Syed Farid Alatas
Dados Biográficos
| ID | 5625828 |
|---|---|
| NOME | Syed Farid Alatas |
| PRENOMES | Syed Farid |
| SOBRENOME | Alatas |
| ASSINATURA | ALATAS S F |
| AFILIAÇÕES | National University of Singapore |
| ORCID | 0000-0002-3416-1967 |
| VERIFICADO | Sim |
| TOTAL DE OBRAS | 64 |
| TOTAL DE CITAÇÕES | 417 |
| TOTAL COMO AUTOR | 64 |
| TOTAL COMO EDITOR | 0 |
| PRIMEIRO ANO DE PUBLICAÇÃO | 1963 |
| ANO MAIS RECENTE DE PUBLICAÇÃO | 2026 |
| ÍNDICE H | 10 |
Decolonising academia
In this interdisciplinary dialogue, Syed Farid Alatas reflects on the major themes of his intellectual journey and continuing work to decolonise academia. Whilst there are reasons for optimism about the future of decolonisation – such as increasing global multipolarity – challenges nonetheless remain. The global rise of neoliberalism in university systems, along with uncritical adoption of standardised metrics and performance indicators, poses a …
The intellectual biography of Syed Farid Alatas
Syed Farid Alatas is a Malaysian sociologist who has been highly influential in discussions about decolonising knowledge. He has also continued the legacy of his esteemed father, Syed Hussein Alatas, by furthering 'the School of Autonomous Knowledge' in the Malay Archipelago and beyond. This article presents a wide-ranging, comprehensive and rich dialogue between Farid and Leon Moosavi. In this conversation, pertinent questions are asked: How doe…
Alatas, Raffles and the exposé of colonial myth making. Response to reviews of Syed Hussein Alatas’ Thomas Stamford Raffles
Political Economies of Knowledge Production
Approaches to the study of knowledge production on a global scale have drawn analogies from the study of political economy, namely, the theories of political economic imperialism and economic dependency, the notion of economic extractivism, and capitalism. Thus, we have the conceptualization of intellectual imperialism, academic dependency, academic extractivism and academic capitalism. This essay focuses on two of these phenomenon, that is, inte…
Āl al-'Aṭṭās and Ḥaḍramī Arab Migration to the Malay World
Journal of the Malaysian Branch of the Royal Asiatic Society - Volume 94, Part 1, No. 320, June 2021
Deparochialising the Canon
Sociological theory is not irrelevant to the South but needs to be deparochialised. The parochiality of sociological theory as it exists today can clearly be seen from the canon. The canon would have us believe that sociological theory was the sole creation of a few white men who lived in the nineteenth century. The absence of non-European thinkers in accounts of the history of sociological theory is particularly glaring in cases where non-Europe…
Anti-Feudal Elements in Classical Malay Political theory
In the classical Islamic tradition, what we may call political theory can be extracted from various disciplines and fields as diverse as theology, philosophy, ethics and jurisprudence, as well as works belonging to the nasihat (counsel-for-kings) or 'mirrors for princes' genre, and handbooks of administration. This article discusses a seventeenth-century Malay work, the Taj al-Salatin, which belongs to the nasihat genre and has significant Persia…
Introduction
This book self-consciously seeks to offer an atypical approach to introducing and teaching classical sociological theory to students. Existing works on the subject generally suffer from two important limitations: the biases of Eurocentrism and Androcentrism. In addition, non-Western sources and female voices that are neglected in accounts in the formative period of the development of sociological theory are problematized here. A case is made for …
Said Nursi (1877–1960)
Said Nursi was a late Ottoman theologian and thinker who lived well into the Turkish republican era. Nursi was concerned with the understanding of the human condition in the modern world, the relationship between religious faith and modern life, and the role of religion in negotiating the tension between tradition and modernity. At the more practical level, one of Nursi’s main objectives was to revive Muslim ethics in a world that had become high…
Karl Marx (1818–1883)
Marx was a theorist of capitalist society. He sought to understand the origins, essential features and function or impact of the capitalist mode of production and what its future was. Capitalism is system in which wage labour is sold to the owner of capital. This engenders a relationship of exploitation between the capitalist and the working class. The exploitation and alienation of the working class eventually result in the members of this class…
Epilogue
The epilogue argues that looking at sociological theory through the lens of Eurocentrism and Androcentrism has drawn attention to neglected social thinkers and theorists – male and female, Western and non-Western. The chapters in the volume have demonstrated that the tapestry of contributions to social thought and theorizing is multifaceted. The aim has been to expand the playing field rather than restrict it to generate yet another ‘must read’ l…
Ibn Khaldun (1332–1406)
According to Ibn Khaldun, the field of history merely deals with the surface phenomena of history, if all it does is to provide information about political events and facts about dynasties. This should be distinguished from the inner meaning of history which is arrived at through ‘speculation and an attempt to get at the truth, subtle explanation of the causes and origins of existing things and deep knowledge of the how and why of events’. Furthe…
José Rizal (1861–1896)
Rizal was a thinker and nationalist during the final days of the Spanish colonial period in the Philippines. He lived a short life but was an exceptionally productive thinker, unmatched by anyone in Southeast Asia, perhaps even Asia. The construction of a social theory from Rizal’s works can be founded on three aspects of his substantive concerns. Firstly, we have his views on the nature and conditions of colonial society. Secondly, there is Riza…
Max Weber (1864–1920)
The subject matter of Weber’s sociology was the origins of modern capitalism and the nature of modern capitalist society. Weber inquired into the various factors that accounted for the emergence of capitalism in the West and also theorized about the factors that impeded the development of capitalism in non-Western societies. Weber’s much cited and discussed Protestant ethic thesis was his attempt to understand the rise of capitalism in terms of t…
Sociological Theory Beyond the Canon
This book expands the sociological canon by introducing non-Western and female voices, and subjects the existing canon itself to critique. Including chapters on both the 'founding fathers' of sociolog
Luxury, State and Society
Classical social theory in the Western tradition concerned itself with the history of the human condition and sought answers to big questions such as the meaning of change and progress. They were interested in the nature, origins and consequences for human life of modern society, with its new means of organizing production as well as legal and political arrangements. Contrary to the optimism of the Enlightenment with its unbounded faith in the ab…
Rizal, José (1861–1896)
José Rizal, Filipino thinker and activist, may be considered the first systematic social thinker in Southeast Asia. While the bulk of his writings does not fall under social sciences, it is possible to extract a sociological theory from his work. This would be a theory that explains the nature and conditions of Filipino colonial society and the requirements for its emancipation
Al‐Biruni (973–1048)
Abu Rayhan Muhammad ibn Ahmad al‐Biruni was born in the city of Khwarazm (modern Khiva) in what is today known as Uzbekistan; during his youth this city was part of the Iranian Samanid Empire. He spent his early years under the patronage of various rulers until he finally joined the court of Mahmud Ghaznavi, the ruler of an empire that included parts of what is now known as Afghanistan, Iran, and northern India. Al‐Biruni went to India with the t…
Eurocentrism
The term “Eurocentrism” originated in the nineteenth century. Ethnocentrism refers to the belief that one's own ethnic group or society is superior to others'. Other groups are assessed and judged in terms of the categories and standards of evaluation of one's own group; European, and generally western concerns, culture, politics, and values are focused upon to the exclusion of others. Eurocentrism is a modern phenomenon and cannot be dissociated…
Captive Mind
The concept of the captive mind was created by the Malaysian sociologist Syed Hussein Alatas; it was intended to conceptualize the nature of scholarship in the developing world, particularly in relation to western dominance in the social sciences and humanities. The captive mind is defined as an uncritical and imitative mind dominated by an external source, whose thinking is deflected from an independent perspective. The external source is wester…
R izal, J osé (1861–96)
José Rizal, Filipino thinker and activist, may be considered the first systematic social thinker in Southeast Asia. While the bulk of his writings were not in the social sciences, it is possible to extract a sociological theory from his works. This would be a theory that explained the nature and conditions of Filipino colonial society, and the requirements for emancipation.
Doing sociology in South East Asia
Orientalism continues to manifest itself in the humanities and social sciences today in a way that is different from the 19th and early 20th century. This presents challenges of doing social theory. Orientalism defines the content of education in the schools and universities of the world in such a way that the origins of ideas and concepts and the question of alternative perspectives are not thematized. It is this lack of thematization that expla…
Applying Ibn Khaldūn
The writings of Ibn Khaldūn, particularly the Muqaddimah (Prolegomenon) have rightly been regarded as being sociological in nature. For this reason, Ibn Khaldūn has been widely regarded as the founder of sociology, or at least a precursor of modern sociology. While he was given this recognition, however, few works went beyond proclaiming him as a founder or precursor to the systematic application of his theoretical perspective to specific histori…
Islam, Ilmu-Ilmu Sosial, dan Masyarakat Sipil
This paper provides an outline for the study of the role of the social sciences in the study of the workings of civil society in the context of Indonesian and Malaysian Islam. It begins with a discussion on the concepts of civil society and masyarakat madani , term often mistranslated and misunderstood as civil society. It is through a comparison of the two that the relevance of civil society in terms of its theory and practice to Islam is establ…
Pengkajian Ilmu-Ilmu Sosial
While there has been awareness of the problems of the relevance of Western concepts, theories and assumptions in critical works on the state of the social sciences in the Third World, what is meant as a conceptual level by relevance and has rarely been the subject of discussion. The conceptualization of relevance is important because it lies at the basis of efforts to make the social sciences more relevant to conditions in the Third World. Nevert…
Academic Dependency and the Global Division of Labour in the Social Sciences
This article attempts a political economy of the social sciences in order to assess the state of the social sciences at the global level. The focus is on the relations between the social sciences in the First and Third Worlds. The political economy approach that is utilized for this purpose is academic dependency theory. The condition of academic dependency is related to the global division of labour in the social sciences, which, I argue, plays …
Sociological Theory Beyond the Canon
This book expands the sociological canon by introducing non-Western and female voices, and subjects the existing canon itself to critique. Including chapters on both the 'founding fathers' of sociolog
Hadhrami Traders, Scholars and Statesmen in the Indian Ocean, 1750s-1960s
This volume covers the long neglected history of Hadhramaut (southern Arabia) during the modern colonial era, together with the history of Hadhrami "colonies" in the Malay world, southern India, the Red Sea, and East Africa. After an introduction placing Hadhramis in the context of other diasporas, there are sections on local and international politics, social stratification and integration, religious and social reform, and economic dynamics. The…
On the Indigenization of Academic Discourse
The institutional and theoretical dependence of Third World scholars on Western social science has resulted in what has been referred to as the captive mind. The captive mind is uncritical and imitative in its approach to ideas and concepts from the West.1 This state of affairs has brought forth various reactions from intellectuals in developing societies. One such reaction is the call to the indigenization of Third World social sciences. However…
Teaching Classical Sociological Theory in Singapore
Teaching Sociology
Political Economies of Knowledge Production
Approaches to the study of knowledge production on a global scale have drawn analogies from the study of political economy, namely, the theories of political economic imperialism and economic dependency, the notion of economic extractivism, and capitalism. Thus, we have the conceptualization of intellectual imperialism, academic dependency, academic extractivism and academic capitalism. This essay focuses on two of these phenomenon, that is, inte…
The Weber Thesis and South East Asia
Alatas Syed Farid. The Weber Thesis and South East Asia. In: Archives de sociologie des religions, n°15, 1963. pp. 21-34
Deparochialising the Canon
Sociological theory is not irrelevant to the South but needs to be deparochialised. The parochiality of sociological theory as it exists today can clearly be seen from the canon. The canon would have us believe that sociological theory was the sole creation of a few white men who lived in the nineteenth century. The absence of non-European thinkers in accounts of the history of sociological theory is particularly glaring in cases where non-Europe…
The Study of the Social Sciences in Developing Societies
For the last 100 years or so, there has been a strong awareness of a lack of fit between the western social sciences and non-western realities. Lacking, however, is the conceptualization of irrelevance. What is meant, at a conceptual level, by irrelevance has rarely been the subject of discussion. As a result, the calls for more relevant social science, often reflected in moves to decolonize, indigenize, or nationalize the social sciences, are eq…
A Khaldunian Exemplar for a Historical Sociology for the South
The purpose of this article is to raise certain problems in the study of state formation in parts of the Muslim world and elsewhere as distinctly Khaldunian problems that can be approached by applying a framework that integrates Ibn Khaldūn's theory of state formation with modern concepts in sociology. This is done by selecting a number of historical cases of state formation where a Khaldunian model has potential applicability and which may provi…
Notes on Various Theories Regarding the Islamization of the Malay Archipelago
In the study of the history of the Islamization of the Malay Archipelago (present-day Malaysia and Indonesia) various theories and points of view have been presented and the issue of objectivity arises in this context as clearly as in any writing of history. Mannheim's thesis that "the greatest comprehensiveness and the greatest fruitfulness in dealing with empirical materials" are the criteria to be applied in the choice between various interpre…
The Historical Sociology of Muslim Societies
This article argues that the theoretical perspective on the rise and decline of states developed by 'Abd al-Rahmān Ibn Khaldūn (723-808 AH/1332-1406 AD) should not be confined to historical interest but is of relevance for the study of various aspects of the history of Muslim societies. The reasons for the relative neglect or marginalization of Ibn Khaldūn as a source of theory to be applied to definite historical empirical situations is partly d…
The Sacralization of the Social Sciences
El autor de este articula comenta y critica la idea de « ciencia social islámica ». Primero, estudia la cuestión de una « Ciencia Social Isámica » en el contexto de la llamada en favor de la « indigenización » de las ciencias sociales en los medios académicos del Tercer Mundo. En la segunda y la tercera sección, el autor evalua la « Ciencia Social Islámica » con los casos particulares de la « Ciencia Económica Islámica » y el « Proyecto de Islami…
Contemporary Muslim Revival
Islam is seen as problematic today because of the actions of a few people armed with an aberrant ideology and the moral support or sympathy of a constituency of angry and disaffected Muslims in various parts of the world, often provoked by what they see as hypocritical policies and actions on the part of the world's powers. The problematic nature of Islam, however, was partly made possible by the centuries of conflict between Islam and the West. …
The Study of Social Sciences in Developing Societies
An Introduction to the Idea of Alternative Discourses
A definição e os tipos de discursos alternativos
O artigo parte do problema da dependência acadêmica e a forma como isso afeta as Ciências Sociais de maneira universal. Farid Alatas indica que os acadêmicos pouco podem fazer a respeito das dimensões estruturais e materiais dessa dependência, pois não estão no comando das instituições e do Estado. Contudo, sugere que há muito a fazer nos níveis intelectual e teórico. O artigo apresenta o conceito de discursos alternativos como fonte para uma ciê…
From Jāmi' ah to University
Sociology has a role to play in the development of multiculturalism and, therefore, the facilitation of interreligious dialogue. Multiculturalism does not merely refer to the coexistence of a plurality of cultures but is a social context that encourages the possibilities for harmonious interactions of different cultures. Sociology may contribute in meaningful ways to multiculturalism by the thematic development of a number of areas concerning the…
Luxury, State and Society
Classical social theory in the Western tradition concerned itself with the history of the human condition and sought answers to big questions such as the meaning of change and progress. They were interested in the nature, origins and consequences for human life of modern society, with its new means of organizing production as well as legal and political arrangements. Contrary to the optimism of the Enlightenment with its unbounded faith in the ab…
Doing sociology in South East Asia
Orientalism continues to manifest itself in the humanities and social sciences today in a way that is different from the 19th and early 20th century. This presents challenges of doing social theory. Orientalism defines the content of education in the schools and universities of the world in such a way that the origins of ideas and concepts and the question of alternative perspectives are not thematized. It is this lack of thematization that expla…
Eurocentrism and the Role of the Human Sciences in the Dialogue among Civilizations
In public discourse and formal education, human sciences need to facilitate the dialogue among civilizations to inculcate an attitude founded on appreciation, understanding, interest, and compassion for the cultures and worldviews of the other. All belief sys- tems are corruptible and can be perverted, and there are specific social and historical conditions that result in these perversions. Human sciences must go beyond merely correcting the fall…
The Weber Thesis and South East Asia
Alatas Syed Farid. The Weber Thesis and South East Asia. In: Archives de sociologie des religions, n°15, 1963. pp. 21-34
Notes on Various Theories Regarding the Islamization of the Malay Archipelago
In the study of the history of the Islamization of the Malay Archipelago (present-day Malaysia and Indonesia) various theories and points of view have been presented and the issue of objectivity arises in this context as clearly as in any writing of history. Mannheim's thesis that "the greatest comprehensiveness and the greatest fruitfulness in dealing with empirical materials" are the criteria to be applied in the choice between various interpre…
Reflections on the Idea of Islamic Social Science
Notes on race and class in Malaysia
On the Indigenization of Academic Discourse
The institutional and theoretical dependence of Third World scholars on Western social science has resulted in what has been referred to as the captive mind. The captive mind is uncritical and imitative in its approach to ideas and concepts from the West.1 This state of affairs has brought forth various reactions from intellectuals in developing societies. One such reaction is the call to the indigenization of Third World social sciences. However…
A Khaldunian Perspective on the Dynamics of Asiatic Societies
The Asiatic mode of production and the formative Turkic and Iranian states in modern times
(1993). The Asiatic mode of production and the formative Turkic and Iranian states in modern times. Central Asian Survey: Vol. 12, No. 4, pp. 473-496
The Theme of “Relevance” in Third World Human Sciences
The fact that the humanities and social sciences in developing societies generally originated in the West has raised the issue of the relevance of these arts and sciences to the needs and problems of Third World societies. This questioning of relevance has led, in turn, to the call for the indigenisation of knowledge in developing societies. While there has been a great deal of discussion on indigenisation, there has been little practice of indig…
The Sacralization of the Social Sciences
El autor de este articula comenta y critica la idea de « ciencia social islámica ». Primero, estudia la cuestión de una « Ciencia Social Isámica » en el contexto de la llamada en favor de la « indigenización » de las ciencias sociales en los medios académicos del Tercer Mundo. En la segunda y la tercera sección, el autor evalua la « Ciencia Social Islámica » con los casos particulares de la « Ciencia Económica Islámica » y el « Proyecto de Islami…
Hadhramaut and the Hadhrami Diaspora
Hadhramaut and the Hadhrami Diaspora
Democracy and Authoritarianism in Indonesia and Malaysia
The fact that the Malaysian state has managed to maintain a relatively democratic regime, while an authoritarian regime came to power in Indonesia has never been the focus of historical and comparativ
Hadhrami Traders, Scholars and Statesmen in the Indian Ocean, 1750s-1960s
This volume covers the long neglected history of Hadhramaut (southern Arabia) during the modern colonial era, together with the history of Hadhrami "colonies" in the Malay world, southern India, the Red Sea, and East Africa. After an introduction placing Hadhramis in the context of other diasporas, there are sections on local and international politics, social stratification and integration, religious and social reform, and economic dynamics. The…
The Ṭarīqat Al-'Alawiyyah and the Emergence of the Shi'i School in Indonesia and Malaysia
The recent emergence and current development of the Imami Shi'i school in Indonesia and Malaysia can only be understood against the backdrop of the early history of the Si 'ah, as well as that of the history of the Islamization of the Malay-Indonesian tor that binds these three historical processes together in a remarkable case of conversion within Islam is the 'olawiyyali sufi order (al-tariqah Archipelago. The common fac-al- 'alawiyyah). The ta…
An Introduction to the Idea of Alternative Discourses
The Study of Social Sciences in Developing Societies
Teaching Classical Sociological Theory in Singapore
Teaching Sociology
The Study of the Social Sciences in Developing Societies
For the last 100 years or so, there has been a strong awareness of a lack of fit between the western social sciences and non-western realities. Lacking, however, is the conceptualization of irrelevance. What is meant, at a conceptual level, by irrelevance has rarely been the subject of discussion. As a result, the calls for more relevant social science, often reflected in moves to decolonize, indigenize, or nationalize the social sciences, are eq…
Eurocentrism and the Role of the Human Sciences in the Dialogue among Civilizations
In public discourse and formal education, human sciences need to facilitate the dialogue among civilizations to inculcate an attitude founded on appreciation, understanding, interest, and compassion for the cultures and worldviews of the other. All belief sys- tems are corruptible and can be perverted, and there are specific social and historical conditions that result in these perversions. Human sciences must go beyond merely correcting the fall…
Asian Interfaith Dialogue
The events of the last few years have directed even more attention to the relationships among religion, education and social cohesion in the context of development in Asia. There is, therefore, a need to consider the combined role of religion and education in fostering a more holistic form of development without concurrently fanning flames of ethnic, religious and other kinds of conflicts. This book discusses the relationship between religion, th…
Academic Dependency and the Global Division of Labour in the Social Sciences
This article attempts a political economy of the social sciences in order to assess the state of the social sciences at the global level. The focus is on the relations between the social sciences in the First and Third Worlds. The political economy approach that is utilized for this purpose is academic dependency theory. The condition of academic dependency is related to the global division of labour in the social sciences, which, I argue, plays …
Asian Anthropology
Understanding the Relationship between Islam and Reform
Ibn Khaldūn and Contemporary Sociology
This review is focused on a central question: why should a social thinker like Ibn Khaldu ̄ n be excluded from the serious study of the history of sociology, sociological theory or historical sociology? A quick review of contemporary histories of social thought and social theory will reveal that very little attention is given to non-western precursors of sociology or non-western social thinkers who were contemporaneous with the European founders …
A Khaldunian Exemplar for a Historical Sociology for the South
The purpose of this article is to raise certain problems in the study of state formation in parts of the Muslim world and elsewhere as distinctly Khaldunian problems that can be approached by applying a framework that integrates Ibn Khaldūn's theory of state formation with modern concepts in sociology. This is done by selecting a number of historical cases of state formation where a Khaldunian model has potential applicability and which may provi…
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