Borneo studies: perspectives from a jobbing social scientist.

The paper comprises an intellectual journey through Borneo. But rather than summarising the results of his and others research on Borneo’s societies, cultures and histories and demonstrating their contribution to knowledge within certain fields of scholarship and theoretical tradition the author dw...

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Main Author: Victor T. King
Format: Article
Language:English
Published: Universiti Kebangsaan Malaysia 2009
Online Access:http://journalarticle.ukm.my/605/
http://journalarticle.ukm.my/605/
http://journalarticle.ukm.my/605/1/akademika78%5B03%5DA4.pdf
id ukm-605
recordtype eprints
spelling ukm-6052011-08-11T07:43:23Z http://journalarticle.ukm.my/605/ Borneo studies: perspectives from a jobbing social scientist. Victor T. King, The paper comprises an intellectual journey through Borneo. But rather than summarising the results of his and others research on Borneo’s societies, cultures and histories and demonstrating their contribution to knowledge within certain fields of scholarship and theoretical tradition the author dwells on a particular style of research which he refers to as ‘jobbing’. Popular reactions to the use of such a concept usually turn on the images which it conjures of an unprofessional and unscholarly approach to what are serious matters of academic endeavour. However, in arguing that much of his own research can be characterised as ‘jobbing’, that it falls somewhere in the middle of a continuum from theory to practice drawing on concepts in an eclectic and pragmatic way in order to analyse and present materials gathered from a diverse range of sources in a logical and meaningful explanatory narrative, the author proposes that much of the research undertaken in Borneo over the last half century can also be categorised in the same fashion. The paper ranges over ‘jobbing concepts’, the relations between area studies and a jobbing lifestyle, the apprenticeship of a jobbing researcher, the ways in which research both on the ‘Maloh’ of interior Kalimantan and on Borneo more generally can be appreciated from this perspective, and the problems posed by globalisation approaches for those whose work is rooted in the understanding of ‘on-the-ground’ structures and processes. Universiti Kebangsaan Malaysia 2009-12 Article PeerReviewed application/pdf en http://journalarticle.ukm.my/605/1/akademika78%5B03%5DA4.pdf Victor T. King, (2009) Borneo studies: perspectives from a jobbing social scientist. AKADEMIKA, 77 . pp. 15-40. ISSN 0126-5008 http://www.ukm.my/~penerbit/akademika
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institution_category Local University
institution Universiti Kebangasaan Malaysia
building UKM Institutional Repository
collection Online Access
language English
description The paper comprises an intellectual journey through Borneo. But rather than summarising the results of his and others research on Borneo’s societies, cultures and histories and demonstrating their contribution to knowledge within certain fields of scholarship and theoretical tradition the author dwells on a particular style of research which he refers to as ‘jobbing’. Popular reactions to the use of such a concept usually turn on the images which it conjures of an unprofessional and unscholarly approach to what are serious matters of academic endeavour. However, in arguing that much of his own research can be characterised as ‘jobbing’, that it falls somewhere in the middle of a continuum from theory to practice drawing on concepts in an eclectic and pragmatic way in order to analyse and present materials gathered from a diverse range of sources in a logical and meaningful explanatory narrative, the author proposes that much of the research undertaken in Borneo over the last half century can also be categorised in the same fashion. The paper ranges over ‘jobbing concepts’, the relations between area studies and a jobbing lifestyle, the apprenticeship of a jobbing researcher, the ways in which research both on the ‘Maloh’ of interior Kalimantan and on Borneo more generally can be appreciated from this perspective, and the problems posed by globalisation approaches for those whose work is rooted in the understanding of ‘on-the-ground’ structures and processes.
format Article
author Victor T. King,
spellingShingle Victor T. King,
Borneo studies: perspectives from a jobbing social scientist.
author_facet Victor T. King,
author_sort Victor T. King,
title Borneo studies: perspectives from a jobbing social scientist.
title_short Borneo studies: perspectives from a jobbing social scientist.
title_full Borneo studies: perspectives from a jobbing social scientist.
title_fullStr Borneo studies: perspectives from a jobbing social scientist.
title_full_unstemmed Borneo studies: perspectives from a jobbing social scientist.
title_sort borneo studies: perspectives from a jobbing social scientist.
publisher Universiti Kebangsaan Malaysia
publishDate 2009
url http://journalarticle.ukm.my/605/
http://journalarticle.ukm.my/605/
http://journalarticle.ukm.my/605/1/akademika78%5B03%5DA4.pdf
first_indexed 2023-09-18T19:31:21Z
last_indexed 2023-09-18T19:31:21Z
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