Area Studies has emerged as an important field of research, giving insight into specific geographic regions or culturally defined areas. Photo: TUCHONG

Area Studies, a lens through which major countries explore specific geographic regions or culturally defined areas, has emerged as an important field of research and has seen rapid development in China in recent years. Scholars have engaged in increasingly diverse and profound discussions on the discipline’s theories and research methodologies. Interdisciplinary and problem-oriented research, longitudinal and cross-sectional comparative studies, as well as positivism and field research warrant particular attention within the field of Area Studies.

Interdisciplinary and problem-oriented research

Interdisciplinary research has been recognized by academia as an important research method in Area Studies, primarily due to the diversification of its research objects. Its research objects can encompass various aspects of a region or a country, including society, economy, politics, military, religion, culture, languages and literature, and international relations. Consequently, it is only logical for Area Studies to draw on theories and research methods from related disciplines. Some scholars have proposed that historiography, anthropology, linguistics, sociology, political science, economics, law, geography, and environmental science lay the disciplinary foundation for Area Studies.

The aforementioned disciplinary foundation can be divided into four dimensions: spatial, historical, cultural, and social. The spatial dimension encompasses geography, environment, territory, networks, and other region- and space-specific aspects. The historical dimension is based on the historical experiences of various nations, countries, and regions worldwide. The cultural dimension involves language and writing systems, religion, culture, and other humanities fields. The social dimension includes politics, economy, and other social science fields. These dimensions are not separated, but are mutually integrated and inseparable.

Among them, the spatial dimension requires the participation of natural scientists, while historians, humanities scholars, and social scientists focus on the other three dimensions respectively. In addition to the research methods specific to the aforementioned disciplines, some theories are interdisciplinary in themselves, such as modernization theory and development theory, theories of nation-state building, and theories of civilization, which provide important theoretical supports for Area Studies.

However, interdisciplinarity is merely a basic principle in Area Studies. In light of the numerous disciplines in the humanities and social sciences, it is difficult for scholars to be knowledgeable in all the fields, let alone in natural and engineering sciences. As such, interdisciplinary research in practice often involves a cluster of disciplines, which is to say several disciplines are targeted according to personal research interests and needs. This represents a problem-oriented method engaging a discipline cluster.

For instance, research on political issues in Area Studies is based on political science, and supplemented by theories and research methods of other disciplines including economics, sociology, world history, modernization theory, theories of nation-state building, and state-society analysis. Research on economic issues mainly focuses on economics, but also draws on political science, sociology, world history, modernization theory, pedagogy, and the history of science and technology. Studies on ethnic issues rely heavily on ethnology and anthropology, while also referencing to political science, sociology, world history, modernization theory, theories of nation-state building, and state-society analysis.

Another important feature of problem-orientated research is that different regions have distinct research areas and methods. For example, Middle Eastern Studies tends to focus on church-state relations, tribes and ethnic groups, and nationalism, whereas Latin American Studies focuses on economic development strategies, and wealth disparities.

Longitudinal and cross-sectional comparative studies

Longitudinal comparison examines the relationship between history and reality. It traces historical roots to understand the evolution of societies, politics, economies, and cultures in various regions and countries in the contemporary world, while also enhancing historical research by analyzing contemporary issues. This is a “two-way lane,” involving both historical and contemporary research in Area Studies. In fact, many entities, concepts, and customs in Area Studies, such as nations, ethnic groups, countries, religions, sects, and cultures, have extensive historical origins and development. For example, the formation of the Arab world and Islam dates back to the 7th century, while Arab culture has an even longer history.

The political economies of Asian, African and Latin American countries are largely a result of the unequal international political and economic order shaped by Western powers’ colonial conquest, expansion, domination, and exploitation in modern times. Historical research is therefore a key to unlocking contemporary regional and national issues in Asia, Africa, and Latin America. It is necessary to use the concepts and methods of “long-term” research to explore “short-term” issues. Contemporary reality provides valuable living materials for historical research. Since history is constantly evolving, each generation of historians can only make judgments and draw conclusions based on the facts they have observed, and are thus limited by the times. Subsequent historical developments offer research samples for the next generation of scholars. In Area Studies, the current regional and national realities provide significant inspiration for the study of regional and national history.

Cross-sectional comparison refers to spatially cross-regional and cross-national research, which helps deepen the understanding of many issues. When people assert that a region has certain characteristics, they are implicitly comparing it to other regions, even if they do not realize it. For example, discussing the tradition of theocracy in the Middle East inherently involves a comparison with the separation of church and state in modern European countries. It is generally believed that each region has its own distinctive cultural features, such as Islamic culture in the Middle East, Hinduism and Buddhism in South Asia, and multiculturalism including Islam, Buddhism, and Confucianism in Southeast Asia. However, each region also witnesses national differences to varying degrees, involving various fields such as culture, religion, economic development, and political systems. The comparative method is therefore of great significance for Area Studies. The goal is to study a region thoroughly while not confining the analysis solely to that region.

As mentioned above, the West provides an important reference framework for researchers studying Asia, Africa, and Latin America. This is not only because the West was a reference model of modernization for many developing countries, but also because the various development models of Western countries and the flaws exposed in their modernization processes merit serious scholarly discussion. In addition, although China itself is in principle not among the research objects of Area Studies in China, it is undeniable that the country is an important and unique developing country within the broader context of Asia, Africa, and Latin America. To Chinese scholars, it is crucial to observe and reflect on the various changes occurring within China, summarizing the characteristics of Chinese modernization and the social and historical backgrounds that have shaped these characteristics, in order to broaden our research perspectives on Asian, African, and Latin American countries.

Positivism and field research

As a discipline that studies specific regions and countries, Area Studies, like world history, adopts positivism as one of its basic research methods. In other words, scholars must accumulate a wealth of information to conduct relevant research, including various types of multilingual documents, physical objects, and audio-visual materials. On this basis, in-depth and systematic research is carried out before drawing the final conclusion. In the terminology of historiography, this is known as “theory comes from history.” In this research process, theory is very important, but it is only meant to guide rather than replace empirical research. Without an empirical basis, Area Studies is at risk of becoming a castle in the sky without substance.

Researchers must be able to discern right from wrong, and identify representative and typical research materials. A database for long-term research should be established, and research materials need to be digitized for exchanging and sharing. In this process, mastery of languages is crucial. Although languages like English and French are significant to the study of colonies, major country diplomacy, and international organizations, they are more commonly used as working languages in the international academic community. The languages used in the target countries are more important, even if they are less commonly used worldwide. For example, Arabic, Persian, Turkish, and Hebrew are significant to the field of Middle Eastern Studies.

Some scholars with high theoretical literacy and extensive knowledge accumulation can extract unique concepts and theories from specific Area Studies and then apply them to other similar cases. These represent the few outstanding researchers.

Area Studies should not be limited to the study of literature in the study room. Researchers also need to carry out in-depth and extensive field research in the target country to familiarize themselves with the environment, pinpoint problems, and obtain information. It is advisable to visit the towns and villages in the target country to gain access to different social phenomena and groups of people and conduct questionnaire surveys when conditions are met. Only by doing so can researchers obtain primary data and accurate knowledge of the target country’s politics, economy, society, and culture.

Huang Minxing is a professor from the Institute of Middle Eastern Studies at Northwest University.