Necessary Travel

Susan Hodgett; Patrick James

doi:10.5771/9781498545150

Summary

Recent, unpredictable incidents in diverse locations – Paris, Nice, Ankara, Sinai, California, Manchester and London – reinforce how governments and scholars must look beneath the surface for understanding of the turbulent post-9/11world. In particular, what does ‘expertise’ mean in this new era? This book answers that question? The volume is about a particular kind of expert – a type suffering from ‘bad press’ for a long time – namely, scholars who carry out area-based research. The term ‘expert’ itself even comes in for some humor about how it might be defined – someone who knows more and more, about less and less, until eventually they know everything about nothing. Behind the old joke is a grain of truth: Expert standing becomes unimpressive to us, in both intellectual and practical terms, when it is seen as parochial and lacking in vision.

This volume will explore Area Studies (AS), a prominent type of expertise, along a range of dimensions. As we move towards the third decade in the new millennium, attention shifts to the somewhat unexpectedly positive future of NewArea Studies (NAS) as a resurgent intellectual movement. NAS has departed from what the editors have dubbed Traditional Area Studies (TAS) – commonplace till the millennium. Both the editors of this volume, and its contributors, are leading scholars in area-based work across continents. Together they have participated and observed as area-oriented research struggled to overcome protracted and intense criticism since the Cold War. Thus, the volume marks the resurgence of area-based research in its new guise as NAS – the crux – understanding increasing complexity around a shrinking globe.

Taken together, the contents of this volume make the the case for a New Area Studies grounded in necessary travel, using new and wider methodologies involving reflective practice and production of knowledge with local people. It argues the necessity of such broad and deep approaches in order to appreciate what is going on in the world in the 21st century and to help us see off the arrival of more and increasingly nasty unpredictable shocks.

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Bibliographic data

Copyright year: 2018
ISBN-Print: 978-1-4985-4514-3
ISBN-Online: 978-1-4985-4515-0
Publisher: Lexington, Lanham
Language: English
Pages: 194
Product type: Edited Book

1. Contents No access
2. Acknowledgments No access
1. 1. Contents No access
  2. Notes No access
  3. References No access
1. 1. New Areas Do Not Make New Area Studies The ‘Zomia’ Debate No access
  2. Working In The Borderlands Of Asia No access
  3. Is the Notion of Area Really the Problem that NAS Needs to Address? No access
  4. TransformING TAS into NAS in the borderlands of Asia No access
  5. Notes No access
  6. References No access
2. 1. A Context for Regeneration No access
  2. The New Media Environment No access
  3. New Agendas, New Paradigms No access
  4. The Value of Comparison No access
  5. The Centrality of Language No access
  6. Notes No access
  7. References No access
3. 1. Note No access
  2. References No access
4. 1. Latin American Studies No access
  2. A Little History, Criticism and Challenges No access
  3. Latin American Studies No access
  4. in the Context of NAS No access
  5. Recommendations No access
  6. Final Comments No access
  7. Notes No access
  8. References No access
5. 1. What is Central Asian Studies? No access
  2. Constructing Central Asia No access
  3. Central Asia as a Set of Mobile Societies No access
  4. The Development of Central Asia No access
  5. New Area Studies and Central Asia No access
  6. References No access
6. 1. Regions and Names No access
  2. area studies and the International Arena No access
  3. The Case of the Middle East and Islamic World No access
  4. Islamic Studies as Religious Studies No access
  5. 9/11, 7/7 and Area Studies No access
  6. From Middle East to Muslim World Studies No access
  7. Future Directions No access
  8. Notes No access
  9. References No access
7. 1. Blurring the Boundaries of History, Fiction and the Truth No access
  2. The Seizure of Mecca No access
  3. A Turning Point For Women? No access
  4. Negotiating History, Gender and Religion in Fragmentation No access
  5. Gender Roles and Female Identity Formation and Reformation No access
  6. Re-appropriating Religion No access
  7. Tolerance versus Intolerance No access
  8. Conclusion No access
  9. Note No access
  10. References No access
1. 1. The Difference Space MakesGendered Mobility and New Area Studies No access
  2. Unruly WomenTrangressing the Norms of Space, Gender, and Genre in North America Literature No access
  3. TransArea Studies No access
  4. Notes No access
  5. References No access
2. 1. The Case of and for Québec Studies No access
  2. The Case of and for Québec Circus Studies No access
  3. Cirque No access
  4. More Than Circus No access
  5. Notes No access
  6. References No access
3. 1. Figurations of the border No access
  2. The border as bureaucratic run-around No access
  3. The Border as Dialectical Image No access
  4. Borders are fiction, until they are not No access
  5. The Everywhere BorderRenaissance of Border Studies No access
  6. The Institutionally Deep Border: A Dispositif No access
  7. When the Dispositif Fails, It Tries Again No access
  8. New Ways to See the Border No access
  9. Conclusion No access
  10. The Border as a Making No access
  11. References No access
4. 1. Origins of Canadian Studies within Canada No access
  2. Critiques of Canadian Studies No access
  3. Celebratory Malaise No access
  4. Canadian Studies at the International Level No access
  5. References No access
1. 1. Dimensions of New Area Studies No access
  2. Future Research No access
  3. Final Thoughts No access
  4. Notes No access
  5. References No access
Index No access Pages 181 - 188
About the Contributors No access Pages 189 - 194