地理学与区域国别研究笔谈

The establishment of country and area studies as an interdisciplinary first-level discipline has sparked widespread attention and lively discussions in fields such as Foreign Language and Literature, Political Science, and World History. However, Geography has not received sufficient attention from scholars in country and area studies, nor have geographers deeply engaged in related discussions on this discipline. Taking the opportunity of the "Geography and Country & Area Studies" special issue organized by World Regional Studies, this article brings together young scholars from various universities across China who focus on issues related to country and area studies. The discussion revolves around how geography and country and area studies can mutually learn from each other in terms of disciplinary development, theoretical frameworks, research methods, and practical applications. The article argues that geography, with its longstanding tradition of regional studies and its integrative disciplinary attributes, shares significant similarities with and offers valuable lessons for country and area studies. Furthermore, Geography's techniques in geographic information systems (GIS), spatial analysis methods, and its tradition of studying human-environment interactions provide unique perspectives and tools for country and area studies. The historical development of geography, along with the debates it has undergone, offers insights for country and area studies in addressing tensions between universality and specificity, as well as between theoretical innovation and information collection. In the future, it will be essential to involve more scholars from other related disciplines in these discussions, introduce more core concepts and foundational theoretical perspectives from geography, and think about mechanisms for knowledge integration and theoretical synthesis in regional studies from a transdisciplinary perspective.