1. Cross-Regional Theory Building and the Geographies of Knowledge Production: How Researchers Across the Global South Can Leverage Comparative Area Studies (CAS)

• In Event: Advancing Comparative Area Studies (CAS): Knowledge Production, Institutional Implications, and Comparisons of Africa and Latin America

Abstract

The most widely disseminated research products worldwide tend to be disproportionately from well-resourced research universities in the Global North. Coincidentally, the most recent methodological trends in the most elite research universities are investing heavily in the study of big data, statistical analysis, and field experiments, often at the expense of immersive research into local contexts. This paper addresses two concerns that stand in the way of a more equitable form of global scholarly discourse. One is the relatively low levels of visibility and utilization of the potentially path-breaking knowledge that researchers in the Global South could contribute, not only in terms of data concerning their own countries or regions, but also in terms of fresh concepts, hypotheses and even research questions that might otherwise be overlooked in the Global North. The second is a broader analytic problem, which is the steadily declining attention and resources being paid to context-sensitive qualitative research of various areas of the world, especially areas in the Global South. One response to these twin problems comes in the form of "comparative area studies,” whi h simultaneously seeks to defend the innate value of area-specific contextual knowledge while cutting across the boundaries between areas in search of middle-range theoretical postulates from contextualized comparison of cases from different regions. Moreover, it can stimulate more "South-South cooperation" among scholars from different non-Western regions who can join forces to leverage and showcase the untapped intellectual potential of research being done in the universities and institutes of the Global South.

Author

• Rudra Sil, University of Pennsylvania