Urban survival: the Malays of Muar / Norazit Selat

This is an ethnographic account of bra settlement of them working class Malays in Muar make a living in a monetized urban economy. It shows the reality of their needs and how they eke out a living. Their struggle for social existence is discussed in relation to Malay social and cultural values. "This book exhibits a certain sharpness of vision and provides a fresh perspective upon contemporary Malay society. While so much Malay ethnography continues to interpret and explain social action as the direct and casually unproblematic expression of certain central and allegedly compelling cultural values, Norazit Selat’s account of the urban Malay poor of Muar focuses upon the logic of their quite pragmatic survival behaviour their practical strategies for coping and the situational constraints that shape that logic and behaviour. The emphasis throughout is upon the interplay: often the tension and dissonance between traditional Malay cultural values and the kinds of action and attitudes that the press of material circumstances in Lorong Sembilang renders imperative."