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Writing the ‘Local’, Provincial and Public into Area Narratives

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Fieldwork and the Self

Part of the book series: Asia in Transition ((AT,volume 12))

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Abstract

In this chapter I reflect on the context of knowledge production in area studies and highlight the provincialising of border and peripheral regions as a result of state-centric approaches. Consequently, how do area scholars incorporate in their studies provincial narratives that are central to a locality but censored or omitted in the national narrative? What sources inform us of these local narratives? Drawing on my field research in Thailand and the Thailand–Malaysia border region, I explore the possibilities of ‘denationalising’ area studies through the intersections between sources, identities, localities and hierarchies of knowledge production in transnational and national spaces. The discussion suggests that the interdisciplinary methodology adopted in researching area studies must also be mirrored in the teaching of area studies, which is somewhat lacking at present.

Some material in this chapter first appeared in Mala Rajo Sathian (2015).

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Notes

  1. 1.

    Pattani is the name of a province in southern Thailand. The spelling ‘Patani’ refers to the area that was under the rule of the former sultanate of Patani that included the present southern Thai provinces of Pattani, Yala and Narathiwat.

  2. 2.

    Kahn sees provincialising as taking place when the East omits to engage with Europe and Euro-American knowledge. Goh extends the argument that inter-Asian approaches to assert Asia as authentic do not function to deconstruct knowledge, they only reify Asia, which is similar to the method of the Orientalists (see Kahn 2016; Goh 2019: 502).

  3. 3.

    Syed Farid Alatas points to the erroneous understanding of the spatial binary of the Malay world based on hulu–hilir, adding that a third dimension, laut (sea), has been overlooked (see Syed Farid Alatas Chap. 10 in this volume). In Patani, hilir (coastal) may also include the sea (as it is an extension of the lowland/coastal area); likewise, hulu (inland) can also include the hills and mountainous regions (as darat rather than hilir is used by the people to refer to inland areas).

  4. 4.

    Information from documents prepared by Shaharil Talib, the first academic staff member of Southeast Asian studies at Universiti Malaya and subsequently its head of department. I have verified the data with Hanafi Hussin (now associate professor in Southeast Asian studies) and Jojie Samuel, the current Malaysian ambassador to Thailand. Both Hanafi Hussin and Jojie Samuel were among the pioneering cohort of undergraduates in the programme.

  5. 5.

    The Southeast Asian Studies Programme at the National University of Singapore had a similar country-based module but it is no longer offered. At present there are courses covering field visits to a few select countries in the region.

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Authors and Affiliations

  1. Department of Southeast Asian Studies, Universiti Malaya, Kuala Lumpur, Malaysia

    Mala Rajo Sathian

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Correspondence to Mala Rajo Sathian .

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  1. Lyon Institute of Political Studies (Sciences Po Lyon), Lyon, France

    Jérémy Jammes

  2. Institute of Asian Studies, Universiti Brunei Darussalam, Gadong, Brunei Darussalam

    Victor T. King

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Sathian, M.R. (2021). Writing the ‘Local’, Provincial and Public into Area Narratives. In: Jammes, J., King, V.T. (eds) Fieldwork and the Self. Asia in Transition, vol 12. Springer, Singapore. https://doi.org/10.1007/978-981-16-2438-4_14

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  • DOI: https://doi.org/10.1007/978-981-16-2438-4_14

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