Fieldwork In South Asia

'Fieldwork in South Asia' is a valuable attempt to listen and learn from the memories and significant moments of fieldwork done by anthropologists, sociologists, and even historians from South Asia. The essays lead towards a deeper understanding of concerns of fieldwork located in various field sites across South Asia without assuming or applying fixed normative rules for the whole region. In the process, the volume allows the reader to have an option to locate or relocate ethnographic or other forms of texts in the context of growing methodological contours and dilemmas in the social science

This book presents new perspectives on Southeast Asia using cases from a range of ethnic groups, cultures and histories, written by scholars from different ethnicities, generations, disciplines and scientific traditions. It examines various research trajectories, engaging with epistemological debates on the ‘global’ and ‘local’, on ‘insiders’ and ‘outsiders’, and the role played by personal experiences in the collection and analysis of empirical data. The volume provides subjects for debate rarely addressed in formal approaches to data gathering and analysis. Rather than grappling with the usual methodological building blocks of research training, it focuses on neglected issues in the research experience including chance, error, coincidence, mishap, dead ends, silence, secrets, improvisation, remembering, digital challenges and shifting tracks. Fieldwork and the Self is relevant to academics and researchers from universities and international organisations who are engaged in teaching and learning in area studies and social science research methods. “A rich and compelling set of writings about fieldwork in, and beyond, Southeast Asia”. — Lyn Parker, Emeritus Professor, University of Western Australia “A must-read for all, especially emerging scholars on Southeast Asia, and a refreshing read for critical ‘old hands’ on the region”. — Abdul Rahman Embong, Emeritus Professor, Institute of Malaysian and International Studies (IKMAS), Universiti Kebangsaan Malaysia “An impressive collection of essays by two academics who have devoted their academic life to anthropological fieldwork in Southeast Asia”. — Shamsul A.B., Distinguished Professor and UNESCO Chair, Universiti Kebangsaan Malaysia “The contributors share an unquenchable and passionate curiosity for Southeast Asia. They have survived the uncertainties and disillusionment of their fieldwork and remained first-grade scholars”. — Marie-Sybille de Vienne, Professor, National Institute for Oriental Languages and Civilisations, Paris “A penetrating reflection on current social science research on Southeast Asia”. — Hans-Dieter Evers, Professor Emeritus and Senior Fellow, University of Bonn

This book addresses the question of how to ground research practice in area-specific, yet globally entangled contexts such as 'Global Southeast Asia'. It offers a fruitful debate between various approaches to Southeast Asia Studies, while taking into consideration the area-specific contexts of research practice cross-cutting methodological issues.

This volume explores new perspectives on contemporary forms of violence in South Asia. Drawing on extensive fieldwork and case studies, it examines the infiltration of violence at the societal level and affords a comparative regional analysis of its historical, cultural and geopolitical origins in South Asia. Featuring essays from Sri Lanka to Nepal, and from Afghanistan to Burma, it sheds light on issues as wide-ranging as lynching and mob justice, hate speech, caste violence, gender-based violence and the plight of the Rohingyas, among others. Lucid and engaging, this book will be an invaluable source of reference as well as scholarship to students and researchers of postcolonial studies, anthropology, sociology, cultural geography, minority studies, politics and gender studies.

Drawing upon international relations theory, this volume conceptualizes possible solutions to the various conflicts in South Asia. It analyses the bilateral conflicts between India and Pakistan and other multilateral problems specific to this region. Bringing together scholarship from several South Asian countries, it offers a well-rounded formulation of conflict resolution and cooperation-building. The volume employs a strong theoretical rubric, empirical research, and exhaustive fieldwork. Its centralizing approach to sustain the diversity of perspectives and arguments makes it an indispensable contribution to strategic studies.

The articles in this volume build up ethnographic analysis complementary to the historiography of South Asian Islam, which has explored the emergence of reformism in the context of specific political and religious circumstances of nineteenth-century British India. Taking up diverse popular and scholarly debates as well as everyday religious practices, this volume also breaks away from the dominant trend of mainstream ethnographic work, which celebrates Sufi-inspired forms of Islam as tolerant, plural, authentic and so on, pitted against a 'reformist' Islam. Urging a more nuanced examination of all forms of reformism and their reception in practice, the contributions here powerfully demonstrate the historical and geographical specificities of reform projects. In doing so, they challenge prevailing perspectives in which substantially different traditions of reform are lumped together into one reified category (often carelessly shorthanded as 'wah'habism') and branded as extremist – if not altogether demonised as terrorist.

This volume is a definitive manual for students and practitioners involved in learning and developing essential theories and models for fieldwork practicum in social work education. It addresses various functional issues in field practicum, delineates proper guidelines for students and supervisors, discusses criteria of supervision and evaluation, and explores the concerns facing South Asian field practitioners. The volume focuses on traditional and non-traditional components and aspects of fieldwork and training, such as: • The value and use of educational camps and skill development workshops. • The contemporary field-level needs and strategies in social work practicum. • Formulating alternative practice theories that will allow social work practitioners to respond to the critical social problems unique to India and South Asia. The book provides multiple frameworks for teaching and learning fieldwork that integrate theory and practice and create an environment where students can develop intervention strategies using their knowledge, skills, and techniques. The volume will be indispensable reading for undergraduate and post-graduate students of social work. It will also be useful for scholars of sociology, anthropology, and development studies, and practitioners engaged in various non-governmental and international organizations.

This book examines medium of instruction in education and studies its social, economic, and political significance in the lives of people living in South Asia. It provides insight into the meaning of medium and what makes it so important to identity, aspiration, and inequality. It questions the ideologized associations between education and social and spatial mobility and discusses the gender- and class-based marginalization that comes with vernacular-medium education. The volume also considers how policy measures, such as the Right to Education (RTE) Act in India, have failed to address the inequalities brought by medium in schools, and investigates questions on language access, inclusion, and rights. Drawing on extensive fieldwork and in-depth interviews, the book will be indispensable for students and scholars of anthropology, education studies, sociolinguistics, sociology, and South Asian studies. It will also appeal to those interested in language and education in South Asia, especially the role of language in the reproduction of inequality.