Knowledge from the Margins of Malaysia 117 Chapter 6 Knowledge from the Margins of Malaysia: Globalisation and Research on the Ground Victor T. King Introduction his chapter is a modest and far from comprehensive attempt to address some of the issues which social science investigations of Borneo societies and cultures, with special reference to Sarawak, have generated in the context of processes of globalisation and some of the local responses to them. My main focus is on anthropological and sociological contributions, though I also delve into the multidisciplinary ields of development studies and political economy. I wish to avoid a simple ‘review of the literature’ approach and consider instead certain themes and perspectives which I believe to be of signiicant moment. My style is discursive and informal in an attempt to understand and come to terms with what has been achieved in Borneo studies in particular during the past six decades. One of my tentative conclusions will be that the concept of globalisation neither seems to ofer those social scientists who prefer to work ‘on the ground’ anything that is particularly useful, nor adds signiicantly to the intellectual armoury which we already have at our disposal. Have we been duped by the globalisation theorists? Have some of us been seduced by yet another general theory which purports to explain and analyse major