Global history and the spatial turn: from the impact of area studies to the study of critical junctures of globalization

Middell, Matthias; Naumann, Katja

doi:10.1017/s1740022809990362

Cited by 154 publications

(34 citation statements)

References 3 publications

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“…In addition to the geopolitical factor, the crisis of area studies derived from the notion that these areas involved excessive academic specialization and did not reflect the concerns of a globalized world in which the idea of the nation-state was surpassed by transcontinental ties. 58 The crisis of legitimacy was followed by a significant reduction in resources for area studies (Martin; West, 1999, pp.106-111).…”

Section: Methodsmentioning

confidence: 99%

A institucionalização dos estudos Africanos nos Estados Unidos: advento, consolidação e transformações

Ferreira

2010

Rev. Bras. Hist.

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In 2003 the Brazilian government made the teaching of African history compulsory at all levels of education. This measure belatedly corrected one of the paradoxes of Brazilian education. In the nation with the greatest number of Afro-descendents outside of Africa, primary, secondary and university students were educated without obtaining a basic knowledge of the rich history of the African continent. In the last ten years, in a large part due to governmental and university funding agencies and the pioneering efforts of researchers and professors from various Brazilian universities, the scenario has changed substantially. Various research groups have concerned themselves with the systematic study of the African past and present. Recently, scholars have ignored (begun moving beyond) the most obvious matrix -the slave trade -and begun concerning themselves with questions of African sociology and anthropology. AbstractThis article surveys the foundation, consolidation and transformation of the field of African Studies in the United States from the 1960s to the present. It deals with the academic, political and geopolitical contexts that led to the creation of area studies. Particular attention is paid to the changes which American society underwent in the 1960s, particularly the civil rights movement, as well as the international context, notably the Cold War. At the heart of the rise of African Studies were US government policies and the active participation of private funding agencies such as the Ford and Mellon Foundations. The so-called field of area studies provided the conceptual basis on which African Studies were created. The article argues that this model has undergone changes in the past decade with the incorporation of the African Diaspora as part of African Studies.

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Section: Methodsmentioning

confidence: 99%

A institucionalização dos estudos Africanos nos Estados Unidos: advento, consolidação e transformações

Ferreira

2010

Rev. Bras. Hist.

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“…Middell and Naumann, 2010) has pointed out and discussed deficits in historiography. Especially comparative approaches have been subject to scrutiny.…”

Section: Emerging Horizons Of Future Research: Histories Of Transfersmentioning

confidence: 99%

Writing the history of geography: what we have learnt – and where to go next

Wardenga

2013

Geogr. Helv.

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Abstract. When writing the history of geography the subject is, customarily, one's own national geography. Moreover, until the 1960s, the discipline's history was generally told by recollecting the life and works of eminent scholars. Since then, the subject has been internationalised, owing a great deal to the IGU's commission on "History of Geographical Thought". It has also been broadened and aligned with the emerging sociology of science and later the "cultural turn"; so biographical narratives lost ground in favour of thematic studies. Nevertheless, most kept to their own national geography tradition as a frame of reference -whose development they now analysed in non-scientific contexts as well. Due to the expansion of its scope, writing the history of geography lost its exclusivity and became part of our everyday practice. Loosely following Jörn Rüsen (1982), we can distinguish three types of narration that have been employed in writing the history of geography: traditional, exemplary and critical narratives. In different ways, all three reacted to changes within geography. Changes were often perceived as crises and thus brought about attempts to stabilise identity claims through history. Currently we see a new research setting emerging that strives to overcome methodological nationalisms by means of comparative studies and analysing transfer processes. Reflecting upon one's own position is key to this concept. It results in a historiography that studies transnational patterns of the discipline's development. In doing so, it does not only find dense international networks of historical exchange relationships but also sees the researchers themselves as agents in the deconstruction of national stereotypes.

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“…Why would we study cultural mediators in this context? First of all, to an even greater extent than the revered figures of the national literary and cultural tradition, cultural mediators or passeurs , as Werner, Espagne, Middell, Leerssen and Charle have shown in their research on the history of cultural transfers, are the true architects of the common frames of reference and of (sub)national or international cultural identities (Espagne & Werner ; Charle ; Middell & Naumann , 153; Leerssen ). A focus on intercultural mediators will therefore result in an essential revision of literary and artistic historiography.…”

Section: Introductionmentioning

confidence: 99%

“…The mediator is the window through which we can observe the shifts in cultural identities. In other words, ‘we need histories that describe the meshing and shifting of different spatial references, narratives in which historical agency is emphasized, and interpretations acknowledging that the changing patterns of spatialization are processes fraught with tension’ (Middell & Naumann , 161, emphasis added).…”

Section: Introductionmentioning

confidence: 99%

Cultural Mediators and the Circulation of Cultural Identities in Interwar Bilingual Belgium

Lobbes

Meylaerts

2015

Orbis Litterarum

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During the interwar period, bilingual Belgium found itself in an existential crisis. In the 1920s and 1930s, growing linguistic conflicts between Dutch‐ and French‐speakers criticized the legitimacy of a unified Belgian nation and a solid national identity. In cultural life, that is in literary and artistic journals, in the course of arts exhibitions, in theatre life and in academies of fine arts, the validity of diverse cultural identities within Belgium was debated. Consequently, cultural and linguistic borders were shifting. In this article, the circulation of cultural identities in a conflicted bilingual country is analysed through the examination of the cultural transfers of one cultural mediator, Gaston Pulings. As a mediator, Pulings constantly transgressed political‐cultural, linguistic and artistic borders and his cultural practices were largely related to the construction, promotion or rejection of diverse cultural identities.

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Global history and the spatial turn: from the impact of area studies to the study of critical junctures of globalization

Cited by 154 publications

References 3 publications

A institucionalização dos estudos Africanos nos Estados Unidos: advento, consolidação e transformações

A institucionalização dos estudos Africanos nos Estados Unidos: advento, consolidação e transformações

Writing the history of geography: what we have learnt – and where to go next

Cultural Mediators and the Circulation of Cultural Identities in Interwar Bilingual Belgium

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