DEVELOPMENT OF AREA STUDIES: ORIGIN, LINEAGES AND POSTWAR PERIOD AS AN ACADEMIC DISCIPLINEDavita Trip

Monica Dulos

Virginia de la Fuente

CONTENTS

I. The AuthorsII. What is Area Studies?III. Area Studies PreWWIIIV. Area Studies WWII to Cold WarV. Changes in Area StudiesVI. CriticismsVII. Prospects

THE AUTHORS

THE ORIGIN, NATURE AND CHALLENGES OF AREA STUDIES IN THE UNITED STATES

DAVID SZANTON Executive Director

of International and Area Studies at the University of California, Berkeley.

Publications: The Politics of Knowledge: Area Studies and the Disciplines.

THE UNINTENDED CONSEQUENCES OF COLD WAR AREA STUDIESIMMANUEL WALLERSTEIN Immanuel Wallerstein is an

American sociologist, historical social scientist, and world-systems analyst, best-known for his development of the general approach in sociology which led to the emergence of his World-System Theory.

Wallerstein notes that world-systems analysis calls for an unidisciplinary historical social science, and contends that the modern disciplines, products of the 19th century, are deeply flawed because they are not logical if they are separated, as, for example, in many analysis among the scholars of different disciplines.

DETERRITORIALIZATION AND THE CRISIS OF SOCIAL SCIENCETIMOTHY MITCHELL

He is a British political scientist and student of the Arab world.

Professor of Middle Eastern Studies at Columbia University.

He is a supporter of the academic boycott against Israel.

AREA STUDIES VERSUS DISCIPLINES: TOWARDS AND INTERDISCIPLINARY, SYSTEMIC COUNTRY APPROACHHANS KUIJPER

Graduated in Sinology from Leiden University and in Economics from Erasmus University Rotterdam (EUR)

BOUNDARY DISPLACEMENT: AREA STUDIES AND INTERNATIONAL STUDIES DURING AND AFTER THE COLD WARBRUCE CUMINGS

American historian of East Asia, professor, lecturer and author.

He is the Gustavus F. and Ann M. Swift Distinguished Service Professor in History, and the chair of the history department at the University of Chicago.

Specializes in modern Korean history and contemporary international relations.

AREA STUDIES AFTER POSTSTRUCTURALISMJ. K. GIBSON-GRAHAM

J.K. Gibson-Graham is a pen name shared by feminist economic geographers Julie Graham and Katherine Gibson.

Their work focuses on moving beyond a "capitalocentric" viewpoint and recognizing the wide range of economic systems that co-exist.

Katherine Gibson is currently professor at the Institute of Culture and Society, University of Western Sydney.

WHAT IS AREA STUDIES?

DAVID SZANTONIMMANUEL WALLERSTEIN

Form of translation An enterprise seeking to know, analyze and

interpret foreign cultures through multidisciplinary lens.

Multidisciplinary lens is essential because no single academic discipline is capable of capturing and conveying full understanding of another society and culture.

WHAT IS AREA STUDIES?

DAVID SZANTON

US social scientists and humanists proclaim universals

Fundamental Role of Area Studies: To deparochialize US- and Euro-centric visions of

the world in the core social science and humanities disciplines, among policy makers and in the public at large.

Area Studies scholars have been doing this by replacing pre-existing US and Euro-centric theories with new kinds of data, questions, and insights that are more sensitive to cultural and historical context of locals.

WHAT IS AREA STUDIES?

DAVID SZANTON

Broad goals1. To generate new knowledge and new

forms of knowledge for their intrinsic and practical value;

2. To historicize and contextualize, and as a result, to denaturalize the formulations and universalizing tendencies of the US social science and humanities disciplines which continue to draw largely on US and European experience.

WHAT IS AREA STUDIES?

DAVID SZANTON

Area Studies as an umbrella term for: Intensive language study In-depth field research in local language Focusing on local histories, materials, and

interpretations Testing elaborating, critiquing or developing grounded

theories based on detailed observation Multidisciplinary conversations crossing the boundaries

of social sciences and humanities.

* * It is important to understand Area Studies as an academic discipline in its historical context in which it developed in dynamics of political, intellectual, and institutional tensions especially in US universities.

WHAT IS AREA STUDIES?

DAVID SZANTON

SSRC National Conference on the Study of World Areas, 1948 The objective of area studies was:

Area Studies could make a direct contribution to the development of a universal and general science of society and human behavior.

To achieve the objective:1. The cooperation among the various disciplines of the social

sciences.2. Concrete focus for the disciplines of the social sciences and

related fields of the humanities and natural sciences.3. Teamwork.

In the Second SSRC Conference two years later, they were also concerned about financial implications.

WHAT IS AREA STUDIES?

IMMANUEL WALLERSTEIN

AREA STUDIESPRE WWII

TIMOTHY MITCHELLDAVID SZANSON

Beginning of the 20th century to WWIIFocused on European history and

literature, classics and comparative religion

Produced no more than 60 PhDs

AREA STUDIES PRE WWII

DAVID SZANTON

In the interwar period, scholars turned to study Oriental civilizations.

In US, the Egyptologist Henry Breasted founded in 1919 the Oriental Institute of U. of Chicago.

In Princeton, there were connections with the Arab world.

In 1927, Princeton established the country’s first department devoted to Oriental studies.

AREA STUDIES PRE WWII – 1930S

TIMOTHY MITCHELL

Gibb and Bowen’s survey In London, 1930s, a survey of Western

impact on the Arab world since 1800. The authors, Gibb and Bowen, wanted to

study Moslem societies, and hoped to produce a “synthetic study of problems… as a whole”.

Gibb and Bowen’s program shaped the development of Middle Eastern studies in the US.

By the end of WWII appeared in Britain many scholars with Arab background.

AREA STUDIES PRE WWII

TIMOTHY MITCHELL

DEVELOPMENT:WII TO COLD WAR

IMMANUEL WALLERSTEINBRUCE CUMINGSDAVID SZANTON

U.S. Army during Second War During World War II, the US Army conducted “area

training programs” of two kinds: Foreign Area and Language Curricula of the Army Specialized Training Program (ASTP-FALC) and Civil Affairs Training Schools (CATS).

The war brought enthusiasm for area studies, however ASTP and CATS only trained people quickly to do specific jobs, so area instruction was seen as makeshift.

Even though, these area programs were a portent of the future of area studies.

WWII

IMMANUEL WALLERSTEIN

“World region in the social science” was written in 1943 by The Committee on World Regions of the Social Science Research from US (SSRC).

Interest in foreign regions had been intensified with the WWII.

Scarcity of competent personnel. Need for social scientist. Key positions for highly trained specialists. Need for knowledge of languages, economics,

history, politics, religions… of foreign countries. Regional studies reduced vague generalities.

WWII

IMMANUEL WALLERSTEIN

Why were there no “regional specialists” in 1943?:

1. History and Social Sciences were always focused on Western World since 1850 to 1914.

2. The Non Western World was studied by two different disciplines: anthropology and Oriental studies for non Western “high civilizations”.

3. The state-market-civil society established the boundaries for political science, economics and sociology.

WWII

IMMANUEL WALLERSTEIN

Committee on World Area Research, 1947 After the War, Area Studies was more needed. In 1947 the Committee on World Area

Research of SSRC exposed some arguments for area studies:

1. National welfare required a citizenry well informed; a vast understanding in all other lands and in all other people was mandatory to gain peace.

2. Area studies would repair the lack of universality in social sciences.

1947

IMMANUEL WALLERSTEIN

Interdepartmental Commission on Oriental, Slavonic, East European and African Studies Headed by the Earl of Scarborough in 1947

(Great Britain). Oriental studies in universities or educational

institutions from GB. Oriental studies had been neglected in GB. Strengthen the structure of Oriental Studies in

GB.

1947

IMMANUEL WALLERSTEIN

1950sWestern Europe was the only familiar area of the world beyond the US

US ignorance of the rest of the world was striking

Perceived and direct challenges and threats from Soviet Union, China, and emerging Cold War

Prospects of decolonization in Africa and Asia

COLD WAR 1950S

DAVID SZANTON

What prompted the dramatic internationalization of US higher education? Many presumed that the adoption of US

institutions and procedures would bring rapid development.

Western models, examples and techniques might not work at all

More culturally and historically contextualize knowledge of other areas in the world was necessary for the US to assist them and to compete against Soviet Union

COLD WAR 1950S

DAVID SZANTON

Growth of Area Studies in the US 2 types of Area Studies Units

1. Area Studies departments Usually offer undergraduate degrees

LanguageLiteratureHistory Religion

Multidisciplinary

COLD WAR

DAVID SZANTON

Growth of Area Studies in the US 2 types of Area Studies Units

2. Area centers Institutes and programs Lecture series; workshops; conferences;

research and curriculum development projects etc.

COLD WAR

DAVID SZANTON

What Major US research universities that invested to put up area studies departments

- Berkeley -Columbia -Cornell- Chicago -Harvard -

Michigan- Pennsylvania - Princeton -Wisconsin- Yale

COLD WAR

DAVID SZANTON

Area Studies Fundings Fullbright

Offered teaching and exchange program from 1946

Foreign Area Fellowship Program Offered by Ford Foundation Large-scale national competition in support of

Area Studies Training in the US Two years of inter-disciplinary and language

training on a selecting country or region of the world

Two years for in-depth overseas dissertation research and writeup.

Started giving awards in 1951

COLD WAR

DAVID SZANTON

Other external fundings Fulbright Program for Mutal Education and

Cultural Exchange Department of Education (language teaching and

public service) National Science Foundation National Endowment for the Humanities Private foundations (Mellon, Henry Luce, Tinker) Rockefeller Foundation Carnegie Endowment for International Peace John D. and Katherine T. MacArthur Foundation

COLD WAR

DAVID SZANTON

Area and international studies in the cold war: CIA and FBI involvement 1946 OSS’s Soviet division relocated to Colombia university Transform area studies by enormous government funding

not publicly involved An intelligence agency, impartial and objective

Harvard Russian Research Centre Deeply involved with CIA, FBI and other intelligence/military agencies Foundations (Carnegie, Rockefeller, Ford) worked with state and

centre some cases launder CIA funding These scholars : subject of FBI investigation some denounced other

scholars to FBI Major figures in postwar development of Russian area studies

1949 President James B. Conant of Harvard + FBI established arrangements and the center’s work were made available to the bureau.

COLD WAR

BRUCE CUMINGS

FBI “Only a bit of an exaggeration to say that

scholars studying potential enemy countries either consulted with the government or risked being investigated by the FBI”

FBI investigations in the early fifties: Any rumor, wild charge, left of center joined

organization, name entered on a petition (like peace or racial integration), subscription to suspicious magazine enz.

Checking credit records, tailing around, monitored lectures, questioned colleagues and students and campus informants

Korean war and the John Reed club at Harvard

COLD WAR

BRUCE CUMINGS

Ford foundation in close consultation with the CIA helped shape: postwar area studies Collaborative research: modernization studies +

comparative politics later mediated through Social Science Research Council projects

“For years, government money… not always publicly acknowledged as such – made up more than 75% of annual budgets of institutions such as…”

By official sources in 1952 “fully 96% of all reported [government] funding for social sciences at that time was drawn from the US military”

Many books central to the political science profession in the 50/60’s were first internal classified government studies

COLD WAR

BRUCE CUMINGS

UNESCO’s International Social Science Bulletin, 1952, was written by Jean B. Duroselle, offered an acerbic view of US trends of area studies. His opinions were:- Area studies is a mere contribution to the “science of society”.- The sudden emerging of area studies in US must be “an instinctive reaction against the almost complete ignorance about everything that did not concern their continent.”

Hans Morgenthau also thought Area Studies was political reason for US.

COLD WAR

IMMANUEL WALLERSTEIN

In 1960s, Operation Camelot Project. It was a project to determine the feasibility of

developing a general social systems model. Supported by the Army and the Department of

Defense. The project was designed to study Latin America

principally, starting with Chile. After a problem with a Norwegian sociologist there - who saw area studies as “scientific colonialism, a process whereby the center of gravity for acquisition of knowledge about the nation is located outside the nation itself” -, the president of Chile and the US State Department needed to intervene, and finally the project was cancelled.

COLD WAR 1960S

IMMANUEL WALLERSTEIN

SSRC survey in 1973, by Richard D. Lambert This author could observe a spectacular growth in

area studies: 1. Research more sophisticated, as scholars more competent; 2. Young men were working on non western areas;3. The Area Studies’ graduate students were an important recruitment source for the foreign affairs agencies.4. The government also used those centers for the training of employees.

COLD WAR 1970S

IMMANUEL WALLERSTEIN

By the early 1970s, the discipline was in crisis. In the end, a new form of area studies appeared,

of woman’s studies on the one hand, and “ethnic” studies on the others.

In the 80s and 90s, many things needed to be taken into account: the disillusionment with “development”; the collapse of Communisms…

In the universities, there has been a explosion of programs in a period of increasing financial squeeze; the social sciences have been restructured because of the blurring of the boundaries among them; and there has been an expansion of cultural studies in the humanities.

COLD WAR 70S-90S

IMMANUEL WALLERSTEIN

CHANGES IN AREA STUDIES

DAVID SZANTONBRUCE CUMINGS

Dispersion of intellectual interests in Area Studies Evolving political relations of the US to the countries in

question The changing interest of public and private funders The academic disciplines and personal and political

commitments of the academics in each field The shifting mix of disciplines, and thus methods and

debates, that have dominated research fields The age of the field The difficulty of learning languages of the region Dramatic events or conflicts within the area The intellectual and political demands of populations

from the region residing in the US Ease of access for field, archival, or collaborative

research

CHANGES IN AREA STUDIES

World events that changed area studies studying areas in a specific way (namely

communist studies) end of cold war and Western communism economic or political development

world without borders collapsed area studies into international studies

New globalism as Japan’s economic bubble burst

emerging of the US’s power:we were now living in a world economy

CHANGES IN AREA STUDIES

The state and foundations were the quickest to adapt to this.

Clinton administration now major emphasis on foreign economic policy

Foundations reduced support for area studies interregional themes : development and

democracy Shift in source of power:

State > cold war transnational corporations > international market

Expectations of area experts

CHANGES IN AREA STUDIES

Funds Decline in government + foundation funds. Mellon and Ford foundation want to focus on cross-regional scholarship

New theoriesRational choice theory the only possible paradigm of global development no diversity of humanity no use for an area specialist

Denial of links with US government in the past, denial of it happening now

Current US administration ‘doctrine’ is US based global corporations using buzzwords: world without borders, increasing globalization, multiculturalism etc.

Tackle globalization but not by abandoning scholarly knowledge and resources that we already have

CHANGES IN AREA STUDIES

CRITIQUES

DAVID SZANTONHANS KUIJPER

1. Simply a political movement1. Motivated by Cold War obsolete2. Component of and support to US hegemony

Szanton: With the termination of Cold War in 1991, access to scholars, archives, field studies and collaboration, research agendas have expanded to include fields such as civil society, cultural change, ethnic resurgence, etc.

DAVID SZANTON

2. Merely ideographic- Primarily concerned with descriptions- merely a source of data and information and does not propose theory

Author: data collection and theory development are intertwined and interactive. Without a reasonable coherent theoretical structure or narrative in mind, a researcher would not know what to look for, how to interpret it, or how to write up as a publishable article, essay or book

DAVID SZANTON

2. Merely ideographic- Primarily concerned with descriptions- merely a source of data and information and does not propose theory

Author: not only have the area studies fields been thick with theory and theoretical debates, but they have also regularly generated theoretical developments and debates within the disciplines as well.

DAVID SZANTON

3. Uncritical use of politically biased categories, perspectives, and theories of colonialist scholar administrator predecessors/ attempt to maintain or expand hegemonic control.

Author: It is partly true. (Foucault) political power and position and the generation of knowledge are inevitably entwined.

DAVID SZANTON

4. Globalization- erasing boundaries, and forcing homogenization of localities, cultures and social and economic practices

Author: Globalization rarely erases all other social or cultural forms and processes. It produces disparities in power and wealth and its manifestations are always mediated and shaped by local histories, structures and dynamics.

DAVID SZANTON

4. Globalization- erasing boundaries, and forcing homogenization of localities, cultures and social and economic practices

Author: dramatic changes in the conceptualization, procedures and to some extent, the programmatic organization of Area Studies are nor resulting from increased recognition of the importance of processes of transnationalism as an element of globalization

DAVID SZANTON

The problem Area expert :

language, literature, antiquities, arts, technical developments, religion, folklore, social structures/changes, legal system/practice, political affairs, military affairs, philosophical legacy, public health, education system, farming, energy sector, economy, business management, geological features, flora, fauna, population composition/change, media landscape or environmental problems etc. of an area of their choice

to be well schooled in the related science/discipline not making statements on a subject outside their

expertise or the area in general Country view is incomplete

Theoretical framework: systemized knowledge

HANS KUIJPER

The solution Cooperation between professionals : many-sided area

studies Area as well as era (Middle ages)

Scientific cooperation Meaning

“.. An interdisciplinary group consists of persons differently trained, and organized into a common effort on a common problem with continuous communication among the participants.”

Actively listening to each other and being careful that ‘cooperation’ does not just mean division of labor

Necessity of cooperationOne man cannot really know two disciplines, but two men knowing two disciplines can inspire each other There should be otherness in sameness, but the latter should not be

hindered by the former

HANS KUIJPER

Cooperation Possibility (pitfalls?) of cooperation Difference concepts between disciplines

Know the difference between concepts, words Power of metaphor and analogy Pitfalls of binary logic Information visualization

Incompatibility of quantitative and qualitative research One can not do without the other

Unification of knowledge is possible if everyone is ready to have a respectful and learningful dialogue: what is right rather than who is right

HANS KUIJPER

Comparative research

Why? Knowledge of oneself is necessary : gained through

knowledge of the other and vice versa Without contrast we can’t perceive or understand anything

Problems Problem is to be unprejudiced especially for westerners Can comparative research be done? Only applicable to this

country or other countries as well? Both camps do not give enough attention to

national/inter-cultural communication which is a process

CONCLUSION Interdisciplinary study is possible if the

ambition is to attain comprehension

HANS KUIJPER

PROSPECTS

Suggestions regarding the future evolution of Area Studies, Attention/Focus:

Population diaspora Recontextualizing the prior focus on the nation-state

as the primary actor and ultimate natural unit of international analysis. (NGO, multiple forms of global capitalism, social institutions, etc)

Collaboration Well trained Area Studies scholars, as outsiders, may

discern significant elements of a society or culture that insiders tend to take for granted.

Fieldwork based on the collaboration between insiders and outsiders can provide much fuller and analytically rich accounts of other societies.

PROSPECTS

J. K. GIBSON-GRAHAM

Katherine Gibson and Julie Graham Field workThe fieldwork was designed as a response to

the Post-structuralism. Post-structuralism has tendency to distrust fieldwork,

seeing it as a form of colonization. Post-structuralism put capitalism as an economic

standard for understanding all economic activities. Globalization discourse performed the task of harnessing economic difference and specificity into capitalist hegemony. But this capitalocentric viewpoint strengthened the

euro-centrism by depriving economic autonomy of everything that is not capitalism.

PROSPECTS

Example: Oskar Spate’s description of Indian village in his

book, India and Pakistan: A General and Regional Geography. strong belief in the promise of ‘development’ and

a relatively partisan documentation of its progress.

‘backwardness’ and produced the necessity for development interventions.

PROSPECTS

Goal of KG’s fieldwork was to find new horizon of Area Studies by deconstructing capitalism and constructing the diverse economy in local community of Papua New Guinea (PNG).Tried to examine non-capitalist, non-market

activity which was largely ignored from conventional economic accounts. e.g. household and voluntary sector, gift economy

Area Studies as a rich resource for the theorization, observation, and enactment of economic difference.

PROSPECTS

Case study: Mama Lus Frut Oil Palm Industry in Papua New Guinea Capitalist development is promoted and

performed by company. Mama Card – used to pay women directly for

loose-fruit collection instead of relying upon the grower to distribute a portion of the block income to his wife.

Initially there were 10 women; now- 3200 Production in the project has increased and

women are now claiming up to 26% of the income generated by oil-palm production

PROSPECTS

Case study: Mama Lus Frut The mother were not only able to buy pots and

mattresses to support their noncapitalist household economic activities, they also participate actively in traditional gift exchanges that sustain clan identity.

They are empowered in their traditional gendered identities in both household and community.

PROSPECTS