The problem with areas: Asia and Area studies

Review of:Goh Beng Lan (ed.), Decentring & diversifying Southeast Asian Studies: Perspectives from the region. Singapore: ISEAS, 2011, xiii + 304 pp. ISBN 9789814311564, price: USD 34.90 (paperback); 9789814311571, USD 45.90 (hardback).Terence Wesley-Smith and Jon Goss (eds), Remaking Area studies: Teaching and learning across Asia and the Pacific. Honolulu: University of Hawai‘i Press, 2010, xxvii + 243 pp. ISBN 9780824833213. Price: USD 45.00 (hardback).Jacob Edmond, Henry Johnson and Jacqueline Leckie (eds), Recentring Asia: Histories, encounters, identities, xv + 339 pp. Leiden/Boston: Brill, Global Oriental: 2011. ISBN 9781906876258. Price: EUR 80.00 (hardback).