A volume emerging from the Borneo Studies Network and Institute of Asian Studies Conference in 2021 at Universiti Brunei Darussalam which examined current research in Borneo and crucial issues facing the island.
The following project examines the merits or otherwise of a gradualist approach to constitution-making. By anatomizing the constitutional reform process that took place in Indonesia from 1999-2002, it considers whether or not such an approach is appropriate for establishing meaningful constitutionalism in plural and divided societies.
A central problem in examining multiple insecurities in Southeast Asia is that each country confronts a different context of human security. How then are we to proceed? The following project examines the complex relationships between safety and risk and that of trust and uncertainty. It considers the efficacy for the the field of human security studies to engage more fully with a wider range of social science concepts and more grounded approaches. In particular, the project will focus on the utility of important theoretical and empirical developments on marginality and their relevance for recognizing and interpreting precarious lives in a Southeast Asian context.
The following project investigates the everyday in Brunei to gain new angles of vision and scale on this most discrete of countries. It sets out to weave together scholarly observations and experiences of life at a range of sites across Brunei Darussalam covering religious life, issues of gender, the space of place, and ethnic formation. The aim is to provide a composite and interior view of Brunei Darussalam that foregrounds its nuanced diversity. At the same time, hopefully, this will encourage a more critical reflection on the ways in which we approach the study of everyday life in Southeast Asia.