A New Horizon in Area Studies
Area Study: A New Horizon of Activist Epistemology
2001 Volume 1 Pages 119-128
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2001 Volume 1 Pages 119-128
To recover the sense of holistic fulfillment that is noticeably lacking in communities and academic fields, area study may contribute to a resurgence of energy for rebuilding communities and recombining partitioned disciplines. The key is to abandon the belief in expertise, and to reconcile activism with the golden mean that founded classical scholarship in ancient China and Greece.
On our path to this golden mean, we need to refine basic concepts and methods in area study. Above all, we need to reconsider the naive perception of area that refers implicitly to actualities in physical space and time, and to recognize three phases of area. The conventional area concept is specified as the phase of “natural area”, in which man and nature interact with each other and create active cultures and institutions. Onto this, other two phases are to be superposed, “meta-area” and “holistic area”. “Meta-area” is the phase that is reconstructed in man’s metaphysical recognition. “Holistic area”, which is comprised of these two phases, rests on the mutually sustaining balance between them.
The processes of hegemonic expansion of European powers and the diffusion of the idea on man’s dominance over nature in modern times have deformed the balance of these phases, and created “parasitic meta-area” such as colonies and extravagant cities. Cloning and nuclear arms, which may endanger all life on earth, have generated fears about the appearance of new “parasitic meta-areas”. The aim of area study is the pursuit of the means to prevent the explosion of “parasitic meta-areas” by discovering the logic of “holistic area”.
The conventional concept of the intrinsic nature of an area is also to be examined since the global dissemination of culture and natural elements have undoubtedly influenced the conditions of various areas.
Pursuit of the golden mean in solving contemporary problems that an area faces is recommended to students with more emphasis than pursuit of differences among areas.
