10.17192/meta.2015.4.2981 Derichs, Claudia Claudia Derichs Shifting Epistemologies in Area Studies: From Space to Scale Middle East - Topics + Arguments : Vol 4 (2015) Philipps-Universität Marburg 2015 Area Studies Epistemology Disciplines Hegemony Center for Near and Middle Eastern Studies (CNMS) 2018-01-31 2015-05-22 en JournalArticle https://journals.uni-marburg.de/0003/2015/108/2981 urn:nbn:de:hebis:04-0003-2015-108-29819 https://doi.org/10.17192/meta.2015.4.108 https://journals.uni-marburg.de/0003/2015/108/2981/2981.png 2196-629X application/vnd.openxmlformats-officedocument.wordprocessingml.document application/pdf Area studies suffer from various epistemic borderlines which have been drawn and grown during decades of constructing a 'world order' that is ultimately defined by political power relations. The question of what constitutes am 'area' or a 'region' is a timely and contested one. Moreover, epistemic borderlines have been constructed by a hegemonic way of identifying academic disciplines. The separation between area studies and disciplines, too, is a decision based on global epistemic power relations. The following paragraphs address the constructivist dimension of area studies and disciplines. The main argument is that area studies and disciplines are in no way bound to geographical settings but derive from a politically-informed defining and 'scaling' of localities, ethnicities, languages, religions, and cultures. 2196-629X Middle East - Topics + Arguments Vol 4 (2015)