Victor King

• Doctor of Philosophy
• Professor at Universiti Brunei Darussalam

Besides the more obvious threats and impediments to human security posed by conflict or natural disaster, a central problem in examining and addressing multiple insecurities in Southeast Asia is at what level. Each country confronts a different context of human security and faces a host of intersecting circumstances that render situational day-to-d...

This wide-ranging book re-evaluates in detail the early history and historiography of Brunei Darussalam, the origins of the sultanate, its genealogical foundations and the structure and administration of Brunei society. Contributors draw on the seminal work of Donald E. Brown whose major monograph on the sultanate was published in 1970 and marked...

This chapter addresses some of the major issues facing Brunei in the post-Second World War era. The historical contextualisation of modern Brunei and the ideology of the Malay Islamic Monarchy (MIB) is provided, the trauma of the 1962 rebellion is discussed and the interaction between the dominant Brunei Malay population and the ethnic minorities i...

This book analyses the processes of social and economic change in Brunei Darussalam. Drawing on recent studies undertaken by both locally based scholars and senior researchers from outside the state, the book explores the underlying strengths, characteristics, and uniqueness of Malay Islamic Monarchy in Brunei Darussalam in a historical context an...

The introductory chapter provides the rationale for the book, to acknowledge, celebrate and evaluate Professor Donald Brown’s pioneering studies on the Brunei sultanate. It is just over 50 years since Professor Brown undertook anthropological research in Brunei (1967–1968) for his Cornell University doctorate, which led to his seminal volume Brunei...

This introductory chapter presents briefly an overview of the indigenous situation and context in the Pan-Amazonia region, and there are two major issues highlighted as part of the Indigenous discussion and complexities: environment conflict and social/territorial/ethnic conflicts. The book gathers a collection of chapters reviewing these issues, a...

This book demonstrates clearly an Amazonia in radical transformation with dramatic landscape changes, wildlife in danger and local peoples in jeopardy. Human and natural resources in Amazonia are under threat with a record of devastation of forested areas. Nevertheless, the volume reveals that there are promising developments which have to be encou...

Each country or region confronts a different context of human security and faces a set of specific challenges embedded in people’s daily-lived experience (especially in developing countries). Yet, the vulnerability and precariousness of their circumstances are neither readily understood nor measurable. State led action tends to be generic and imita...

This book brings together a valuable collection of case studies and conceptual approaches that outline the present state of Amazonia in the 21st century. The many problems are described and the benefits, as well as the achievements of regional development are also discussed. The book focuses on three themes for discussion and recommendations: indig...

themes and issues of Borneo Anthropology based on past and existing research

This article introduces the concept of the 'publication regime' into the current discourse on academia. This allows for a much deeper understanding of how publishing conglomerates and appointment and promotion procedures in Western universities are increasingly interlocked. It then turns to the global permutations of that regime as it is currently...

The leading scholar in research in the field of tourism in Thailand is Professor Erik Cohen. Not only has he contributed to the store of empirical material on Thailand on a wide range of tourism-related subjects, but he has been involved in an important series of debates about theories and paradigms in the sociological-anthropological study of tour...

Threats and impediments to human security are part of the daily-lived experience of large numbers of people (especially in developing countries) but their vulnerability and precariousness are neither readily understood nor measurable. Action tends to be generic, imitative, and overly ambitious. If each country or region confronts a different contex...

This chapter focuses on a rapidly expanding field of research in the social sciences in Borneo. There has been a noticeable focus on the multidisciplinary study of identities and ethnicities in Borneo in the last two decades, even though the identification of units for analysis and the labelling of ethnic groups or categories have enjoyed a long hi...

The chapter argues that the early post-war study of Borneo, primarily undertaken by anthropologists, and predominantly in what was then the British Crown Colony of Sarawak should not be viewed in narrow, parochial terms. Unfortunately, apart from Sarawak, there was little that was done in modern social science during the first two decades of the po...

The chapter comprises an intellectual journey through Borneo. It focuses on a particular style of research, referred to here as ‘jobbing’. Popular reactions to the use of such a concept usually turn on the images that it conjures of an unprofessional and unscholarly approach to what are serious matters of academic endeavour. Research that can be ch...

This overview of research on Borneo, which moves on from Chap. 2, draws attention to Borneo-wide studies, reference materials, bibliographies and a range of sources of information. It arranges the survey chronologically, thematically and in terms of debates and controversies. With regard to themes, it is argued that George Appell’s categorisation o...

The anthropological enterprise of translating other cultures is explored in the case of the Iban of Borneo. Derek Freeman's demonstration of authority in his analyses of Iban religion and social organization, his establishment of a lineage of authority, and his development of an evolutionary biological-cultural interactionist paradigm is critically...

This edited book is the first major review of what has been achieved in Borneo Studies to date. Chapters in this book situate research on Borneo within the general disciplinary fields of the social sciences, with the weight of attention devoted to anthropological research and related fields such as development studies, gender studies, environmental...

As mentioned at the beginning, the ways vulnerability and precariousness play out across Southeast Asia are not readily understood or measurable. However, by focusing on the human and relational dimensions of insecurities in Southeast Asia, the editors hope the reader has been given an interior and localized perspective on a manifold issue. Glimpsi...

The ambitious and normative expansion of the remit of “security” as both policy and practice risks being as difficult to focus and prioritize as to implement. In Southeast Asia, threats and impediments to “human security” are part of the daily lived experiences of large numbers of people. They live in vulnerable and precarious circumstances (“human...

“It presents a compelling overview of human insecurities in Southeast Asia, highlighted by the extensive use of ethnography and historical analysis. Surely, this is an important reading for academics and students concerned with the region and even useful for comparative analysis with other continents.” Prof. Marcos Alan S. V. Ferreira, Journal of...

This overview considers four concepts: uncertainty, risk, safety, and trust. In addressing issues of insecurity and uncertainty we tend to think immediately of such processes and events as climate change and its social and economic impact; transnational crimes and the consequences for local communities; regional security and conflict; access to cle...

In this study of the relationships between identity, material culture and tourism some of the different roles of the anthropologist in engaging with the wider field of cultural identity are examined. It commences with the approach of the conceptually-oriented anthropologist in addressing issues of culture, identity and ethnicity. Then it explores t...

Debates concerning the definition of Southeast Asia as a region are intense and on-going, and the delimitation and rationale for regional analysis have become increasingly problematical in the era of globalisation. Southeast Asia is characterised, though not clearly and unequivocally defined by cultural diversity and openness. It has a long history...

There have been recent attempts to advance research in tourism studies and to redefine the rationale and focus of this field of study. Erik Cohen and Scott A. Cohen have published important and stimulating papers in a recent exercise aimed at rethinking the sociological and anthropological analysis of tourism. They propose a “mobilities” paradigm a...

Singapore. Nature contained: Environmental histories of Singapore Edited by Timothy P. BarnardSingapore: NUS Press, 2014, Pp. x, 328, Figures, Plates, Tables, Bibliography, List of Contributors, Index. - Volume 46 Issue 1 - Victor T. King

The field of tourism studies has generated the same kinds of issues and problems as other multidisciplinary fields of study including area studies. This paper reflects on the progress of tourism research in Southeast Asia from the early 1990s when the field began to gain some momentum. These reflections help chart the ways in which research develop...

This chapter brings together several strands of debate in which I have been involved during the past decade. I refer to the issue which I shall examine here as a conundrum, though I should emphasize that I think it is much more of a conundrum for others than for me. In other words, if questions are posed about the relationships between area studies...

Is there much more to say about death, death rituals and the afterlife in Borneo other than to continue to fill ethnographic gaps? The subject has already claimed an inordinate amount of attention, particularly as a result of the early fascination of European travellers, missionaries and colonial observers with the ritual practices and major ceremo...

Review of:Goh Beng Lan (ed.), Decentring & diversifying Southeast Asian Studies: Perspectives from the region. Singapore: ISEAS, 2011, xiii + 304 pp. ISBN 9789814311564, price: USD 34.90 (paperback); 9789814311571, USD 45.90 (hardback).Terence Wesley-Smith and Jon Goss (eds), Remaking Area studies: Teaching and learning across Asia and the Pacific....

Review of: Goh Beng Lan (ed.), Decentring & diversifying Southeast Asian Studies: Perspectives from the region. Singapore: ISEAS, 2011, xiii + 304 pp. ISBN 9789814311564, price: USD 34.90 (paperback); 9789814311571, USD 45.90 (hardback). Terence Wesley-Smith and Jon Goss (eds), Remaking Area studies: Teaching and learning across Asia and the Pacifi...

This editorial brings together several issues on which I have been working during the past two decades. Studies of tourism development in Southeast Asia were still in their infancy in the early 1990s when I became involved in a multidisciplinary programme of research to investigate various dimensions of tourism in Malaysia, Indonesia, Thailand and...

This study examines some of the tensions inherent in the mobilization of UNESCO World Heritage Sites for tourism in Thailand, set against the imperatives of conservation management. The authors look at two cultural sites (the Historic City of Ayutthaya and the Historic Town of Sukhothai) and one natural site (the Dong Phayayen-Khao Yai Forest Compl...

Development in Sarawak: Historical and Contemporary Perspectives. Edited by CrambR.A. and ReeceR.H.W.. Clayton: Monash University Centre of Southeast Asian Studies, 1988. Pp. 190. Figures, Tables, Photographs. - Volume 20 Issue 2 - Victor T. King

ABSTRAK Makalah ini membincangkan ciri-ciri generasi net dan jati diri pengguna- pengguna internet khasnya golongan belia. Antara perkara-perkara yang dibincangkan dalam kertas kerja ini termasuklah peranan generasi net sebagai pengguna dan peserta yang berperanan sebagai pengguna maklumat, pemberi maklumat dan penilai maklumat. Ia menggunakan pend...

There is very little information or analysis on middle class youth in Vietnam. This paper begins to fill this gap in our knowledge by utilising data on urban, educated professional youth from the Survey Assessment of Vietnamese Youth (2003–04) and an ethnographic investigation in Hanoi between 1999 and 2002. It considers some of the conceptual and...

Much interest has been devoted since the 1980s to the new urban, educated middle class in Southeast Asia which has emerged primarily as a result of state- led modernization and capitalist transformation. These processes have also been occurring recently in the former centralised socialist economies of Southeast Asia mainland. However, there has not...

This article is based on field research in four Tomohonese villages – Talete II, Tinoor I, Taratara I and Rurukan – between June 1999 and July 2000. Names appearing in this article are pseudonyms.

This article examines the interrelationships between regional development programmes introduced in Indonesia during Soeharto's New Order and women's responses to such programmes in the northern Sulawesi community of Tomohon. Three major areas of socio-economic change and development in Indonesia are considered: industrialization and factory work, t...

This special issue is intended to explore in some empirical detail the relationships between culture (including ethnicity) nature, tourism, development, and political action, and in this connection to focus specifically on what is widely called ‘heritage’ and its conceptualization and representation in South-East Asia. Heritage is both a narrow con...

In Malaysia's quest for modernity the 'cityscapes' of the country have been transformed. New shopping malls, high-rise hotels, office blocks, luxury apartments, sprawling new suburbs, industrial estates, highways and bridges have changed urban environments. Here it is the intention to examine some of the effects of this complex and contradictory pr...

A Decade in Borneo. By PryerAda, edited by MorganSusan. (The Literature of Travel, Exploration and Empire series). pp. viii, 224. London and New York, Continuum, Leicester University Press, 2001. - Volume 12 Issue 2 - Victor T. King