Unthinking the nation state as area

Interrogating Japan and Japanese studies

Datos Bibliográficos

ID4777541
AutoresChris Mcmorran (0000-0002-2684-9630, National University of Singapore, Singapore, autor de correspondencia)
Año2016
Volumen34
Número5
Páginas815-821
Fecha de publicación2016-10-01
Peer ReviewedSí
Open AccessSí
TipoARTICLE
RevistaEnvironment and Planning D Society and Space (JOURNAL)
Identificadores de la revistaISSN: 0263-7758 • E-ISSN: 1472-3433
EditorialSAGE Publications Inc (PUBLISHER)
DOI10.1177/0263775816656525
OpenAlexW2468926861
IdiomaEN
Citas recibidas2
Referencias citadas16

Geographers and others have recently addressed the problematic of area studies by suggesting alternate ways to recognize the connectedness of peoples and places. However, some areas seem so self-evident as to resist their undoing. One such area is the nation state. In this paper, I examine the resilience of the nation state as area through the example of Japanese studies. I discuss the emergence in the United States of Japanese studies as a field, and thus Japan as an area worthy of study, due to its enemy status in World War II, which highlights a troubling disciplinary origin in interrogation that still haunts the academy. I continue by explaining how Japan's postwar amnesia of its pre-1945 empire and the influence of one research monograph in particular helped produce the enduring notion of a homogeneous and spatially isolated Japan. Subsequent decades of research have tried to undermine this notion, albeit without questioning the ontology of Japan itself. In this paper, I outline challenges to unthinking the nation state as area, including existing institutional barriers and the role of Japanese studies as a source of professional identity, both in general and for me personally

Adversary · Aesthetics · Identity (music · Nation state · Political economy · Political science · Politics · Sociology · State (computer science · Undoing · Financial Crisis of the 21st Century · Gender Studies · Historical Geography and Geographical Thought · Japanese History and Culture · Law · Psychology