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
Abstract
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.
Actions (login required)
 |
View Item |
![[img]](http://eprints.usm.my/style/images/fileicons/application_pdf.png)
