Decentering Geography in a Globalizing World: A Golden Jubilee Celebration of UBC's Area Studies Tradition

Abstract

Critical and innovative area studies have long been an element that constitutes the hallmark of scholarly excellence at UBC Geography.This paper foregrounds the contribution of area studies to the thriving of UBC Geography in the last half a century.It identifies and situates the recent growth and transformation of the Chinese economy in a global and geographic perspective. Two observations are made.First,the rise of regional economies in China and the Asia-Pacific has accelerated a'decentering'trend in which the global economic landscape has become increasingly multi-polar.Second,it has been UBC Geography’s well-established tradition to challenge the orthodoxy of Western -based theoretical models,bring to the fore regional and culture-sensitive alternatives,and hence contribute to'decentering'knowledge production in geography. A critical evaluation of the implications of China’s growth and transformation for geographic enquiry has identified four areas of research with great theoretical potentials,namely①privatization and economic development;②state,society,and space;③urbanization of capital,labor,and land;and④the environment and Chinese political ecology.The paper closes with a remark that the demise of American-led neoliberalism and the emergence of new dynamics in the Asia-Pacific have together opened up a fascinating terrain on which UBC Geography is well-suited to continue its lead in shaping the future of area studies.

批判的且富有創新的區域研究歷來是UBC地理系學術研究的一個重要特征。論文突出了半個世紀以來區域研究對UBC地理系的繁榮所作出的貢獻。文章從全球和地理的角度來判定和解釋中國經濟的發展和轉型,從中得到兩個結論:第一,中國和亞太地區區域經濟的崛起加速了世界經濟景觀的'去中心化'趨勢,全球經濟的多極格局日趨明顯;第二,UBC地理系一直具有挑戰正統西方理論的優良學術傳統,尤其在區域和文化領域獨樹一幟,因而對世界地理學知識生產的'去中心化'做出了重要貢獻。就地理知識探索而言,中國經濟增長和轉型在四個領域極具理論研究的潛在價值:①私有化和經濟發展;②國家、社會和空間;③資本,勞動力和土地的城市化;④環境和中國政治生態學。本文最后的結論是:美國新自由主義的衰落和亞太地區新動態的浮現為地理學打開了一個迷人的空間,在這里UBC地理系理所當然可以繼續領導并塑造區域研究的未來。