The Global Nexus: Political Economies, Connectivity, and the Social Sciences is a provocative critique of the social sciences in the age of neoconservative and alt-right globalisation sweeping across modern democracies globally. The writer persuasively argues that the mainstream western social science modality of describing indigenous knowledge and sub-altern discourses as 'alternative knowledge' is due for serious review, for it describes, devalues, and renders it the same renegade status as the 'alternate realities' of the alt-right, neo-conservative agencies of Western and Asian governments. The abuse of indigenous knowledge by neoconservative governments to promote racism, ethno-centricities, and misogyny has also reduced vital sources of local knowledge to fodder, only salvaged by 'the good press' — specialists of the media in investigative journalism, communications, and literature, who propose that worldviews and ideas of the underclasses, including women, migrants, minorities, refugees, war prisoners, and refugees should be brought to the fore and 'mainstreamed' for the reader to understand that the stories they tell and their reasons why tell them, are closer to truth than fiction. These lost voices, often silenced, suppressed, and understated, generate new knowledge of the marginalised and disadvantaged sectors of modern society, reflecting the social realities of globalisation.
Focusing on Southeast Asia with comparisons across nations in the Levant and the Middle East, Europe, and the United States, Wazir Jahan Karim vividly demonstrates how plural political economies have emerged and rendered flaws in the globalisation process. As powerful elites compete to accumulate and control wealth, power, and vital global resources, the growing phenomenon of global agencing, wealth- and poverty-generating institutions exist together in complex networks of hierarchical relationships, strategies, and alliances, with dire consequences for those on the receiving end of the global spectrum.
Sample Chapter(s)
Preface
Chapter 1: SOCIAL RESEARCH AND THE ASIAN SUBJECT
Contents:
- Social Research and the Asian Subject
- Post-Colonial Societies and Their Political Economies
- Finance Capitalism Revisited
- Southeast Asian Constellation of Democracy
- Women's Empowerment and Global Voices
- Diasporas and Agencing
- The Political Economy of Knowledge
Readership: Students and professionals interested in gender studies, women's studies, globalisation etc., in the ASEAN Secretariat, UN University, Tokyo, UN Agencies on Labour and Development, Trade Organisations, NGOs.
Wazir Jahan Karim obtained her PhD from the London School of Economics and Political Sciences in Economic Anthropology. She has been a Ford Foundation Fellow (1974–1975); Commonwealth Fellow (1975–1977); Fulbright Fellow (1984); British Academy Professorial Fellow, and Visiting Professor at the London School of Economics and Political Sciences (LSE) (1990); Visiting Professor at the Institute of Anthropology, University of Oslo (1991); Visiting Professor at the Centre for the Study of Cultures and Languages of Asia and Africa, Tokyo University of Foreign Studies (1995–1996); Visiting Professor at Sophia University, Tokyo (1996); Visiting Professor at the Department of Malay Studies and Centre for Women Studies, University of Victoria (1998); Visiting Professor at the University of Kent (2002) and Visiting Professor at the United Nation University, UNU (2003). She and held the Andrew's Chair in Asian Studies at the University of Hawaii in 2003 and in 2006, was professorial fellow at Clare Hall, Cambridge, where she is now a Life Member.
She has authored and edited several books on minorities, Islam, and women, including Ma' Betise' Concepts of Living Things, (Athlone, 1981; Berg, 2004); Emotions of Culture: A Malay Perspective (Oxford University Press, 1990); Women and Culture: Between Malay Adat and Islam, (Westview, 1992); Gendered Fields: Women, Men, Ethnography with D Bell and P Caplan (Routledge, 1993); and 'Male' and 'Female' in Developing Southeast Asia, (Berg, 1995). She co-authored and co-edited Cultural Minorities of Peninsular Malaysia: Survivals of Indigenous Heritage, with Mohd Razha Rashid (Toyota Foundation, 2002); and Straits Muslims: Diasporas of the Northern Passage of the Straits of Malacca (Straits G T, 2009). Her latest books are Boria: From Passion Play to Malay-Jawi Peranakan Parody (Pelanduk Publications, 2018), and Feasts of Penang: Muslim Culinary Heritage (MPH, 2013; new edition 2019).
Wazir Jahan founded the Academy of Socio-Economic Research and Analysis (ASERA), a Malaysian think-thank and research collective focusing on economic justice. She is a co-founder of Gender Studies in Malaysia (1978–2001), and Founding Director of the Women's Development Research Centre (KANITA) at Universiti Sains Malaysia (2001–2004). She was Founder and Founding President of the Southeast Asian Association for Gender Studies (1992–1996), which is now based in Universiti Sains Malaysia (USM). She has served in various social research and advisory agencies, including the National Women's Advisory Council, Malaysia (2006–2010), and the Asia-Europe Institute, University Malaya. She is a Life Trustee of the Pan Pacific Southeast Asia Women's Association (PPSEAWA) and President of the Penang Jawi Peranakan Heritage Society. She currently sits on the International Advisory Board of 'Globalizations' and 'Rethinking Globalization' (2009–present).