Area studies in the global age: community, place, identity

摘要

The discipline of area studies underwent a crisis in the 1990s following the end of the cold war. In the U.S, the discipline was closely associated with U.S security concerns - its role to provide knowledge and understanding of those parts of the world which the State Department knew nothing about, in order to keep 'the "free" world" safe" from communism'(4). With the end of this worldwide threat, area studies seemed less relevant and declined as a research and curricular priority. Moreover, in both the U.S and the U.K, area studies came under threat from another quarter: globalisation. Knowledge of particular areas or regions came to seem less important, since we all now live in a 'global village'in which context is unimportant as we are all now subject to the same globalising forces and trends. Political science and economics, in particular, shifted their focus to large-scale modelling and area studies was often merged with the more' scientific', less' parochial' discipline of international relations. Area studies departments also fell victim to spending cuts. In an increasingly marketised higher education system, area studies was seen as expensive, since it required a range of disciplinary specialists and - even more costly - the training of advanced language specialists. The result was to put area studies departments in the front line for closure.