Area studies versus disciplines: Towards an interdisciplinary, systemic country approach

International Journal of Interdisciplinary Social Sciences

Volumn 3, Issue 7, 2008, Pages 205-215

  Kuijper, Hans ^a  

^a NONE

Author keywords

Area studies; Complexity; E science; Humanities; Interdisciplinarity; Social sciences; Systems theory

Indexed keywords

EID: 77954625658     PISSN: 18331882     EISSN: None     Source Type: Journal    
DOI: 10.18848/1833-1882/cgp/v03i07/52482     Document Type: Article

References (2)

1. For the sake of convenience, area, country, nation and nation-state are used interchangeably in this essay, the much longer, copiously annotated and referenced version of which the author will be pleased to send on request.
2. Area students occupy themselves, sometimes in great detail, with big and small issues related to the country of their predilection. One only needs visit the website of the Encyclopedia of American Studies ( http://eas-ref.press.jhu. edu ), the African Studies World Wide Web( www.africa.upenn.edu/padis/telmatics- sisskind ) or the Asian Studies WWW Virtual Library ( http://coombs.anu.edu.au/ wwwvl-asianstudies) to be convinced of it. The amount of information created by these scholars is growing exponentially. However, there is a clear distinction to be made between first- and second-order research, between doing, e.g., Iran, or Indonesia, study and thinking about how Iran/Indonesia study ought to be done. So, for deeper understanding of the topics that engage the attention and energy of area students, in the East and the West, an occasional intellectual soul-searching might be useful. It is precisely this what I am aiming at in the article. I leave it to each individual 'area/country expert' to try-on the cap, and to shoot at the piece, if she/he has the urge and the courage to do so. Two final remarks: (I) in order to be unambiguous, one should speak of America -, Africa - and Asia studies rather than American -, African - and Asian studies; (II) whereas Americans (USA) have a 'master narrative' (Agnes Heller) and constitute a 'community of destiny' (Edgar Morin), the natives of Africa, and Asia, do not.