Questioning Modernity in Indonesia and Malaysia

Questioning Modernity in Indonesia and Malaysia represents a contribution to a broader and ongoing project to examine the concept of modernity in the analysis of Indonesian and Malaysian economic, political, and cultural processes. Cultural, economic, and institutional transformation typically labelled ""modernising"" have been so pervasive in this region over an extended period of time that it is impossible to ignore their role in shaping the cultures, societies, economies, and polities of these countries. The region can be described as fully modern, but the essays in this collection show that Indonesian and Malaysian modernity are not merely derivative of a European/Western modernity because the pace and character of modernity are quite different in these settings. Written by scholars from both ""inside"" and ""outside"" the region, the case studies show how the process of conducting social research in Southeast Asia might be rethought on the basis of a revised understanding of modernity. Taken together, the essays in this volume pose questions of relevant theories of modernity not only in Indonesia and Malaysia but in general.