Negotiating Belonging in Borneo

Narratives of Ambivalence
Erscheinungsjahr 2027
ISBN: 978-981-9224-35-7
Verlag: Springer

Buch, Englisch, 295 Seiten, Format (B × H): 155 mm x 235 mm

Reihe: Asia in Transition

Borneo is often described through its diversity, but the lived realities of belonging in the region are far more complex, fluid, and compelling. This volume brings together critical narratives from Brunei Darussalam, Sabah and Sarawak in Malaysia, and Kalimantan in Indonesia to examine how ethnic, religious, and linguistic identities are negotiated across one of Southeast Asia’s most culturally rich regions.

Drawing on postcolonial thought, particularly on the idea of cultural hybridity, the book explores Borneo as a vibrant space of encounter, crossing, and negotiation. The chapters reveal how individuals and communities navigate shifting boundaries of ethnicity, citizenship, indigeneity, language, religion, and minority positioning. Rather than presenting identity as fixed or neatly defined, the volume captures the ambivalence of belonging: the tensions, uncertainties, attachments, and transformations that shape everyday life in Borneo.

Through personal and communal narratives, the book offers insight into how people become who they are in relation to history, place, power, and one another. It will appeal to readers interested in Borneo, Southeast Asian studies, identity, postcolonial theory, indigeneity, minority communities, inter-ethnic relations, and the politics of belonging. At its heart, this volume asks a powerful question: what does it mean to belong in a region where identities are constantly being blended, contested, and remade?

Zielgruppe

Research

Autoren/Hrsg.

Loo, Daron Benjamin

Fachgebiete

• Sozialwissenschaften Soziologie | Soziale Arbeit Soziologie Allgemein
• Sozialwissenschaften Ethnologie | Volkskunde Volkskunde Minderheiten, Interkulturelle & Multikulturelle Fragen
• Sozialwissenschaften Politikwissenschaft Politikwissenschaft Allgemein Politische Theorie, Politische Philosophie
• Interdisziplinäres Wissenschaften Wissenschaft und Gesellschaft | Kulturwissenschaften Kulturwissenschaften
• Geowissenschaften Geographie | Raumplanung Humangeographie
• Sozialwissenschaften Soziologie | Soziale Arbeit Spezielle Soziologie Soziologie von Migranten und Minderheiten

Inhaltsverzeichnis

1 Introduction: Narratives of ambivalence and the fluidity of belonging in Borneo.- Daron Benjamin Loo and Chang-Yau Hoon.- Part I: Ethno-religious belonging.- 2 Living beyond borders: The ambivalence of Murutic identities in Sabah and North Kalimantan.- Chun Sheng Goh.- 3 Negotiating official religious identity: The indigenous Tae community of West Kalimantan and their encounters with ‘World Religions’.- Zaenuddin Hudi Prasojo, Elmansyah, Yazid Imam Bustomi, and Elis Nurhadijah.- 4 Identity, belonging, and ambivalent citizenship among Chinese Malaysian permanent residents in Brunei.- Md Zaidul Anwar Hj Md Kasim.- 5 ‘Racial’ ambivalence in Sarawak: The hybridity of Lengilo/Lun Bawang identity.- Su-Hie Ting, Hamidah Abdul Wahab, Nur Ardini Jian Abdullah, and Wan Robiah Meor Osman.- 6 Slavers, stateless, or sentimentalized sea sojourners? (Post)colonial representations of Bajau belongingness in Sabah.- Jun Beom Han.- 7 Making sense of ethnic belonging and identity among the Brunei Dusuns.- Asiyah Kumpoh.- Part II: Migration, modernity and nationhood.- 8 Enunciating Dayak and Bornean identities: Complicating narratives of subjection and resistance in two indigenous publications from the late Dutch colonial period.- Harfiyah Widiawati and Dana Listiana.- 9 Rethinking Chineseness: Narratives of mobile huaren societies in Brunei Darussalam.- Hannah M.Y. Ho.- 10 Coexistence in the Malaysian educational ecology: Narratives from a Sabahan private Christian school system.- Daron Benjamin Loo and Veronica P. Atin.- 11 Ambivalent shores: Migration, generativity, and borders in Sebatik’s borderland/sea.- Lina Puryanti and Aireen Grace Andal.- 12 Love and (negotiable) boundaries: Narratives of agency in the intercultural romances of Bruneian youths.- Chang-Yau Hoon and Amal Afiqah Hashim.- Part III: Language and identity 13 Language identities and border-crossings between Sabah and Thailand: An intergenerational autoethnographic reflection.- Ritha Maidom and Chrystal Uohana Naltan.- 14 Our language is our identity’: The sociolinguistic construction of ‘poklen’ subculture in Brunei Darussalam.- Najib Noorashid.- 15 The myth of (business) English: Sociocultural capital and neoliberal belongingness among women entrepreneurs in Sabah.- Priscilla Shak and Kamsilawati Kamlun.- 16 Bahasa Sabah (Sabah Language) as a medium of belonging and identity-formation.- Saidatul Nornis Mahali.- 17 The pragmatic function of the expression ‘ada yang’ in Sabah Malay on mediating belongingness amidst ambivalence.- Suet Ching Soon and Siaw-Fong Chung.

Über Autor(innen)

Daron Benjamin Loo is senior lecturer at the Centre for the Promotion of Knowledge and Language Learning. A trained applied linguist, Daron has done research on issues regarding the sociology of language in schools, and the intersection of language and identity on public discourse. His research has been published in international indexed journals, such as Intercultural Education, Pedagogy, Culture & Society, and Power and Education.

Chang-Yau Hoon is Professor and Director of International Office at Singapore University of Social Sciences. He was formerly Professor of Anthropology at the Institute of Asian Studies, and Director of the Centre for Advanced Research, Universiti Brunei Darussalam. Professor Hoon specializes in Chinese diaspora, identity politics, multiculturalism, and religious and cultural diversity in contemporary Southeast Asia. His latest books include   (Liverpool University Press, 2023);   (with Ying-kit Chan, Lexington Press, 2023); and   (co-edited, ISEAS Publishing, 2023). His article published in   was awarded Wiley Top Cited Article 2022-2023 and his  article in 2006 was ranked the most cited article of all time