(Re)presenting Brunei Darussalam : A Sociology of the Everyday

Abstract

This thoughtful and wide-ranging open access volume explores the forces and issues shaping and defining contemporary identities and everyday life in Brunei Darussalam. It is a subject that until now has received comparatively limited attention from mainstream social scientists working on Southeast Asian societies. The volume helps remedy that deficit by detailing the ways in which religion, gender, place, ethnicity, nation-state formation, migration and economic activity work their way into and reflect in the lives of ordinary Bruneians. In a first of its kind, all the lead authors of the chapter contributions are local Bruneian scholars, and the editors skilfully bring the study of Brunei into the fold of the sociology of everyday life from multiple disciplinary directions. By engaging local scholars to document everyday concerns that matter to them, the volume presents a collage of distinct but interrelated case studies that have been previously undocumented or relatively underappreciated. These interior portrayals render new angles of vision, scale and nuance to our understandings of Brunei often overlooked by mainstream inquiry. Each in its own way speaks to how structures and institutions express themselves through complex processes to influence the lives of inhabitants. Academic scholars, university students and others interested in the study of contemporary Brunei Darussalam will find this volume an invaluable resource for unravelling its diversity and textures. At the same time, it hopefully stimulates critical reflection on positionality, hierarchies of knowledge production, cultural diversity and the ways in which we approach the social science study of Brunei. ‘I wish to commend the editors for bringing this volume to fruition. It is an important book in the context of Southeast Asian sociology and even more important for the development of our social, geographical, cultural and historical knowledge of Brunei.’ —Victor T. King, University of Leeds ; This open access book undertakes a sociological investigation of life in Brunei Darussalam, often portrayed as one of the most self-contained, secretive, and resolutely monarchical countries in Southeast Asia. Besides its natural resource wealth and Malay Islamic monarchy, everyday life in this micro-state remains relatively closed off to the outside world, and its scholarship. This is in part due to a tendency in mainstream, Western-centric social science to overlook the intersubjective ways in which individuals manage social and cultural material within the context of everyday life. This collection of scholarly observations and experiences of life at a range of sites across Brunei Darussalam over the last ten years are woven together from four interrelated parts covering religious life, issues of gender, the space of place, and ethnic formation. By taking the reader into the lives of everyday Bruneians, the book gives a composite and inside-out view of Brunei Darussalam that foregrounds its nuanced diversity. At the same time, it encourages a more critical reflection on the ways in which the authors approach the study of everyday life in Southeast Asia. It is a key text for geographers and sociologists studying Southeast Asia, and is relevant to graduate students and scholars researching religion, gender, race, ethnicity, and identity formation in the region.