Projects / Programmes
Asian Languages and Cultures
January 1, 2014
- December 31, 2018
| Code |
Science |
Field |
Subfield |
| 6.06.00 |
Humanities |
Culturology |
|
| 6.05.00 |
Humanities |
Linguistics |
|
| Code |
Science |
Field |
| H000 |
Humanities |
|
| Code |
Science |
Field |
| 6.04 |
Humanities |
Arts (arts, history of arts, performing arts, music) |
| 6.02 |
Humanities |
Languages and Literature |
Researchers (28)
Organisations (3)
Abstract
The proposed research program represents a continuation and elaboration of previous research work of the program group Languages and Cultures of Asia and Africa (P-60243). Due to lack of developmental funding we are facing within humanities, the segment of African studies could not be developed enough to ensure competent experts in this field. However, in spite of meager developmental funding the period 2009-13 marks an expansion from narrow Chinese and Japanese studies to Indian and Korean studies as well. New specialists have joined the group thus considerably extending the scope of planned research. It needs to be emphasized that Korean studies are thus newly established in Slovenia at the level of research and as a new study course on offer at the Department of Asian and African Studies, FF UL. Besides, the Asian region represents an increasingly important area of explosive economic development, as well as political and social transitions, influencing not only the inner structure of Asian societies, but also international relations at a global level. Thus, our research work remains focused upon a narrower, but in depth study of Asian regions. In this sense, we propose to rename the program into Asian Languages and Cultures.
The basic design of the proposed program is directed towards investigations of historical developments, political and economic circumstances, cultural and linguistic characteristics of Asian societies. This interdisciplinary program includes studies drawing on various disciplines, as part of a broader field of humanities and social studies. It attempts to synthesize a series of partial studies, dealing with various aspects of Asian regions in terms of the relation between ideal and material paradigms defining their social realities. Studies will include analyses and evaluations of material in native languages, as well as build on information, data and theoretical paradigms available in Western literature. This approach is of fundamental importance, since use of primary sources in native languages enables us to gain a more objective insight into the reality of societies in question. Members of the program group have active knowledge of Chinese, Japanese and Korean, Hindi and Sanskrit.
However, within the program Chinese, Japanese, Korean and Indian studies are mainly cultural studies, rather than philological ones.
Research will focus on core problems, defining prevailing models of perceiving and transmitting social and individual realities as bases in forming various cultural identities. A better understanding of these identities will represent a valuable contribution to the improvement of relations between Slovenia and the Asian countries. We expect a scientific proof that isolated studies dealing with different political, economic, cultural, linguistic and theoretical elements within Asian regions are inadequate, if based on individualized axiological and epistemological criteria deriving from comparable Western models.
Significance for science
The members of the program group will create, through interdisciplinary research, a coherent framework for new theoretical and methodological paradigms in the field of Asian studies; they will outline a new idea of intercultural exchanges founded recognition and consideration of cultural idiosyncrasies of the regions researched. This research will further develop currently existing theories and methodologies in the area of Asian studies. Apart from the substantial outcomes and findings planned (see pt. 9), the program will produce significant implications in the fields of social sciences and humanities. It proposes a development of a system which will reduce the danger of culturally conditioned misunderstandings or false interpretations of the social, political, linguistic and cultural phenomena of Asian traditions. The project’s conceptual framework aims to avoid the research methods which investigate the subject matter exclusively through the lens of methodical procedures drawing from the Euro-American epistemologies and theories of science, but aims to include the logic of traditional categorical systems and conceptual structures which have developed in Asian traditions. The innovative component of the proposed methodology is manifested in the application of new methods in the field of intercultural studies; recently, the process of intercultural methodology has shown that concepts and categories cannot be simply transferred from one cultural context into another. Hence the members of the program group have created a theoretical foundation of a new, discursive or conceptual translation method which will be further developed; the new approach has been already introduced to a wider academic audience at two international scientific meetings where it was extremely well received. The methods of such discursive translations are not a part of any existing methodologies in the fields of social studies or humanities, but rather represent a potential foundation of new, specific methodologies which will form a basis for future, more objective approached in Asian studies.
Investigations of specific Asian theoretical models, social, political and economic structures, analyses and interpretations of cultural contributions which are offered by Asian regions, as well as their incorporation into Western discourses on this region will fill an important gap in Western implementations of regional studies. Among its contributions, the planned program will also create possibilities of new insights into epistemological systems that emerged outside the prevailing guidelines of Euro-American intellectual history. Hence the expected outcomes will also open new ways for surpassing and eliminating Eurocentric, culturally conditioned prejudices concerning the putative superiority and omnipresence of Western theoretical models and clearly show that the results of Western discourses are not the only driving force behind the theoretical innovations of the present time.
Significance for the country
The program is consistent with strategic developmental areas and national priorities of the Slovene Republic. Offering new insights into the culturally conditioned structure of Asian societies, it will contribute to the improvement of political, economic and cultural relations between Slovenia and the Asian countries. In the 21st century, Asian societies redrew the map of progress: the balance of economic power, if not the political one, is shifting from the Euro-American to the Asian region. This shift faces us with many problems linked to transformations of material and ideational paradigms, defining not only the development of Asian societies, but also strongly influencing international relations. Strategic solutions to these problems need to consider broader perspectives within the context of particular cultural backgrounds. They are not limited to economic and ecological issues, but also include political and social roles of ideologies and culturally conditioned values, representing the axial epistemological grounds on which rest the most characteristic and enduring institutions of these societies.
The multilayered analysis of traditional and modern epistemological systems in the Asian region will offer new modes of reading of specific cultural features and their corresponding ideologies. Exploration of these issues is important for Slovenia as it includes studies related to the concept of “Asian values”, a new crucial element of contemporary political diction.
The program demonstrates a potential for transferring research results into social praxis in various fields, ranging from the didactics of Asian languages and translations of literature, to the application of theoretical findings, thus drawing on cultural, historical, epistemological aspects of the program, so as to inform the economic and cultural relations with Asian countries. Results will thus improve our understanding of the regions in question and raise the competitive advantage of the Slovenian economy and businesses, while also improving efficiency in other activities involving global societies and economy.
Translations of literature as well as works on humanities and social sciences will offer Slovenian readers a direct access to the cultural world of Asian regions. Thus the program will help raise awareness of national identity and promote preservation of natural and cultural heritage.
Program findings will be included regularly into the study programs at Slovene universities and independent high school institutions in Slovenia and abroad.
Continuous academic contacts and exchanges – especially in the framework of joint projects, research work and guest lectures in Asia – play an important role, enhancing visibility and promoting the Slovenian state. In this sense, the program is incorporated into the international division of labor which has important implications for the field of education of prospective young experts in the field of Asian studies.
Most important scientific results
Annual report
2014,
2015,
final report
Most important socioeconomically and culturally relevant results
Annual report
2014,
2015,
final report
