Ghost Lives of the Pendatang : Informality and Cosmopolitan Contaminations in Urban Malaysia /

This book is an ethnographic study of migrants, refugees and 'temporary' people in Malaysia, incorporating narratives, personal stories, and observations of everyday life in Kuala Lumpur and Georgetown, Penang. Rather than focusing on specific migrant communities or refugee 'camps...

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Main Authors: Parthiban Muniandy, author 634158, Kim, Mikyoung editor 639238
Format:
Language:eng
Published: Petaling Jaya, Selangor : Strategic Information and Research Development Centre, 2021
Subjects:
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author Parthiban Muniandy, author 634158
Kim, Mikyoung editor 639238
author_facet Parthiban Muniandy, author 634158
Kim, Mikyoung editor 639238
author_sort Parthiban Muniandy, author 634158
collection OCEAN
description This book is an ethnographic study of migrants, refugees and 'temporary' people in Malaysia, incorporating narratives, personal stories, and observations of everyday life in Kuala Lumpur and Georgetown, Penang. Rather than focusing on specific migrant communities or refugee 'camps', the book takes subaltern cosmopolitanism as its central lens to look at how different and diverse communities of non-citizen 'pendatang' (aliens) co-habit, work and live together in Malaysia. Urban centers in Malaysia offer the space for informality that allow stateless and undocumented people to seek out opportunities, while also finding ways to assimilate or even 'disappear' into the fabric of society. The book focuses on the notion of 'contaminations', rather than migration or migrants, to underscore one of the most important findings of the ethnographic study - that migrant life in Malaysia is critically integral, embedded and interwoven into the everyday life in the city - shaping and affecting all aspects of daily life from production and supply chains, food service networks, cultural and religious practices, waste and recycling work, to more intimate and private contexts such as romantic relationships, family life and sex-work. Hybridity, inter-mixing and bastardization are part and parcel of everyday urbanismo in KL and Penang - these 'contaminating elements' challenge and disrupt categories of the 'national' and categories such as insider/outsider, national purity, and politically constructed divisions between ethnic and racial groups. The book thus relies upon detailed ethnographic narratives curated over a decade of study, offering students interested in fieldwork research insights into the types of engagements and commitments necessary for helping build the complex, uneasy and destabilizing knowledge that characterizes critical ethnography.
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spelling KOHA-OAI-TEST:5971782022-03-09T07:37:11ZGhost Lives of the Pendatang : Informality and Cosmopolitan Contaminations in Urban Malaysia / Parthiban Muniandy, author 634158 Kim, Mikyoung editor 639238 Petaling Jaya, Selangor : Strategic Information and Research Development Centre,©20212021engThis book is an ethnographic study of migrants, refugees and 'temporary' people in Malaysia, incorporating narratives, personal stories, and observations of everyday life in Kuala Lumpur and Georgetown, Penang. Rather than focusing on specific migrant communities or refugee 'camps', the book takes subaltern cosmopolitanism as its central lens to look at how different and diverse communities of non-citizen 'pendatang' (aliens) co-habit, work and live together in Malaysia. Urban centers in Malaysia offer the space for informality that allow stateless and undocumented people to seek out opportunities, while also finding ways to assimilate or even 'disappear' into the fabric of society. The book focuses on the notion of 'contaminations', rather than migration or migrants, to underscore one of the most important findings of the ethnographic study - that migrant life in Malaysia is critically integral, embedded and interwoven into the everyday life in the city - shaping and affecting all aspects of daily life from production and supply chains, food service networks, cultural and religious practices, waste and recycling work, to more intimate and private contexts such as romantic relationships, family life and sex-work. Hybridity, inter-mixing and bastardization are part and parcel of everyday urbanismo in KL and Penang - these 'contaminating elements' challenge and disrupt categories of the 'national' and categories such as insider/outsider, national purity, and politically constructed divisions between ethnic and racial groups. The book thus relies upon detailed ethnographic narratives curated over a decade of study, offering students interested in fieldwork research insights into the types of engagements and commitments necessary for helping build the complex, uneasy and destabilizing knowledge that characterizes critical ethnography.Includes bibliographical references and index This book is an ethnographic study of migrants, refugees and 'temporary' people in Malaysia, incorporating narratives, personal stories, and observations of everyday life in Kuala Lumpur and Georgetown, Penang. Rather than focusing on specific migrant communities or refugee 'camps', the book takes subaltern cosmopolitanism as its central lens to look at how different and diverse communities of non-citizen 'pendatang' (aliens) co-habit, work and live together in Malaysia. Urban centers in Malaysia offer the space for informality that allow stateless and undocumented people to seek out opportunities, while also finding ways to assimilate or even 'disappear' into the fabric of society. The book focuses on the notion of 'contaminations', rather than migration or migrants, to underscore one of the most important findings of the ethnographic study - that migrant life in Malaysia is critically integral, embedded and interwoven into the everyday life in the city - shaping and affecting all aspects of daily life from production and supply chains, food service networks, cultural and religious practices, waste and recycling work, to more intimate and private contexts such as romantic relationships, family life and sex-work. Hybridity, inter-mixing and bastardization are part and parcel of everyday urbanismo in KL and Penang - these 'contaminating elements' challenge and disrupt categories of the 'national' and categories such as insider/outsider, national purity, and politically constructed divisions between ethnic and racial groups. The book thus relies upon detailed ethnographic narratives curated over a decade of study, offering students interested in fieldwork research insights into the types of engagements and commitments necessary for helping build the complex, uneasy and destabilizing knowledge that characterizes critical ethnography.Doria Abdullah;ImmigrantsMalaysiaURN:ISBN:9789672464211
spellingShingle Immigrants
Malaysia
Parthiban Muniandy, author 634158
Kim, Mikyoung editor 639238
Ghost Lives of the Pendatang : Informality and Cosmopolitan Contaminations in Urban Malaysia /
title Ghost Lives of the Pendatang : Informality and Cosmopolitan Contaminations in Urban Malaysia /
title_full Ghost Lives of the Pendatang : Informality and Cosmopolitan Contaminations in Urban Malaysia /
title_fullStr Ghost Lives of the Pendatang : Informality and Cosmopolitan Contaminations in Urban Malaysia /
title_full_unstemmed Ghost Lives of the Pendatang : Informality and Cosmopolitan Contaminations in Urban Malaysia /
title_short Ghost Lives of the Pendatang : Informality and Cosmopolitan Contaminations in Urban Malaysia /
title_sort ghost lives of the pendatang informality and cosmopolitan contaminations in urban malaysia
topic Immigrants
Malaysia
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