Contextualizing the Contextualizers: How the Area Studies Controversy is Different in Different Places

International Studies Review, vol. 26

Abstract

Abstract As part of recent years’ efforts at reaching a more context- and diversity-sensitive study of international relations, the nexus between fields of IR and Area Studies (AS) has received a renewed attention. While AS is usually presented as the “contextualizer” of the disciplines, this forum reverses the perspective by suggesting that an awareness of both diversity and context is also relevant when it comes to understanding the evolution of the field of AS and its relations to IR. In this forum, a selection of scholars with diverse backgrounds (US, Middle East, Europe, Latin America, Africa, and Central Asia), different (inter)disciplinary trainings and regional orientations examines how various fields of AS and its relations to the disciplines vary, and what follows from a stronger attention to such kind of diversity. By contextualizing the contextualizers, the forum brings attention to how a context-sensitive field can also suffer from its own provincialism. While the US-centric narrative about AS might have been almost “hegemonic,” at closer inspection, it turns out that AS in different (sub)disciplinary and geographical settings have evolved differently, and in some places the so-called Area Studies controversy (ASC) has been almost absent. A broadening of the perspective also reveals how the challenges to a successful cross-fertilization are not limited to those outlined in the “classic” ASC, but the forum does simultaneously offer encouraging lessons on how dialogues between area specialists and discipline-oriented scholars can help to overcome epistemological, theoretical, or methodological blind spots. Rather than presenting the IR/AS nexus as a panacea per se, the aim of the forum is therefore to invite to a broader and more self-reflective discussion on some of the opportunities as well as challenges associated with this strategy for making the study of international relations more context-sensitive and attentive to different forms of diversity.

Authors 11

1. Jan R. Busse

   Universität der Bundeswehr München

   Affiliation as printed

   University of the Bundeswehr Munich , Germany

2. Morten Valbjørn

   Aarhus University

   Affiliation as printed

   Aarhus University , Denmark

3. Asel Doolotkeldieva

   OSCE Academy

   Affiliation as printed

   OSCE Academy Bishkek , Kyrgyzstan

4. Stefanie Ortmann

   University of Sussex

   Affiliation as printed

   University of Sussex , UK

5. Karen Smith Aachen

   Leiden University · University of Cape Town

   Affiliation as printed

   Leiden University, Netherlands and University of Cape Town , South Africa

6. Seteney Shami

   The Arab Council for the Social Sciences

   Affiliation as printed

   Arab Council for the Social Sciences , Lebanon

7. Sérgio Costa

   Freie Universität Berlin

   Affiliation as printed

   Freie Universität Berlin , Germany

8. Irene Weipert-Fenner

   Peace Research Institute Frankfurt

   Affiliation as printed

   Peace Research Institute Frankfurt , Germany

9. Jonas Wolff

   Peace Research Institute Frankfurt

   Affiliation as printed

   Peace Research Institute Frankfurt , Germany

10. Saskia Schäfer

    Humboldt-Universität zu Berlin

    Affiliation as printed

    Humboldt University of Berlin , Germany

11. Norma Osterberg-Kaufmann

    Humboldt-Universität zu Berlin

    Affiliation as printed

    Humboldt University of Berlin , Germany