Second Thoughts: On Malaysia, Globalisation, Society And Self

BACKGROUND: This work may be considered to be a contribution to the field of 'public anthropology' (e.g. www.publicanthropology.org). It contributes to scholarly debates about ways in which societies experience and engage with globalisation. Subjective engagements with globalisation are explored in academic publications with major authors including Manfred Steger, Roland Robertson, and Paul James. Key recent texts include 'Levels of Subjective Globalization' (Steger and James, 2013); 'Three Levels of subjective globalization' (Steger and James, 2011) and 'Narratives of Globalization (Lee, 2016). CONTRIBUTION: Second Thoughts explores diverse ways in which quotidian experiences can illuminate the global condition of everyday life in Malaysia, and demonstrate how the global is made manifest in the local Malaysian context, by drawing on anthropological perspectives to do so. The research question beneath the work is 'What do prosaic aspects of Malaysian life say about Malaysia's engagement with globalisation?' This work is clearly a legitimate approach to addressing the question through its mosaic of academically informed explorations into diverse aspects of Malaysian life, with clear arguments drawing on scholarship. Public anthropology is a field that is being promoted by anthropology bodies (see above) and this work is an exemplar text of how such it may be conducted. SIGNIFICANCE: The benefits of this work extend into the non-academic community. It has been reviewed at least numerous non-academic outlets, including The Star - Malaysia's biggest English newspaper. It has also been reviewed in The Penang Monthly and CriticsRepublic. It has been requested by the journal 'Anthropological Forum' for review. The publisher of the book is a ground-breaking publisher in Malaysia, which provides an outlet for publically engaged academic writing, by significant academics including Azmi Sharom, Yeoh Seng Guan and Meredith Weiss. The work was not funded.