Seoul, Korea
Report on the First PEARL Workshop:
Asia-Europe Research Strategies for the 21st Century
In comparison with the contacts between Europe and the United States and between the United States and Asia, intellectual ties between Asia and Europe have remained relatively weak since the end of the colonial era. The 21st century would require the development of a closer intellectual partnership between scholars in the Social Sciences and Humanities in Asia and Europe. This was a conclusion made by a small group of directors of Asian and European centres of European or Asian Studies who met in Copenhagen in August 1997By Robert Cribb
The directors of the IIAS and NIAS (Copenhagen) had called the meeting in Copenhagen to discuss ways in which Asian and European centres of European or Asian Studies might fruitfully co-operate, especially in the light of the developing political rapprochement between Europe and Asia. It was concluded that the political rapprochement reflected only one aspect of the need for closer collaboration between Asia and Europe. Developing a shared research culture between the two ends of the Eurasian continent would not only deepen the quality of research in either region on global issues, but would enable attention to be directed more effectively to issues which are shared between the two regions but which do not commonly emerge on research agendas in the United States.In order to anchor this conclusion in the broader research communities of the two regions, and to develop ways of promoting research integration, the meeting agreed to form a loose co-ordinating structure, which later took the name PEARL, Programme for Europe-Asia Research Linkages. It was also agreed to convene a workshop in Korea in 1998 to address the theme 'Asia-Europe Research Strategies for the 21st Century in Asian and European Studies'.
This first PEARL Workshop, held in Seoul on 7-9 October 1998, was organized jointly by Yonsei University (Korea), which acted as host for the occasion, the Strategic Alliance between the IIAS and NIAS, and the Asia-Europe Foundation (ASEF). It was co-sponsored by the European Science Foundation.
The workshop was intended both to clarify the philosophical basis for the rapprochement between Asia and Europe and to identify actions, programmes, and institutions, which could bring that rapprochement closer to reality. The conference was attended by 32 leading figures in Asian Studies, European Studies, and research policy, drawn from major Asian and European institutions. The aim in inviting participants to the conference was not to select national representatives, but rather to construct a relatively small group of specialists who could bring a wide range of skills and insights to the problems at hand.
The conference heard keynote speeches from Professor Wang Gungwu ('Roads to progress and tradition') and Dr John Clarke ('Beyond Orientalism'), as well as discussion papers from Ambassador Börje Ljunggren ('Philosophical aspects of Asia-Europe research strategies'), Dr Max Sparreboom ('From networking to joint research programmes'), and Professor Shamsul A.B. ('From fragmentation to convergence: constructing a future joint Asia-Europe research agenda'). A large part of the workshop, however, was taken up with small working groups set the task of turning the speakers' insights into practical proposals.
Towards a shared research culture
Discussion during the opening sessions of the workshop rapidly made it clear that any attempt to draw a tight definition of Europe and Asia would risk strangling the enterprise: Europe cannot be sharply distinguished from the West and the Modern, while modernity in Asia is far from being simply an import from the West. Both regions, moreover, are so diverse that some of the most fascinating similarities and parallels between Europe and Asia are found at the national and local levels. Nonetheless, the idea of Europe and the idea of Asia are both powerful concepts at the level of public debate and at the level of political and intellectual decision-making and PEARL has a valuable role to play in putting the intellectual dimension of the relationship between those two concepts on a basis of partnership and equality.
Further discussion made it clear that the problem was not simply one of two intellectual worlds which had somehow failed to make contact. Rather, there were structural forces at work which made communication difficult. Asian Studies on the one hand is an enormous and diffuse global enterprise. The links between scholars in different countries are hampered by differences in language and culture, by distance and by lack of opportunity to engage intellectually, but those links exist, and a Japanese scholar of Southeast Asia is identifiably in the same vast scholarly community as a Spanish scholar of China.
'European Studies', however, is a much less clearly defined field. For some institutions it refers only to studies of the European integration process; for others it refers only to studies which clearly reach beyond national boundaries; for others still it is a branch of Cultural Studies with its specific theoretical orientation; and finally for some (mostly outsiders), it is the entire corpus of scholarship on Europe and its many societies.
Because this structural disparity will not disappear, the challenge for PEARL is not one of bringing together two self-conscious fields. It has to undertake two tasks: first, to create links which will help to make researchers on Asia more conscious of the additional insights which European comparisons can bring, while making researchers on Europe more conscious of the additional insights which Asian comparisons can bring; and, second, to develop international research projects which call naturally for joint Asian-European research teams, either because those teams are the most capable or because the topic relates to some issue which is of specific importance in Asia and Europe.
Practical discussion in the workshop therefore focused both on measures to draw the attention of European and Asian scholars to each other, both by means of exchange and through joint research programmes.
Exchange programmes
After some discussion on the issue of exchanges, there was a broad consensus that two lines of action should be pursued. First, effort should be put into developing exchange programmes for scholars in mid-career. Such scholars may have undertaken specialized research in their early academic years but now, established in teaching jobs, are both ripe for the intellectual stimulation which would come from a prolonged encounter with the other region, and are ideally placed to transmit cross-regional insights to their students. Not being of professorial standing, they tend to lack access to international networks but are a vital element in giving depth and diversity to the Europe-Asia intellectual relationship. It is likely that such exchange programmes can be organized most effectively on a bilateral basis, with PEARL acting as a kind of clearing house through which initiatives can be publicized and experiences exchanged. The IIAS is currently working on an inventory of Asia-Europe intellectual exchange, commissioned by the ASEF, and this inventory may be both a valuable source of data and a means of distributing information.
Second, the workshop agreed that efforts should be made to develop co-operation between the European Erasmus/Socrates programme and its Asian counterpart, UMAP, so that student exchanges between Asia and Europe can take place expeditiously.
Joint research projects
The workshop also agreed that it was of enormous importance to develop major long-term collaborative research projects involving both Asian and European scholars. The projects should not only be based on complex issues of direct contemporary relevance but should draw together novel combinations of researchers.
A wide range of possible projects was discussed, but the meeting agreed that the current global economic turmoil had thrown open a vast range of new questions needing sustained, collaborative research attention. Specific topics raised by the intensification of globalization and the economic recession include:
- the issue of good governance;
- labour relations and migration;
- lifestyles and norms;
- environmental issues.
In addition, the meeting identified promising projects based on the specifics of the Europe-Asia relationship, rather than on global issues. These topics included the following:
- the impact for Asia, especially in economic and strategic affairs, of European integration
- the role of the state in promoting economic development.
Future operations
The workshop concluded with discussions on the structure and future operations of PEARL. It was agreed for the moment that IIAS, with the support of NIAS through the IIAS-NIAS Strategic Alliance, should continue to operate as provisional secretariat for PEARL and that no rigid administrative or membership structures should be adopted for the moment. In its early phases, PEARL should be driven primarily by its programmes and should not seek to develop a large administrative infrastructure. Nonetheless, PEARL should rapidly develop an identity within the research world and should not be allowed to lose momentum because of a diffuse structure.
It was hoped that PEARL would continue to co-operate with and to enjoy the support of the ASEF and that it would be able to develop closer links with the European Science Foundation. The meeting furthermore decided that steps would be taken to introduce PEARL to the separate national governments. Recognition of PEARL by the individual countries will enable the programme to put research, training, and education on the agenda of the third ASEM summit in Seoul in 2000 and to be designated as a vehicle for the implementation of these activities. Validation of PEARL will help to secure funding through ASEM, EU, ASEAN, and ESF.
There was broad enthusiasm for continuing the PEARL workshop process. Delegates from France, China, and Sweden expressed some interest in hosting a future planning meeting, while the ESF representative also indicated his willingness to play a role in the organization of the meeting.
mplementationI
The Alliance partners were asked to appoint a consultant to draft a programme for PEARL. This proposal will be further developed in the context of the ESF programme in Asian Studies. It will elaborate on the organizational framework of PEARL, on the suggestions made by the meeting in Seoul regarding long-term collaborative research programmes, and on the possibilities for academic facilitating, such as the exchange of researchers, academic meetings etc.
Robert Cribb is the Director of the Nordic Institute of Asian Studies. He can be reached at Cribb@nias.ku.dk.