Thambiah
Biographic Data
| ID | 24852 |
|---|---|
| NAME | Thambiah |
| FAMILY NAME | Thambiah |
| SIGNATURE | THAMBIAH |
| AFFILIATIONS | University of Malaya |
| ORCID | 0000-0003-4880-7981 |
| VERIFIED | Yes |
| TOTAL WORKS | 14 |
| TOTAL CITATIONS | 17 |
| AUTHOR COUNT | 14 |
| EDITOR COUNT | 0 |
| FIRST PUBLICATION YEAR | 1997 |
| LATEST PUBLICATION YEAR | 2026 |
| H-INDEX | 3 |
Production Targets, Coercive Control, and Bargaining with Public Patriarchy in Readymade Garment Factories in Bangladesh: Violence Against Women in the Global Supply Chain
This article unpacks how public patriarchy, coercive control, and violence as disciplinary tools in the supply chain push women workers to deliver on production targets in ready-made garment factories. Data from in-depth interviews with female workers ( n = 20), key-informant interviews with factory managers and supervisors ( n = 6) and labor rights activists ( n = 2) reveal that gender-based job segregation and coercive control shape the product…
Challenges in Agrobiodiversity Maintenance in Southwest Bangladesh: An Intersectional Analysis
Guided by the intersectional approach, the objective of the paper is to engage gender as an analytical variable across class and spatial inequalities to explore agrobiodiversity maintenance. The paper dwells on challenges faced, and factors influencing agrobiodiversity choices and its maintenance. Data was collected from a survey of 343 households, 14 focus group discussions conducted in seven villages, and in-depth interviews with 30 research pa…
Fleeting Agencies: A Social History of Indian Coolie Women in British Malaya by Arunima Datta (review)
Reviewed by: Fleeting Agencies: A Social History of Indian Coolie Women in British Malaya by Arunima Datta Shanthi Thambiah Fleeting Agencies: A Social History of Indian Coolie Women in British Malaya. By Arunima Datta. Cambridge: Cambridge University Press, 2020, 254 pp. ISBN 9781108837385 This book is a valuable contribution to Women’s Social History in Malaya especially of coolie women, who are not spoken about in current day Malaysian history…
Globalization and the health and well-being of migrant domestic workers in Malaysia
BACKGROUND: Neoliberal globalization contributes to the out-migration of labour from sending countries in the global South. Supported by multilateral organizations including the IMF and World Bank, the migration and development nexus holds that nations and households in migrant sending countries can migrate their way out of poverty. Two countries that embrace this paradigm, the Philippines and Indonesia, are major suppliers of migrant labour incl…
Women's Agency as Reason for Life Threats Among the Pashtuns in Pakistan: Narratives of Women Fleeing Honor Killing and Masculine Domination
This article uses the narratives of survivors of honor killing to show that women's agency is the reason for life threats because it undermines masculine domination. The findings show that life threats are made against women engaging in behaviors not aligned to cultural norms as perceived by male members of their family, to escape shame and gossip, and it is a manifestation of men losing control over women. These survivors of honor-based violence…
Kinship and Semelai Residential Arrangements: Belonging to Village and the Resilience of Communal Land Tenure in Tasek Bera, Malaysia
By examining two villages in Pos Iskandar, Tasek Bera, the article shows that Semelai have a sense of grouping based on consanguinity, where parents, married children and siblings live in proximity, which traditionally formed a kampong (village). This contributes to the resilience of the communal land tenure system. Today, however, land is seen as property and this has led to its informal inclusion in the Semelai concept of pesakak manah (inherit…
Children’s agency in accessing for spaces of play in an urban high-rise community in Malaysia
This research explores children’s agency in negotiating for play spaces in Malaysia within the context of an urban high-rise community. Fieldwork was conducted with 31 children between the ages of four to 12 years old. A qualitative, child-centered approach to data collection was employed using participatory research methods. The study reveals how children gain access to play spaces and details their innovative strategies in maximizing play oppor…
Children and young people's emotions of migration across Asia
This special issue of Children's Geographies builds upon a growing area of study on the emotional and affectual experiences of migration as experienced by young people. The special issue represents
Estate youth and complicated migration in Malaysia's oil palm plantations: The emotions of leaving and connecting back
This paper investigates the emotional relationship young Tamil Indians have with oil palm plantations they are leaving behind or have left behind. Working in a small town in Malaysia, as well as in a large estate, we show how communal and individual aspirations of migration shape young people's mobility. While young people recognize the poverty and marginalization of plantation life, they continue to be emotionally and affectually connected to pl…
Reclaiming the Eclipsed Female in the Sacred: Semai Women’s Religious Knowledge and Its Connection to Their Rights to the Land, in Malaysia
This article examines an indigenous religion in Malaysia-that of the Semai of Kampung Chang, Sungai Gepai in Bidor, Perak-and expounds the changes in women's position in Semai cosmology, rituals, and roles. We show that the Bidor Semai religion is neither hierarchical nor egalitarian in terms of the position of women and men; rather, a much more complex situation exists. However, while male authority is becoming more prevalent, the existence of t…
Bhuket material culture and Kayan stratification in Sarawak, Malaysia: Mats and baskets as instruments of social differentiation
This article sets out to show that baskets and mats transcend their utilitarian importance and act as social instruments when they are decorated with intricate designs and patterns. The focus is not into the usual areas of aesthetics, style, and history, and emphasis is instead on the artistic objects’ social utility as instruments of social differentiation or as rank markers. The users or owners of this material culture, the Kayan people of uppe…
Negotiating male gatekeeper violence in team-based research on Bangladeshi migrant women in Malaysia
While the field of migration studies is expanding to understand the nuanced experiences of women across Asia, there has been little discussion of how these studies were conducted. This article draws on the reflective accounts of three researchers on a team project investigating the lived experiences of female Bangladeshi migrant workers in Malaysia. While the research aims centred on understanding the lives of the Bangladeshi migrant women, the t…
The Productive and Non-(Re) productive Women: Sites of Economic Growth in Malaysia
This paper is a critical revisit of the New Economic Policy and the New Population Policy of Malaysia. It attempts to inspect how a woman's body (fertility) and her labor has been the site or location from which the economic growth of the country was dependent on but has never been recognized. The paper examines women's contribution in the economy and their contribution to the economic growth of Malaysia. These contributions and changes were plot…
Household Formation and Egalitarian Gender Relations among the Bhuket of Central Borneo
This paper explores the role played by Bhuket women in the formation of the household, I attempt to show that in this society, the household as it is commonly understood, does not exist. Having been a very mobile hunting and gathering people, the notion of a living arrangement is non—concrete and fluid among the Bhuket. I have examined the concept of the household as emerging from the concept kajan, which refers to a space shared by a group of in…
Children’s agency in accessing for spaces of play in an urban high-rise community in Malaysia
This research explores children’s agency in negotiating for play spaces in Malaysia within the context of an urban high-rise community. Fieldwork was conducted with 31 children between the ages of four to 12 years old. A qualitative, child-centered approach to data collection was employed using participatory research methods. The study reveals how children gain access to play spaces and details their innovative strategies in maximizing play oppor…
Children and young people's emotions of migration across Asia
This special issue of Children's Geographies builds upon a growing area of study on the emotional and affectual experiences of migration as experienced by young people. The special issue represents
Estate youth and complicated migration in Malaysia's oil palm plantations: The emotions of leaving and connecting back
This paper investigates the emotional relationship young Tamil Indians have with oil palm plantations they are leaving behind or have left behind. Working in a small town in Malaysia, as well as in a large estate, we show how communal and individual aspirations of migration shape young people's mobility. While young people recognize the poverty and marginalization of plantation life, they continue to be emotionally and affectually connected to pl…
Kinship and Semelai Residential Arrangements: Belonging to Village and the Resilience of Communal Land Tenure in Tasek Bera, Malaysia
By examining two villages in Pos Iskandar, Tasek Bera, the article shows that Semelai have a sense of grouping based on consanguinity, where parents, married children and siblings live in proximity, which traditionally formed a kampong (village). This contributes to the resilience of the communal land tenure system. Today, however, land is seen as property and this has led to its informal inclusion in the Semelai concept of pesakak manah (inherit…
Household Formation and Egalitarian Gender Relations among the Bhuket of Central Borneo
This paper explores the role played by Bhuket women in the formation of the household, I attempt to show that in this society, the household as it is commonly understood, does not exist. Having been a very mobile hunting and gathering people, the notion of a living arrangement is non—concrete and fluid among the Bhuket. I have examined the concept of the household as emerging from the concept kajan, which refers to a space shared by a group of in…
Negotiating male gatekeeper violence in team-based research on Bangladeshi migrant women in Malaysia
While the field of migration studies is expanding to understand the nuanced experiences of women across Asia, there has been little discussion of how these studies were conducted. This article draws on the reflective accounts of three researchers on a team project investigating the lived experiences of female Bangladeshi migrant workers in Malaysia. While the research aims centred on understanding the lives of the Bangladeshi migrant women, the t…
The Productive and Non-(Re) productive Women: Sites of Economic Growth in Malaysia
This paper is a critical revisit of the New Economic Policy and the New Population Policy of Malaysia. It attempts to inspect how a woman's body (fertility) and her labor has been the site or location from which the economic growth of the country was dependent on but has never been recognized. The paper examines women's contribution in the economy and their contribution to the economic growth of Malaysia. These contributions and changes were plot…
Household Formation and Egalitarian Gender Relations among the Bhuket of Central Borneo
This paper explores the role played by Bhuket women in the formation of the household, I attempt to show that in this society, the household as it is commonly understood, does not exist. Having been a very mobile hunting and gathering people, the notion of a living arrangement is non—concrete and fluid among the Bhuket. I have examined the concept of the household as emerging from the concept kajan, which refers to a space shared by a group of in…
The Productive and Non-(Re) productive Women: Sites of Economic Growth in Malaysia
This paper is a critical revisit of the New Economic Policy and the New Population Policy of Malaysia. It attempts to inspect how a woman's body (fertility) and her labor has been the site or location from which the economic growth of the country was dependent on but has never been recognized. The paper examines women's contribution in the economy and their contribution to the economic growth of Malaysia. These contributions and changes were plot…
Bhuket material culture and Kayan stratification in Sarawak, Malaysia: Mats and baskets as instruments of social differentiation
This article sets out to show that baskets and mats transcend their utilitarian importance and act as social instruments when they are decorated with intricate designs and patterns. The focus is not into the usual areas of aesthetics, style, and history, and emphasis is instead on the artistic objects’ social utility as instruments of social differentiation or as rank markers. The users or owners of this material culture, the Kayan people of uppe…
Negotiating male gatekeeper violence in team-based research on Bangladeshi migrant women in Malaysia
While the field of migration studies is expanding to understand the nuanced experiences of women across Asia, there has been little discussion of how these studies were conducted. This article draws on the reflective accounts of three researchers on a team project investigating the lived experiences of female Bangladeshi migrant workers in Malaysia. While the research aims centred on understanding the lives of the Bangladeshi migrant women, the t…
Children and young people's emotions of migration across Asia
This special issue of Children's Geographies builds upon a growing area of study on the emotional and affectual experiences of migration as experienced by young people. The special issue represents
Estate youth and complicated migration in Malaysia's oil palm plantations: The emotions of leaving and connecting back
This paper investigates the emotional relationship young Tamil Indians have with oil palm plantations they are leaving behind or have left behind. Working in a small town in Malaysia, as well as in a large estate, we show how communal and individual aspirations of migration shape young people's mobility. While young people recognize the poverty and marginalization of plantation life, they continue to be emotionally and affectually connected to pl…
Reclaiming the Eclipsed Female in the Sacred: Semai Women’s Religious Knowledge and Its Connection to Their Rights to the Land, in Malaysia
This article examines an indigenous religion in Malaysia-that of the Semai of Kampung Chang, Sungai Gepai in Bidor, Perak-and expounds the changes in women's position in Semai cosmology, rituals, and roles. We show that the Bidor Semai religion is neither hierarchical nor egalitarian in terms of the position of women and men; rather, a much more complex situation exists. However, while male authority is becoming more prevalent, the existence of t…
Children’s agency in accessing for spaces of play in an urban high-rise community in Malaysia
This research explores children’s agency in negotiating for play spaces in Malaysia within the context of an urban high-rise community. Fieldwork was conducted with 31 children between the ages of four to 12 years old. A qualitative, child-centered approach to data collection was employed using participatory research methods. The study reveals how children gain access to play spaces and details their innovative strategies in maximizing play oppor…
Kinship and Semelai Residential Arrangements: Belonging to Village and the Resilience of Communal Land Tenure in Tasek Bera, Malaysia
By examining two villages in Pos Iskandar, Tasek Bera, the article shows that Semelai have a sense of grouping based on consanguinity, where parents, married children and siblings live in proximity, which traditionally formed a kampong (village). This contributes to the resilience of the communal land tenure system. Today, however, land is seen as property and this has led to its informal inclusion in the Semelai concept of pesakak manah (inherit…
Women's Agency as Reason for Life Threats Among the Pashtuns in Pakistan: Narratives of Women Fleeing Honor Killing and Masculine Domination
This article uses the narratives of survivors of honor killing to show that women's agency is the reason for life threats because it undermines masculine domination. The findings show that life threats are made against women engaging in behaviors not aligned to cultural norms as perceived by male members of their family, to escape shame and gossip, and it is a manifestation of men losing control over women. These survivors of honor-based violence…
Fleeting Agencies: A Social History of Indian Coolie Women in British Malaya by Arunima Datta (review)
Reviewed by: Fleeting Agencies: A Social History of Indian Coolie Women in British Malaya by Arunima Datta Shanthi Thambiah Fleeting Agencies: A Social History of Indian Coolie Women in British Malaya. By Arunima Datta. Cambridge: Cambridge University Press, 2020, 254 pp. ISBN 9781108837385 This book is a valuable contribution to Women’s Social History in Malaya especially of coolie women, who are not spoken about in current day Malaysian history…
Globalization and the health and well-being of migrant domestic workers in Malaysia
BACKGROUND: Neoliberal globalization contributes to the out-migration of labour from sending countries in the global South. Supported by multilateral organizations including the IMF and World Bank, the migration and development nexus holds that nations and households in migrant sending countries can migrate their way out of poverty. Two countries that embrace this paradigm, the Philippines and Indonesia, are major suppliers of migrant labour incl…
Challenges in Agrobiodiversity Maintenance in Southwest Bangladesh: An Intersectional Analysis
Guided by the intersectional approach, the objective of the paper is to engage gender as an analytical variable across class and spatial inequalities to explore agrobiodiversity maintenance. The paper dwells on challenges faced, and factors influencing agrobiodiversity choices and its maintenance. Data was collected from a survey of 343 households, 14 focus group discussions conducted in seven villages, and in-depth interviews with 30 research pa…
Production Targets, Coercive Control, and Bargaining with Public Patriarchy in Readymade Garment Factories in Bangladesh: Violence Against Women in the Global Supply Chain
This article unpacks how public patriarchy, coercive control, and violence as disciplinary tools in the supply chain push women workers to deliver on production targets in ready-made garment factories. Data from in-depth interviews with female workers ( n = 20), key-informant interviews with factory managers and supervisors ( n = 6) and labor rights activists ( n = 2) reveal that gender-based job segregation and coercive control shape the product…
Sociology (10 works) · Political science (8 works) · Geography (7 works) · Social science (6 works) · Asian Studies and History (5 works) · Economics (5 works) · Gender Studies (5 works) · Gender Studies (4 works) · Law (4 works) · Agency (philosophy (3 works)