Mikko Huotari is a Research Fellow at the Department of Political Science at the University of Freiburg, Germany. He leads the methodology program of the University's Southeast Asian Studies Program researching on context, concepts and comparisons in Southeast Asian Studies. He has published on China, Foreign Policy Analysis and Global/Regional Financial Governance.

Jürgen Rüland is Professor of Political Science in the Department of Political Science at the University of Freiburg, Germany. He is also the Chairperson of the University of Freiburg's Southeast Asian Studies Program and Chairman of the Scientific Advisory Board of the German Institute of Global and Area Studies (GIGA). He has published widely on Southeast Asia.

Judith Schlehe is Professor of Anthropology in the Institute of Social and Cultural Anthropology at the University of Freiburg, Germany. She has published widely on religious dynamics, popular forms of representing cultures, cultural globalisation and

intercultural issues, gender, the anthropology of disaster, and new approaches to transnational collaboration.

This volume confronts the idea of universal science from the perspective of area studies, offering fruitful debate between Southeast Asian Studies and variegated disciplinary vantage points. It provides a platform for dialogue and constructive friction between divergent approaches to knowledge generation, while taking into consideration the area-specific contexts of research practice and bringing to attention cross-cutting methodological issues. The contributors investigate issues such as the tension between disciplinary mainstreaming and suggestions for decentering, diversifying and decolonizing methodology; the relevance and practice of different forms of contextsensitivity in research; contrasts and comparisons suitable to the ambitions of area studies. The research approaches covered in this volume range from quantitative, to qualitative and mixed-methods research, from econometrics to participation and collaboration, and from text analysis to field research. Working in a variety of disciplines both within and outside of Southeast Asian Studies, the contributors addresse the burning question of how to ground research practice in area-specific, yet globally entangled contexts such as 'Global Southeast Asia'.