Hem / Att delta i NSU / Förslag till nya studiekretsar / 2007 / B. Methodological and theoretical challenges in Area Studies

Methodological and theoretical challenges in Area Studies - with a focus on Asia

Fascinating challenges are facing Area (and thus Asian) Studies these years. As the political, economic and cultural balance in the world is shifting towards Asia, debates on how to deal with this change in academia is gathering strength. The primary question is how to legitimize and develop a field of study that often lacks a strong disciplinary basis, common theoretical frameworks, and has countries and regions as the only point of reference. Current approaches are pointing at the necessity of being anchored in a discipline; to engage in comparative studies in collaboration with area speicalist; and to command a reasonably deep knowledge about historical and cultural development trajectories as well as – in some instances – an adequate knowledge of specific languages.

The goal, ultimately, being to educate students and academics who posess the necessary skills and knowledge to help promote and guide the increasing interaction with countries in Asia.

Dealing with the challenges
The cluster will engage senior researchers in the current debates and train PhD students as well as post docs from different disciplines to deal with the problematique facing Area Studies with a focus on contemporary Asia. The scientific target is to teach and train the participants to analyze and compare the major paradigms related to contemporary Asian studies. This is done through exposing the participants to critical analyses of contemporary social scientific theorization from an Area Studies point of view. Also, taking into account the approaches that have been developed to overcome the problems that arise when researching societies, cultures, and histories other than that of the researcher’s own.

The cluster aims to form a coherent group of young scholars who will work together during the three years (and hopefully afterwards as well) on similar methodological and paradigmatic problems, and let them share their ideas as well as deepen their understanding on the demands of rigorous Area Studies. The broader aim of the cluster is to build up a continuous methodological training tradition for students in contemporary Area Studies in the Nordic countries.

Participants and working group
The cluster has contact to app. 20 Nordic PhD students who participated in the conference and PhD workshop ’Asian Studies at a Turning Point’ which took place in Turku, November 2006.

The working group organizing the cluster consists of app. 10 senior researchers from the Nordic region who were engaged in the planning and execution of the conference and PhD workshop.

At NSU’s summer session 2007 the working group will be represented by Lauri Paltemar, Senior Research Fellow, University of Turku and Martin Bech, Project Coordinator, NIAS-Nordic Institute of Asian Studies.

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