Контуры глобальных трансформаций: политика, экономика, право (Apr 2022)
The Crisis of Country Studies in Russia amid the Growing Demand for Knowledge about Foreign Countries and Regions
Abstract
The article concentrates on foreign country studies. Although rooted in geography, this approach is to be treated as an interdisciplinary social science research that allows a comprehensive study of modern societies. In Russia, the contribution of economists, political scientists and historians, especially orientalists, to the study of foreign countries is very significant. At the same time, over the past 100 years, regional studies in the Soviet Union / Russia have been greatly transformed. Solely due to subjective reasons and the general crisis of fundamental research in the country, multi-volume publications that provided a lot of material for comparative studies have become a thing of the past. The theoretical baggage of foreign country studies accumulated in the second half of the XX century is almost not used, while linguistic training has been curtailed in a number of areas. In modern Russia, the “output” of scientific regional products does not meet the existing "demand". There are several explanations: the narrow scale of geographic research, the fascination with global issues by political scientists and economists, as well as the general shortage of specialists in the countries of the post-Soviet space and some other macro-regions. However, the state and big business, which should form a solvent and long term demand, also fail to cope with their social role. As a result, the discipline of country studies has found itself in a deep crisis. A way of this problem should be sought as soon as possible, while the traditions of domestic country studies and oriental studies are still alive. Otherwise Russia will have only recreational regional studies (the publication of guidebooks) and linguistic and regional research of the main nation states (as part of the new-fangled discipline of philologists and political scientists). At the same time, the lack of practical orientation of country studies has a detrimental effect on Russia's positioning in world economy and international relations.
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