A New Project on Border Studies is Set Up:
“Reshaping Japan’s Border Studies” Selected as a "Global COE”
(Centers
of Excellence) Program.
The SRC’s
application for the new project sponsored by the Japan Association of
the Promotion of Science was approved. This program mobilizes methods
and research tools from various disciplines of humanities and social
sciences to establish a new research field focused on area studies.
Special priority is given to political science, history, international
relations, economics, geography, ethnography, anthropology, cultural
and religious studies, environmental studies and any other related
research disciplines covering border related issues. Finally, the
program identifies commonly shared disciplines in border studies and
features a new paradigm on area studies toward an international
research community.
Objectives
and Direction
First, the SRC expanded its target area from the Slavic and Eurasian
spaces (the former Soviet Union and Eastern Europe) to include
neighboring areas such as China, India, Turkey, Western Europe and
others. The SRC identified the challenges as a consequence of the
collapse of the Soviet Union and disintegration of the former European
communist space, and recognized the importance of interaction between
the Slavic and Eurasian spaces and its surrounding areas. In the
post-Cold War period, the previous framework of area studies such as
“East Asia,” “South Asia,” “Middle East” does not work well to analyze
state borders in an increasingly globalized world. This situation is
illustrated by the popularity of such fashioned adjunct phrases as
“great” or “greater” applied to “Central Asia,” the “Middle East,”
“East Asia,” or “Europe” by policy makers and the mass media. A
reconsideration of area studies is urgently required.
Second, the process of re-borderlization has also proceeded in parallel
with de-borderlization as mentioned above. Many new but small or
middle-scale countries created in the Slavic and Eurasian regions often
trigger conflict among neighbors and are a source for potential
regional disorder. Some cases are peaceful such as in the Czech
Republic and Slovakia as well as in some former Soviet republics but
most cases threaten human security and the previous stability in the
region such as in the former Yugoslavia, the Black Sea Rim and Central
Asia. This phenomenon, which became apparent since the end of the Cold
War, is not confined within the borders of the Slavic and Eurasian
communities. Simultaneous movement of the de-borderlization and
re-borderlization processes can be observed throughout the world. This
is why the establishment of a new methodology to compare similar
phenomena in different areas is required as a common form of border
studies. Such border studies could be a tool, even if not well
coordinated yet, to make suggestions on wide-ranging border-related
phenomena free from the constraints of segregated area studies.
It is true that border issues are directly caused by the realities of
the boundary line exclusively managed by a sovereign state. Therefore,
border research must be targeted to investigate on-site boundary issues
as a fact-finding mission, first, and then, to compare the challenges
with similar but different cases in another area through a more
credible methodology. However, border-related phenomena are not
necessary influenced by the factual borderline itself. Rather, the
local inhabitants’ representation on where they should live and what
they should share with others might be often more critical. Perceptions
of the border, in turn, could reflect the border related challenges.
For example, where is the line separating “Europe” from “non-Europe” in
the consciousness of the people in “common” Europe? What is “Asia”? Is
there such a thing as an “Asian value” really shared among Asian
people? Why do many Russians feel threatened by an ascending China?
This kind of “soft” border studies should necessarily collaborate with
and support the studies of the more “visible” issues of demarcation,
migration and its management on/around the borderland.
Compelling
Reasons for Establishing this COE in Japan?
Japan, most of whose inhabitants are usually indifferent to national
borders, is in fact faced with serious border problems. This means not
only the territorial problems between Japan and Far Eastern countries,
but also the phenomenon of economic de-borderlization and demographic
mobilization in the context of globalization. To fully enjoy her future
as a wise member of the global community, Japan should strive to better
understand the physical as well as cultural borders.
In this background, our project is future-oriented to overreach the
targeted Slavic and Eurasian area studies and apply the accumulated
expertise of the area to the world-wide border studies community. The
program will also develop comparative schemes and skills of border
studies and seek to theorize separate cases in a broader but in a more
sophisticated manner.
Finally, our project has plans to offer our research results to
policy-making communities, so that they could be better informed and
prepared to resolve border-related conflicts and stabilize the
de/re-borderlization process for peace and prosperity of the world
community.
The SRC is a national collaboration institute, originally obliged to
provide services to the Japanese community on Slavic and Eurasian area
studies. The SRC is conscious of its responsibility for educating,
training, and promoting internationally not only graduate students of
Hokkaido University, but also all younger specialists in Japan, East
Asia and other areas. Considering the lack of an integrated society on
border studies in Japan and dearth of contributions to the world
community on border studies, this program has three reasons to be led
by the SRC.
First, the SRC, following the 21-COE successful achievements, can
invite already existent but fragmented individual researchers on a
border-related topic on any area to a united forum and develop
collective works in a conscious, theoretical framework of border
studies. The SRC, as a unique center for area studies in Japan, is
well-situated to create a nation-wide network on border studies
throughout areas, and, possibly, create a Japan Association of Border
Studies in the foreseeable future. Border studies itself is not well
matured yet and needs a solid foundation for integrating fragmental
regional facts. To find and indentify a theoretical tool to compare
different strokes is urgent. Without this process, border studies,
though the materials are rich and suggestive, will easily turn into
clumps of waste.
Second, Eurasia and East Asia, particularly Russia and China, have been
a vacuum of the “international” community on border studies. The SRC
found and collected many border-related topics in that area and
discovered that more than a few on-the-site researchers had activated
their works. However, this untapped source of expertise is rarely
shared with the outside, particularly, with western scholars. Two
reason are counted for this “non-discovery”: linguistic barriers (most
resources are not available in English) and political barriers (too
delicate for study in the former communist borderland). Even the
Association for Borderland Studies (ABS) based in the US, the
International Boundary Research Unit (IBRU) based in the UK and the
Border Region in the Transit (BRIT), the largest international network
on border studies, rarely cover the field. Although the program leader,
Akihiro Iwashita, has endeavored to introduce these rich sources of
border-related expertise to the international research community,
organized contributions from the SRC-led program must be more vocal and
critical. The SRC, using the rich resources of the international
networks it has developed over the past five decades, can realize this
aim.
Third, the program puts an emphasis on creating a core of young
researchers on border studies by uniting those networks and
communities. Most of them, after the five year term of the program,
will be encouraged to publish in worldwide periodicals on border
issues, such as Journal of Borderland Studies, Boundary Security
Bulletin and Europe-Asia Studies. In other words, this program
concentrates attention and funding on a relatively small number of
promising doctoral candidates and post-doctoral researchers, whose
talents and devotion are obvious, rather than widely distributing
money. The SRC has also enough experience to encourage younger
researchers by utilizing scholarship programs such as the
Suzukawa-Nakamura Fund and the ITP (International Training Program for
younger researchers, sponsored by JSPS) and to educate graduate
students under the regime of the Graduate School of Letters, Hokkaido
University. The educational collaboration with the SRC and Graduate
School of the Letters must be focused for educational effectiveness of
the program.
Plan
for research activities
(a) In the coming five years, this program will establish a new
discipline of area studies by collecting local expertise on border
studies to create a Japanese academic community and networks on border
studies.
(b) Based on field work case studies on each area related with the
border-related phenomena and realities, this program will elaborate a
new methodology on border studies applicable throughout any area. It
will be quite useful for analyzing the twenty-first century world, in
which the cognitive crafting by non-state, trans-border actors will
play a decisive role.
(c) Within five years, this program will create a core of young
specialists in Japan, who will constantly produce brilliant
achievements in worldwide journals.
The Program consists of:
Slavic Research Center; Graduate School of Letters; Graduate School of
Public Policy; Graduate School of Economics, Graduate School of
International Media, Communication, and Tourism Studies; Graduate
School of Education; Center for Ainu and Indigenous Studies; The
Hokkaido University Museum
Links:
http://www.jsps.go.jp/english/e-globalcoe/data/04_selection/selection_results_for_FY2009.pdf
http://www.jsps.go.jp/english/e-globalcoe/05_selected_programs_k.html
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