The Round Table “Contemporary Regional Studies: a Methodological Perspective”

The round table, which held as a part of the 4th International Conference “The world majority in the contemporary international realities: from fragmentation to new institutionalization”, its discussion and outcomes, can be rightfully regarded as a major breakthrough in conceptualizing the substance and tasks of contemporary Regional Studies.

As a teaching and potentially an academic direction, the Regional Studies must define its professional specificity, as well as its difference from overlapping research fields – History, Economics, International Relations, Political Studies, Oriental Studies (if Asian regions are considered) etc. Defining the place that the Regional Studies occupy in the system of academic methodology and, most importantly, its specific methods (apart from multidisciplinary, transdisciplinary and interdisciplinary methods) and their synthesis is another principal task.

Those issues were explored in the presentation made by HSE University Professor Evgeny Kanaev and the discussion that followed. Other issues scrutinized by the round table participants included the development of Regional Studies from a trans-disciplinary regionology perspective (the presentation made by Evgeny Kremnev, Head of the Department of Oriental Studies and Regional Studies of the Asia-Pacific Region, Irkutsk State University) and practical aspects of training sinologists in view of major tasks of contemporary Russian policy (the presentation made by Pavel Kuznetsov, Executive Director, International Fund for Investment Cooperation). Head of School of Regional Studies, HSE University Professor Olga Volosuk moderated the round table discussion.

The conclusion of overall assessment of the discussion are timely and relevant to developing a conceptual framework and instruments of the Regional Studies methodology: its tasks, main categories, levels of analysis etc. In light of this, events similar the round table discussion must be organized regularly. The School of Regional Studies, HSE University, as an internationally renowned center of academic and teaching excellence, will play a central role in this process.