Debating the challenges of comparisons in Southeast Asian studies, the objective of this Special Issue is to advance the agenda of context-sensitive and methodologically reflected Comparative Area Studies (CAS). As a deliberate attempt to infuse new meaning into the embattled genre of area studies, CAS seeks to overcome increasingly rigid (sub-)disciplinary barriers often constructed around methodological arguments. Moreover, through stepping up the inclusion of non-Western regions in the research agenda, CAS also makes a decided bid to transcend the usually strongly Western-centric theory-building in most social science disciplines. This introduction locates the following articles in the broader context of the area studies-discipline divide. It highlights how the challenges of comparative research practice on different layers of social reality are at the heart of this divide but at the same time provide a productive ground for exchange in interdisciplinary Southeast Asian studies. We expand on the contributing authors’ arguments by providing a typology of comparative research practice that captures the value of various forms of area studies comparisons and by reflecting on the conceptual preconditions for fruitful comparisons.
東南亞研究中的語境、概念和比較——特刊導言
通過探討比較分析在東南亞研究中所面對的種種挑戰，本期特刊旨在推進比較區域研究的進程，使其既保持對語境的敏感性、也在方法論上富於反思性。通過為飽受詬病的區域研究精心注入新意義，比較區域研究試圖克服通常圍繞方法論爭論而建立起來的各種日益僵化的（子）學科性的壁壘。而且，通過促進將非西方地區進一步納入研究日程，比較區域研究也為克服大部分社會科學領域中常見的理論建設嚴重西方中心化的問題作出了明確的嘗試。本導論將本期各篇論文置於區域研究–學科研究這一分野下更廣闊的語境之中進行分析。它強調，在不同層面上對社會現實進行比較研究所遇到的種種挑戰正反應了這個分野的核心問題，但同時也為跨學科的東南亞研究之間富有成效地交流創造了機會。 本導論在各位作者論証的基礎上加以擴充, 提出了一個充分體現了各種區域比較研究的比較形式之價值的比較研究類型學，並對成功的比較研究在概念關系方面的前提條件進行了思考。
Translated from English by Li Guo
Mikko Huotari