Whither Sociology in Southeast
Asia? Some Reflections on 40
Years of Sociological Research
Victor T King
Texts in Sociology
• Lack of regional
comparative texts in
sociology (Hans DieterEvers)
• Had a book be written
in the 1970s it would
have been very different
(economic, social,
political differences)
• Serious conflicts (ethnic,
ideological)
• Superpower engagement
And anthropology
• What was the
relationship between
policy and practice,
theory and
implementation in
development and
engineered social
change?
• Understanding on the
ground (local) but
taking account of a
globalising world
Conflicts
A region of instability and
economic problems
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Region of revolt
Dimensions of conflict
War and revolution
Prelude to tragedy
Search for survival
• Modernization without
development
• The development of
underdevelopment
• Poverty and inequality
ASEAN: THE TURNAROUND
Sustained economic
growth in ASEAN
after 1967
The Singapore model
Increase in standards
of living
Broadening of
economies
Industrialization and
urbanization
But with continuing
inequalities
Economic
dependency (and
Asian crises)
Corruption
Themes
• Globalization
• Middle class, new rich
• Consumerism, domestic
tourism, lifestyles
• Civil society
• A political region
• Violence, paramilitaries,
civilian militias,
• Violence from the state
and superpower
involvement replaced by
decentralized violence
and local religiousethnic conflict
• Continuing inequalities
Political Economy
• Things changed
rapidly (1997-2006)
• Turmoil, conflict,
crisis, bankruptcy,
disarray, siege,
volatility, contestation
• Continuing conflict
over the complexion of
economic and political
regimes and the forces
and interests which
drive these
Where are the ideas?
• Dutch historicalsociological school; nonWestern sociology; Wim
Wertheim and Otto van
der Muijzenberg
• Bieleveld and
development; Hans Dieter
Evers
• Murdoch and political
economy (Richard
Robison, Kevin Hewison,
Richard Higgott and
Garry Rodan)
Production of Teaching Texts
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Pluralism,
Dualism
Involution
Loosely structured
societies
A formative text
• One of the first
substantial texts in
neo-Marxist inspired
political economy
• A n important element
in development of the
Murdoch school of
political economy
Western versus non-Western: Syed
Hussein Alatas and Syed Farid Alatas
Political economy
• Jomo Kwame Sundaram
• named after Jomo Kenyatta
(Kenya) and Kwame
Nkrumah (Ghana)
• A public intellectual
• A Question of Class,
Privatizing Malaysia, Tigers
in Trouble, Reinventing
Malaysia, Ugly Malaysians,
Southeast Asia’s
Misunderstood Miracle,
Asia’s Paper Tigers
• UN Assistant-General
Secretary for Economic
Development
• UN Research Institute for
Social Development
(UNRISD)
Does a Sociology of Southeast Asia make
sense?
• Institutionalised
• Other eminent scholars
have adopted a regional
perspective
• ASEAN a significant
factor
• We have to locate global
and wider processes in
some definable unit of
analysis to ground
concepts in case material
• Globalisation a problem
and increasing links across
the Western pacific Rim
• Still considerable diversity
across the region in social,
economic and political
terms
Themes and issues
• Problem of defining
sociology of Southeast Asia
and the region
• Reasons for the slow pace
and patchiness of
sociological research up to
the 1990s
• The hegemony of
American scholarship
• The critical reaction to
these perspectives in neoMarxist perspectives
• What has happened since
the impasse to the
dominant paradigms:
modernization and
underdevelopment?
Substantive issues
• Ethnicity and pluralism
• Governance, corruption and
patronage
• Changing religious values
and practices
• Changing gender relations
• Transformations in urbanrural relations
• Globalization , cultural
change and the politics of
identity
• Local and foreign knowledge
• What constrains
scholarship?
• We need to be much more
comparative; what is the
point of ASEAN for research
if we don’t examine issues,
processes, topics region-wide
• Our perspectives on
Southeast Asia are still
unbalanced; major debates
have been generated in only
a few countries: Singapore is
dominant; then Malaysia,
Thailand, Indonesia,
Philippines. Beware the
power of Singapore
A Sociological or Anthropological
Style?
• McVey’s regnant paradigm?
• Interest among Singapore sociologists in the
1960s and 1970s
• The Geertzian cultural perspective
• A European tradition, more structuralist, more
Marxist
• Recent emerging interest in culture, identities,
discourse and multiple narratives (Joel Kahn
and multidisciplinary cultural narratives)
The Future and Conceptual Trends
• The media and modern
culture, gender, literature,
the arts and performance,
and urban and industrial
lifestyles
• Globalization and local
responses
• The politics of culture and
identity (class, gender, and
local-state relations)
• Middle classes and their
identities, consumption
practices, lifestyles and roles
in civil society
• Political economy
perspectives and the
significant influence of
personal relations in the
political and bureaucratic
fields
• Numerous and widespread
cases of conflict, struggle and
violence, particularly ethnic
and religious
• Youth and the young middle
class; sexual behaviour,
occupations and careers,
family life, consumerism,
political and civic values and
practices
• Debates about the
advantages and
disadvantages of multi- and
interdisciplinary approaches
as against disciplinary ones
• The regionalisation of
research
My next book: Identities in Motion: the
Sociology of Culture in Southeast Asia
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1 Introduction: the Sociology of Culture
2 Identities, Nations and Ethnicities
3 Globalization and Identities
4 The Media and Identities
5 Identity, Consumerism and the Middle Class
6 Tourism Encounters and Identities
7 Gender and Sexual Identities
8 Migration, Diaspora and Identities