Some Thoughts on Social Science Research: 50 Years of Engagement in Southeast Asia

Abstract

The paper briefly discusses the merits of multidisciplinary-based studies as against disciplinary perspectives in relation to Southeast Asia. It suggests that the main conceptual innovations and established methodological approaches derive from academic disciplines. There is then a sequential series of reflections on changing priorities in the sociological study of Southeast Asia which plots the movement from those concerns which derived from 'classical' Western-based sociology and certain key ideas which emerged from those concerns, and a more recent shift to interest in the concepts of culture and identity. The paper illustrates this shift in describing one of the possible autobiographical routeways to the encounter with culture.

The Influence of Cultural Congress on the Preferences of the Permanent Collection of the National Art Gallery of Malaysia

“…However, the different cultural backgrounds of the diverse races are a formidable challenge in establishing a harmonious government. Some social scientists are keen to draw parallels between 'race' and 'cultural identity' because the main elements of race and identity are cultural: they include values, beliefs, and behaviours, and the meanings ascribed to or attached to these aspects as linguistic and material cultural differences and similarities (King, 2016).…”