On the morning of May 19th, "The Belt and Road" Sustainable Development Research Institute of Shanghai Business School and the International Business Officials Training Base of the Ministry of Commerce (Shanghai) held the "the belt and road" academic salon on international development cooperation. Zhang Weiqi, director of the Center for Brazilian Studies and the deputy director of the Portuguese Language Teaching and Research Office of the School of European and Latin American Studies at Shanghai International Studies University, shared the work of area studies and experience in writing research reports. The associate dean of the Faculty of International Education Chen Wei and some staff from the Faculty of Business Administration and the Faculty of Business Economics attended the academic salon.
Mr. Zhang firstly raised the question: what is area studies? And then he introduced various expressions, definitions, and characteristics of area studies, as well as some common theories and methods of area studies. He pointed out that area studies are helpful to realize critical situations and enemies, maintain national security, deepen understanding of foreign countries, and promote the connection of people.
Next, Mr. Zhang shared some experience in writing the research report, including clarifying the situation of research objects, predicting hot spots and nodes, and reflecting the characteristics of China and Shanghai. He also emphasized that it is necessary to track the rapid changes in the world, areas, and countries for a long time and understand them, analyze the first-hand data, and master the social conditions and public opinion and investigations before writing.
During the Q&A session, staff exchanged and interacted with Mr. Zhang on how to apply theories and research methods of area studies to carry out relevant research, and how to grasp the focus to write research reports. The academic salons resonated with those staff who attended the conference, and they all expressed that the lecture has clear organization, rich content, and vivid case studies, which had practical guiding significance for carrying out area studies and writing research reports.
Relied on the superior business resources of the international business official training base of the Ministry of Commerce and SBS", the Belt and Road" Sustainable Development Research Institute of SBS exerts a political service function, builds a team of full-time and part-time, internal and external researchers, actively plans and promotes sustainable development research and provides decision-making consultation contributes to the high-quality development of the university.
Written by: Zhou Dejiang
Photos by: Chen Xiaoye
Reviewed by: Chen Wei
