The Outsider Within – Commencing Fieldwork In The Kuala Lumpur/petaling Jaya Corridor, Malaysia

This article explores an ongoing research engagement with a squatter settlement community in a period of large-scale urban modernization strategies in contemporary Malaysia. This study is part of a larger local/global community sustainability research project attempting to better understand how l...

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Main Author: Nadarajah, Yaso
Format: Article
Language:English
Published: Penerbit Universiti Sains Malaysia (USM Press) 2007
Subjects:
Online Access:http://eprints.usm.my/40233/1/yaso.pdf
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author Nadarajah, Yaso
author_facet Nadarajah, Yaso
author_sort Nadarajah, Yaso
collection USM
description This article explores an ongoing research engagement with a squatter settlement community in a period of large-scale urban modernization strategies in contemporary Malaysia. This study is part of a larger local/global community sustainability research project attempting to better understand how local (and particularly poor) communities respond to and construct viable livelihoods in contemporary globalization. By positioning oneself in such places, one is also inevitably drawn into the compromised conditions of the cultural and political processes of these experiences, yet is also distanced by the fact that one does not have these everyday experiences, simply by not living in these places. This article moots the idea of an "in-betweenness of research" as one way to reflect on the post-colonial problematic of subjectivities in fieldwork. It questions the situatedness of power and knowledge, the importance of place for both researcher/subject and informant/object; and suggests that to align oneself within such an "in-betweenness" geopolitical and "neither/nor or both/and" place, while carrying out research on issues related to that very struggle is to also occupy a space of deeper scholarly understanding. While the resulting contradictions make this sort of engaged research more difficult to carry out, they also generate insight that could provide some basis for analytical understanding and theoretical innovation in a wider temporal and spatial context.
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spelling usm.eprints-402332018-04-27T08:58:05Z http://eprints.usm.my/40233/ The Outsider Within – Commencing Fieldwork In The Kuala Lumpur/petaling Jaya Corridor, Malaysia Nadarajah, Yaso P1-1091 Philology. Linguistics(General) This article explores an ongoing research engagement with a squatter settlement community in a period of large-scale urban modernization strategies in contemporary Malaysia. This study is part of a larger local/global community sustainability research project attempting to better understand how local (and particularly poor) communities respond to and construct viable livelihoods in contemporary globalization. By positioning oneself in such places, one is also inevitably drawn into the compromised conditions of the cultural and political processes of these experiences, yet is also distanced by the fact that one does not have these everyday experiences, simply by not living in these places. This article moots the idea of an "in-betweenness of research" as one way to reflect on the post-colonial problematic of subjectivities in fieldwork. It questions the situatedness of power and knowledge, the importance of place for both researcher/subject and informant/object; and suggests that to align oneself within such an "in-betweenness" geopolitical and "neither/nor or both/and" place, while carrying out research on issues related to that very struggle is to also occupy a space of deeper scholarly understanding. While the resulting contradictions make this sort of engaged research more difficult to carry out, they also generate insight that could provide some basis for analytical understanding and theoretical innovation in a wider temporal and spatial context. Penerbit Universiti Sains Malaysia (USM Press) 2007 Article PeerReviewed application/pdf en http://eprints.usm.my/40233/1/yaso.pdf Nadarajah, Yaso (2007) The Outsider Within – Commencing Fieldwork In The Kuala Lumpur/petaling Jaya Corridor, Malaysia. International Journal of Asia Pacific Studies (IJAPS), 3 (1). pp. 1-24. ISSN ISSN: 1823-6243 http://ijaps.usm.my/wp-content/uploads/2012/06/yaso.pdf
spellingShingle P1-1091 Philology. Linguistics(General)
Nadarajah, Yaso
The Outsider Within – Commencing Fieldwork In The Kuala Lumpur/petaling Jaya Corridor, Malaysia
title The Outsider Within – Commencing Fieldwork In The Kuala Lumpur/petaling Jaya Corridor, Malaysia
title_full The Outsider Within – Commencing Fieldwork In The Kuala Lumpur/petaling Jaya Corridor, Malaysia
title_fullStr The Outsider Within – Commencing Fieldwork In The Kuala Lumpur/petaling Jaya Corridor, Malaysia
title_full_unstemmed The Outsider Within – Commencing Fieldwork In The Kuala Lumpur/petaling Jaya Corridor, Malaysia
title_short The Outsider Within – Commencing Fieldwork In The Kuala Lumpur/petaling Jaya Corridor, Malaysia
title_sort outsider within commencing fieldwork in the kuala lumpur petaling jaya corridor malaysia
topic P1-1091 Philology. Linguistics(General)
url http://eprints.usm.my/40233/1/yaso.pdf
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