Area Studies for Urban Sustainability Research. Current Practice and Untapped Potential

This paper discusses the potential of Area Studies (AS) to inform scientific inquiry for urban sustainability. I draw from two strains of scholarship: (a) systemic and place-based research for sustainability; and (b) the post-1989 reflection on the conceptual foundations of Area Studies. I start from the assumption that AS and sustainability studies share a similar concern over place(s), shaped over time by by human-to-nature and human-to-human relations. I then lay down two pathways of contribution of AS to urban sustainability research. The first pathway reflects the role of AS in multi-/inter-disciplinary research to foster holistic understandings of sustainability. The second relates to the capacity for self-reflexivity inherent in AS, an important resource for transforming socio-ecological patterns characterizing human civilization.

This paper discusses the potential of Area Studies to inform scientific inquiry for urban sustain- ability. It draws from two strains of scholarship: the systemic and place-based research on sustainability and the post-1989 reflection on the conceptual foundations of Area Studies. The author starts from the assumption that Area Studies and sustainability research share a similar concern over place(s), shaped over time by human-to-nature and human-to-human relations. He then lays down two pathways for the contribution of Area Studies to urban sustainability research. The first reflects the role of Area Studies in overcoming disciplinary and sectorial barriers, fostering holistic understandings of sustainability. The second relates to the capacity for self-reflexivity inherent in Area Studies, which nurtures critical approaches to the study of sustainability. Once its epistemological and ethical potential is unearthed, Area Studies can become a thriving trans-disciplinary field informing socio-ecological transformations.