Area Studies and the Disciplines: A Rejoinder

1997 ◽  
Vol 25 (1) ◽  
pp. 29-31
Author(s):  
John W. Harbeson
Keyword(s):  
Social Sciences ◽  
Political Science ◽  
Comparative Politics ◽  
Scientific Knowledge ◽  
American Political Science Association ◽  
Important Work ◽  
Area Studies ◽  
The Social ◽  
American Political Science ◽  
Science Association

Robert Bates’ letter entitled “Area Studies and the Discipline” (American Political Science Association, Comparative Politics 1, Winter 1996, pp. 1-2) uses the occasion of the SSRC’s abolishing of area committees to announce that “within the academy, the consensus has formed that area studies has failed to generate scientific knowledge.” As someone who has done some of his most important work on African development issues, Bates deplores declining investment in area studies as a “loss to the social sciences, as well as to the academy,” at an inopportune moment, “just when our [political science] discipline is becoming equipped to handle area knowledge in a rigorous fashion.”

Political Science as a Discipline: A Statement by the Committee on Standards of Instruction of the American Political Science Association

1962 ◽  
Vol 56 (2) ◽  
pp. 417-421 ◽  
Author(s):  
Gabriel A. Almond ◽  
Eric C. Bellquist ◽  
Joseph M. Ray ◽  
John P. Roche ◽  
Irvin Stewart ◽  
...  
Keyword(s):  
Social Sciences ◽  
Social Psychology ◽  
Political Science ◽  
Human Experience ◽  
American Political Science Association ◽  
Conceptual Schemes ◽  
The Social ◽  
American Political Science ◽  
Factual Data ◽  
Science Association

Political science is a basic discipline in the social sciences. Although it must necessarily maintain close scholarly association with the disciplines of history, economics, sociology, anthropology, geography, and social psychology, political science cannot be considered a part of any of these other social sciences. Political science has its own area of human experience to analyze, its own body of descriptive and factual data to gather, its own conceptual schemes to formulate and test for truth.

(Not) Getting Religion: Has Political Science Lost Sight of Islam?

2011 ◽  
Vol 4 (2) ◽  
pp. 203-228 ◽  
Author(s):  
Sultan Tepe ◽  
Betul Demirkaya
Keyword(s):  
Middle East ◽  
Political Science ◽  
Annual Meeting ◽  
North Africa ◽  
American Political Science Association ◽  
Area Studies ◽  
Starting Point ◽  
American Political Science ◽  
Middle East Studies ◽  
Science Association

AbstractIn this analysis, we expand the debate on the place of religion in political science by using the predictions of Wald and Wilcox as our starting point. Following in their footsteps, we ask how political scientists have studied Islam since 2002 and identify the studies on Islam and Muslims at the flagship conference of the discipline, the annual meeting of the American Political Science Association. We evaluate not only the quantity but also the approaches employed by these studies. In order to gauge the balancing of roles (or lack thereof) between the discipline and area studies, we also take a closer look at the Middle East Studies Association, the largest association focused on the Middle East, North Africa and the Islamic world and its annual meetings during the same period. Our findings suggest that, unless carefully addressed, the prevailing patterns are likely to result in a crippling knowledge gap among political scientists.

A Neo-Marxist Theory of Comparative Analysis

Slavic Review ◽  
1967 ◽  
Vol 26 (4) ◽  
pp. 657-662 ◽  
Author(s):  
David T. Cattell
Keyword(s):  
Comparative Analysis ◽  
Comparative Politics ◽  
Marxist Theory ◽  
American Political Science Association ◽  
Social Scientists ◽  
Initial Stage ◽  
The Social ◽  
Communist Countries ◽  
American Political Science ◽  
Science Association

The symposium on “Comparative Politics and Communist Systems” (Slavic Review, March 1967) represents, I believe, a general consensus among social scientists in Slavic studies that the study of Communist countries should be integrated into developments in the social sciences in general. The question is how this should be accomplished. The symposium participants argued for immediate and direct integration through various models such as the developmental or bureaucratic model. Another group, represented by the Communist Studies Conference of the American Political Science Association and the recent Carnegie grant for comparative communism, proposes that comparative communism be considered a major subcategory of comparative analysis. At least in the initial stage, it is reasoned, the various Communist systems should be compared with one another. I would suggest, however, that before either scheme is accepted the net be cast wider for a broader, more flexible organizing device.

Some Contributions of Sociology to Modern Political Theory

1921 ◽  
Vol 15 (4) ◽  
pp. 487-533 ◽  
Author(s):  
Harry Elmer Barnes
Keyword(s):  
Social Sciences ◽  
New York ◽  
Political Theory ◽  
Political Science ◽  
American Political Science Association ◽  
The Subject ◽  
American Political Science ◽  
Published Paper ◽  
Science Association

The fact that a sociologist has been requested to appear upon the program of the American Political Science Association is in itself far more significant than any remarks which may be made upon the subject of the relation of sociology to political theory. It is an admission that some political scientists have at last come to consider sociology of sufficient significance to students of politics to be worthy a brief survey of its contributions to modern political theory.Many of the more liberal and progressive political scientists will doubtless ask themselves if this is not erecting a man of straw, and will inquire if there was ever a time when political scientists were not willing to consider the doctrines of sociology. One or two brief reminders will doubtless allay this suspicion. It was only about twenty years ago that a leading New York daily is reputed to have characterized a distinguished American sociologist as “the fake professor of a pretended science.” About a decade ago an ex-president of this association declared in a twice published paper that sociology was essentially worthless and unscientific and that all of its data had already been dealt with more adequately by the special social sciences.

Emerging Models of Collaboration in Political Science: Changes, Benefits, and Challenges

2010 ◽  
Vol 43 (01) ◽  
pp. 49-58 ◽  
Author(s):  
Rose McDermott ◽  
Peter K. Hatemi
Keyword(s):  
Social Sciences ◽  
Political Science ◽  
Collaborative Research ◽  
Interdisciplinary Collaboration ◽  
American Political Science Association ◽  
Research Teams ◽  
The Face ◽  
American Political Science ◽  
Science Association ◽  
Large Research

In increasing numbers, political scientists are engaging in collaborative research. It is useful to consider the advantages of such efforts and to suggest strategies for finding optimal collaborators. In addition, there are issues and challenges that arise in the face of increased collaboration, particularly interdisciplinary collaboration across the life and social sciences. Inevitably, as the discipline has moved from a dominant solo-author model to a wider array of authorship possibilities, whether those teams encompass two-person partnerships, large research teams, or something in between, new administrative and cultural questions have already begun to surface as the discipline works to assimilate these changes. Consonant with previous efforts by the American Political Science Association (Biggs 2008; Chandra et al. 2006), we seek here to continue a broader disciplinary conversation surrounding the opportunities and challenges posed by more diverse patterns of teamwork. In so doing, we hope to help continue to encourage transparent, predictable, and openly collaborative intellectual partnerships wherein individuals receive the institutional credit and merit they deserve.

DO COMPARATIVE AND REGIONAL STUDIES OF NATIONALISM INTERSECT?

2005 ◽  
Vol 37 (4) ◽  
pp. 587-612 ◽  
Author(s):  
Moshe Behar
Keyword(s):  
Middle East ◽  
Political Science ◽  
American Political Science Association ◽  
Regional Studies ◽  
Regional Research ◽  
Area Studies ◽  
American Political Science ◽  
Middle East Studies ◽  
Science Association

The question behind this article evolved from two separate observations. While the expansion of comparative and cross-regional research has been actively promoted by leading scholars of the Middle East (and was later encouraged by such bodies as the Middle East Studies Association and this journal), so has the incorporation of scholarly insights from area studies been urged by leading political scientists as a prerequisite for revitalizing all of the discipline's subfields and institutionally endorsed by the American Political Science Association. Viewed as interrelated, these observations prompted the question framing this text: if the aims of many Middle East scholars and institutions are compatible with the aims of many political scientists and their association, why have they remained largely parallel, as suggested by scholars within both fields?

Political Science and East Asian Area Studies

1974 ◽  
Vol 26 (4) ◽  
pp. 560-575 ◽  
Author(s):  
Chalmers Johnson
Keyword(s):  
Political Science ◽  
United States Government ◽  
American Political Science Association ◽  
Area Studies ◽  
Science Area ◽  
Comparative Government ◽  
American Political Science ◽  
Local Materials ◽  
Science Association

Political science “area studies,” or what the American Political Science Association calls “foreign and comparative government and politics” in order to insure that they not be confused with the biggest area study of them all, United States government and politics, have always posed difficulties for the Emily Posts of the discipline. Not a year goes by without a guardian of die methodological flame writing an article bemoaning the “ameoretical” quality of area studies or issuing a warning mat “The immersion in local materials may cast the researcher adrift far from any theoretical shore.”

Report on a Survey of the Membership of the American Political Science Association

1974 ◽  
Vol 7 (04) ◽  
pp. 382-385 ◽  
Author(s):  
Thomas E. Mann
Keyword(s):  
Political Science ◽  
Executive Director ◽  
Response Rate ◽  
American Political Science Association ◽  
Full Time ◽  
National Office ◽  
Final Questionnaire ◽  
American Political Science ◽  
Number Of Individuals ◽  
Science Association

In conjunction with a discussion of the FY 1974–75 Budget at its April, 1974, meeting, the Council of the American Political Science Association instructed the Executive Director to survey the membership of the Association as to their attitudes toward the usefulness ofPSin form and content. In order to take full advantage of the resources needed to conduct this survey, the National Office conceived a broader study of membership attitudes toward Association activities. The final questionnaire was approved by the Council.On June 7, 1974, the questionnaire was mailed to 1,000 individuals selected randomly from the membership files of the Association. A second mailing was sent to those who had not responded on July 9. A total of 530 completed questionnaires were received for a response rate of 53 percent.The demographic characteristics of the membership, as reflected in the sample, are portrayed in Table 1.The small number of students in the sample is surprising, given the fact that a third of all Association members pay student dues. This discrepancy cannot be attributed to differential response rates; a check of our numbering system confirms the fact that “student” members returned their questionnaires at the same rate as “annual” members. Clearly, a substantial number of individuals paying student dues are employed full-time.

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