 aspects are more helpful for further studies.

AREA STUDIES versus DISCIPLINES TOWARD AN INTERDISCIPLINARY, SYSTEMIC COUNTRY

APPROACHBY Hans KUIJPER

The Problem

Area experts have to deal with so many problems of/in the country of their choice, inasmuch as a through grasp of all these issues is impossible.

The Solution Scientific Cooperation

• If one can not reasonably assume somebody to be so grounded in the sciences as to be able to make sound assertions about any subject regarding his/her home country, it is downright absurd to suppose that person to be scientifically qualified to deliver a lecture on whatever subject matter concerning a foreign country.

• In order to get a big and articulate country-picture (see the wood and trees, that is), bridges between faculties and departments have to be build, a requirement the chancellor of no university is in the position disregard.

Scientific Cooperation

The Meaning of Cooperation• Interdisciplinary is a noun describing the interaction among two

or more different disciplines. This interaction may range from simple communication of ideas to mutual integration of organizing concepts, methodology, procedures, terminology, data and organization of research and education in a fairly large field. An interdisciplinary group consist of persons differently trained, and organized into a common effort on a common problem with continuous communication among the participants.

• Scientific collaboration is not achieved until the individual involved develop a new way of thinking.

The necessities of cooperation• Science have a difficult problem that needs partnership and

pooling of disciplinary knowledge and analytical skills. The possibility of cooperation

• The cooperation between disciplines is possible by providing the readiness to engage in a respectful and learningful dialogue, provided ‘the willingness to see the other fellow’s point of view.

• It should be possible to develop and maintain a common ontology that permits differently trained scientists to cooperate.

Contributions Contributions of systems theory• System = whole• Only by networking many one-sided views the weakness of specialization could be overcome. Holistic thinking was the device for connecting narrow professional capacities.

Contributions of cybernetics• Cybernetics is the science of steering, which is a ‘struggle for orders’. Closely related to control -, information -, and communication theory.• In order to foster interdisciplinary cooperation, a unifying, metadisciplinary basis is required.

Contributions Contributions of complexity theory• ‘Complex’ should not be taken to mean ‘complicated’, but

‘independent’ is to be set over against ‘complex’.• In order to have complex system, you need at least two entities,

entangled, or embracing each other, in such a way that they are inextricably intertwined.

Contributions of technology

Blurring the Disciplinary Boundaries: Area Studies in United States

RICHARD D. LAMBERT

Recognizing the National Needed for Specialist The need to deal successfully with many countries whose names

most Americans had barely heard of, that created a need for a larger cadre of area specialist with a greater knowledge of the contemporary societies of the world.

A Basic Organizational Decision To place these programs on campuses and to staff them with

civilian professors, even though the people being trained in these centers at that time were all military personnel.

Rapid Growth The rapid expansion of area specialist was happened after WWII.

Area Studies As A Highly Differentiated Enterprise The current pattern of area studies is the result of an essentially

laissez-faire process of growth. The growth of area studies has been the result of many separate

institutional and individual decisions unrelated to government support.

Elements Within Area Studies1. Degree of specialization2. Broad factual knowledge3. In-country experience4. Language competency5. “Ologizing” area studies: Country or region6. Area studies tribes7. Discipline

Area Studies as a Transdisciplinary Enterprise Just because set of scholars concern with a particular part of the

world and spans many disciplines, it does not mean that scholar from these discipline are engaged in intellectual collaboration across disciplinary borders.

Each scholar perspective bound by their own disciplines.Area Studies as an Interdisciplinary Enterprise Two types of activities that blending the disciplinary perspectives:

1. Conferences, symposia, and thematic sessions at professional association meeting

2. Research of individual area specialistArea Studies as a Nondisciplinary Enterprise The better term to explaining area studies in nondisciplinary,

because the topics often fall in domains where the conceptual and methodological apparatus of particular disciplines is least relevant.

Area Studies as a Subdisciplinary Endeavor Area studies is not typically a blend of all aspects of its constituent

disciplines, rather within each discipline there are particular subdisciplinary domains within which area specialist in the United States tend to work.

Policy Application American area studies is not an applied enterprise. In many other countries, area studies is tied much more directly to

the practical needs of policymakers.

The Confrontation between Discipline and Area Studies

by Lucian W. Pye

Main Idea

• 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.

• The article also mentioned the two streams of social science were divided into before WWII and post WWII.

• As the emphasis of social science went up, academic studies also turned their main focus from the only language skills and cultural related trainings to subfield studies

Our Opinion

• It needs more than one disciplines to understand an area

• Cooperation between the disciplines will be appropriate

• Its impossible to one person to mastering all the disciplines to solve the problem in one certain area

• Each disciplines should blurring their boundaries and started to working together in order to solve the problem in one certain area

• Combine the methodology of area studies and social science when investigating complicated case

• As social scientist, our opinion on other discipline should be objective

• Question- is decision making related to one’s cultural background?