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 inteaching 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

Jérémy Jammes is Professor of Anthropology and Southeast Asian Studies at Lyon Institute of Political Studies (Sciences Po Lyon) and Research Fellow of the Lyon Institute of East Asian Studies (IAO), France. He has published widely on Southeast Asian geopolitics and religions, including a monograph on Vietnamese Cao ài religion (2014), and coedited volumes on evangelical networks,Chrétiens évangéliques dAsie du Sud-Est: Expériences locales dune ferveur conquérante(Evangelical Christians in Southeast Asia: Local experiences of conquering fervour, 2016, with Pascal Bourdeaux), on Islam,Muslim piety as economy: Markets, meaning and morality in Southeast Asia (2020, with Johan Fischer), and on contemporary geopolitical issues in Southeast Asia. He was previously Director of the Institute of Asian Studies, Universiti Brunei Darussalam, and also Deputy Director and Head of Publications of the Research Institute on Contemporary Southeast Asia (IRASEC), Thailand.He is coeditor-in-chief of the Routledge Studies in Material Religion and Spirituality series.

Victor T. Kingis Professor of Borneo Studies, Universiti Brunei Darussalam and Emeritus Professor in the School of Languages, Cultures and Societies, University of Leeds, UK. He has long-standing interests in the sociology and anthropology of Southeast Asia. His recent publications areUNESCO in Southeast Asia: World Heritage Sites in comparative perspective(ed., 2016), and coedited books onHuman insecurities in Southeast Asia(2016),Borneo studies in history, society and culture(2017),Tourism and ethnodevelopment(2018),Tourism in East and Southeast Asia(2018, 4-volume reader),Tourism in South-East Asia(2020),Indigenous Amazonia, regional development and territorial dynamics: Contentious issues (2020),Continuity and change in Brunei Darussalam (2021) andOrigins, history and social structure in Brunei Darussalam (2021). 

The Importance of Being Wrong: Reflections on 35 Years of Methodological Blunders, Empirical Errors, Theoretical culs-de-sac, and Historical Misinterpretations.-  A Sociological-Anthropological Gaze on Changing Perspectives on Southeast Asia: Personal Interventions in Discipline and Area.- Salem to Sumatra (and more improvised itineraries): Reflections on a Quarter Century of Shifting Tacks.-  Ethnography of the Homo Secretus: Inside Secret Societies and Societies with Secrets in Vietnam.- Engaging and Distancing: An Intellectual, Moral and Emotional Investment in the Field.- The Anthropology of Remembering: Memory as a Complementary Ethnography.- Silencing as Method: Leaving Malay Studies Out?.-  the Role of Muslim Southeast Asia in Global Religious Markets.-  Translating Brunei: Between Self-Reflexivity and Literary Study.-  Addressing the Elephant in the Room: Islamic Governance and the Idea of Context.- Revisiting the Southeast Asian House: A Filipinos Perspective.- Writing the Local, Provincial and Public into Area Narratives.- The Political Construction of Race and Ethnic Identity in Malaysia and Singapore: Career of a Concept.-  At Home in the World: Reflections on Home Scholarship, Theory and Area Studies.- Researching Borneo Language Description, Language Maintenance and Language Shift: Issues of Nomenclature and Shifting Identities.- Engaging with the Bugis and Christian Pelras: Reflections on fieldwork in South Sulawesi.