Cluster Overview
IIAS adopts a thematic approach to the study of Asia, involving scholars and experts from different disciplines and regions in its activities. IIAS moreover works together with academic and non-academic partners, including cultural, political and social organisations. Through our activities, IIAS aims to act as a trans-cultural interface, linking academic expertise with practitioner experience. While we remain open to other possible avenues of knowledge, our current thematic and interconnected research clusters are 'Cities', ‘Global Asia’ and the 'Politics of Culture' (previously named 'Asian Heritages").
Cities
The Cities cluster at IIAS comprises three research and activist networks and a book series entitled 'Asian Cities', published with Amsterdam University Press. Together, they form a dynamic platform for investigating urbanisation in Asia and beyond through a comparative perspective on cities in Asia and the rest of the world. The Cities networks and book series present IIAS fellows and external scholars with multiple opportunities for engagement and collaboration around the urban 'space'.
Research and Activist Networks
- Urban Knowledge Network Asia (UKNA)
- Southeast Asia Neighborhoods Network (SEANNET)
- River Cities Network (RCN)
Book Series
Research Themes
Linking the activities in all three urban networks and the Asian Cities book series is a set of themes (developed by the three original UKNA research groups) that present the questions and explorations of particular interest to the IIAS Cities cluster. These themes overlap and are not exclusive—other work may also be accepted in the Cluster—and indicate the priorities of our urban platform partners. They are:
- Ideas of the City
- Cities by and for the People
- Urban Transformation, Resilience and Justice
These themes betray the values of the IIAS Cities cluster, i.e., a preference for multidisciplinary and even transdisciplinary approaches and modes of collaboration that critically evaluate mainstream Western theories of the city and which have the potential to evolve into a broad and innovative, multidisciplinary body of knowledge that contributes to the dynamic development of Asian cities today.
Global Asia
Paying attention to past and present trends, the 'Global Asia' cluster addresses contemporary issues related to transnational interactions within the Asian region as well as throughout the world via the flows of people, goods, capital and ideas.
The cluster aims to expand the understanding of the process of globalisation by considering the various ways Asian and other world regions are interconnected within a long-term historical framework, recognising Asia's historic economic prominence and geopolitical influence from before the colonial era. Acknowledging the central role of Asia as an agent of global transformations, it challenges western perspectives that underlie much of the current literature on the subject, and explores new forms of non-hegemonic intellectual interactions in the form of 'south-south-north' and 'east-west' dialogue models.
IIAS also aims to develop a more evenly balanced field of Asian Studies, by collaborating in trans-regional capacity building initiatives and by working on new types of methodological approaches that encourage synergies and interactions between disciplines, regions and practices.
In principle, any research dealing with Asian global interactions is of interest. Topics include, but are not limited to: the migration of peoples and their diasporas, religious transnational pilgrimages and networks, forms of economic expansion, cultural dissemination, geo-strategic projections and engagements. Also of interest are issues that are central to the contemporary discussion on knowledge production and its circulation within a globalised world.
Flagship initiatives
Humanities Across Borders (HAB)
Asia-Africa: A New Axis of Knowledge
The Politics of Culture (previously 'Asian Heritages')
Originally a concept coined by the nation-state, heritage has become the object of intellectual reclamation by academics, activists and associations. Institutional and non-institutional social actors across Asia, Africa and the Middle East are increasingly involved in debating the legitimacy as well as the need to “safeguard” formal and informal expressions of heritage.
The cluster focuses on the politics of cultural heritage as it addresses the variety of definitions associated with heritage and their implications for social agency. In particular it questions the notion of heritage evolved from an European concept associated only with monumental architecture and high culture. To counteract this concept, we offer to incorporate a broader diversity of cultural understanding, forms and values. This covers the contested distinctions of 'tangible' and 'intangible' heritages, and the importance of cultural heritage in defining one's own identity or identities vis-à-vis those of others.
Heritage includes the process in which heritage is produced. It explores the social impact of heritage themes such as diaspora, ethnicity, and nationalism. We analyse cultural memory practices used by contemporary elites as a tool for boosting ethno-nationalism. Aside from the rehabilitation of powerful historical figures as national heroes, the value of cultural memory practices lies in the transmission of beliefs, values and collective acts of cultural remembering. How can these practices and local historical contingencies provide a better understanding of the search for national narratives and identities in postcolonial states?
Another trend studied by the cluster is the promotion of popular religious traditions and folklore, considered to be the ‘authentic’ expression of the indigenous cultural essence which was to define modern societies. As a counterbalance to these discourses incorporated into state heritage practices, the cluster stresses the transformative nature of cultural heritage as derived from individuals and communities who attach meaningful memories to and identify feelings towards the physical traces of their own past. The cluster recognises that in addition to governments and institutions, a larger set of informal stakeholders are involved in the field of heritage, with a special role for local communities in defining and preserving their own heritage.
Cultural heritage, and especially its materialization in objects, buildings and sites, has become a magnet for tourists across the world. The cluster explores heritage conservation in Asia, Africa and the Middle East, and urban revitalization practices through cultural heritage preservation.
Flagship initiative: Dual Degree in Critical Heritage Studies of Asia and Europe