The Routledge Handbook of Contemporary Brunei presents an overview of significant themes, issues, and challenges pertinent to Brunei Darussalam in the twenty-first century. Multidisciplinary in coverage, the contributions cover topics relating to philology, history, religion, language and literature, geography, international relations, economics, politics and sociocultural traditions.
The Handbook is structured in eight parts:
Foundations
History
Faith and Ethnicity
Literature
Language and Education
Economics
Material Culture
Empowerment
Chapters focus on the recent past and contemporary developments in this unique country which has remained a Malay Muslim sultanate, sustaining its religious and traditional heritage encapsulated in the national philosophy, Melayu Islam Beraja (MIB, Malay Islamic Monarchy). The MIB philosophy represents the sultanate’s three pillars of social, cultural, political and economic sustainability, and the contributors discuss this concept in relation to the notion of ‘Malay’ or ‘Malaydom’, the official religion of the nation-state, Islam and monarchy as the essential system of government. This Handbook is an invaluable reference work for students of Asian and Southeast Asian Studies and researchers interested in what is demographically the smallest country within the Association of Southeast Asian Nations (ASEAN).
Author Biography:
Ooi Keat Gin is professor-designate of the modern history of Brunei/Borneo of the Academy of Brunei Studies, Universiti Brunei Darussalam, Brunei, and a visiting professor of the Korean Institute of ASEAN Studies, Busan University of Foreign Studies, Busan, South Korea. His latest publications include Borneo in the Cold War, 1950–1990 (2020), Malaysia and the Cold War Era (edited, 2020), Borneo and Sulawesi: Indigenous Peoples, Empires and Area Studies (edited, 2020), and Brunei – History, Islam, Society, and Contemporary Issues (edited, 2016), also published by Routledge. He is also a co-author with Victor T. King of The Handbook of Southeast Asian Studies – Pioneers and Critical Thinkers (forthcoming).
Victor T. King is a professor of Borneo studies, Institute of Asian Studies, Universiti Brunei Darussalam and emeritus professor, School of Languages, Cultures and Societies, University of Leeds, UK. He is co-editor of five recent Routledge publications, a four-volume reader, Tourism in East and Southeast Asia (2018), Tourism and Ethnodevelopment: Inclusion, Empowerment and Self-determination (2018), Tourism in South- East Asia (reprint with a new Preface) (2019), Origins, History and Social Structure in Brunei Darussalam (2021) and Continuity and Change in Brunei Darussalam (2021), and co-editor of the Routledge book series The Modern Anthropology of South East Asia.
