Ling How Kee, 2007, Indigenising Social Work: Research and Practice in Sarawak.

Ling How Kee, 2007, Indigenising Social Work: Research and Practice in Sarawak. Ling How Kee, 2007, Indigenising Social Work: Research and Practicein Sarawak. Strategic Information and Research Development Centre,Petaling Jaya, Malaysia, 204 pp. Map, references, index. ISBN978-983-3782-26-0. RM 27.50. The author has chosen a challenging area of study, one aimed atcomplementing social work with indigenous realities, and she hasaccomplished a great deal. To my pleasant surprise, reading this bookreveals how social work provides a fresh viewpoint for understandingcultural variation and change. For those of us quite innocent of socialwork theory and practice, the book easily manages to educate us aboutthe discipline, especially by means of its quotations from fieldwork. Asa bonus, we also increase our understanding of East-West differences andthe complexity of Sarawak itself. Among the helping professions in the West, both clinical medicineand social work have generally taken the individual-case approach, whilein Sarawak both medicine and social support systems have long beencommunity-based. Notably, in neither situation has a major aim beenso-called "social development." Now, however, socialdevelopment has become a bureaucratic goal in Malaysia, ostensibly toinclude both social support and improved health, but it has been moresuccessful in "developing" the vested interests of elitegroups than in helping the people at large (p. 13). While thedifficulties posed by a social development agenda in Sarawak are beyondthe scope of this book, it is important to note that they are relevantand deserve timely study and analysis. The book starts with a discussion of the dissonance between modernsocial work theory cum practice (based on biology, psychology, andsocial situation) and the world views inherent in the culturalcomplexity of Sarawak. These Sarawak views include certain "valuesand beliefs related to the family, the concept of shame andself-control, the belief in fate and karma, [and] the belief in thehealing power of 'nature' and the supernatural" (p. 148).To make social work more effective in Sarawak, the emphasis is put onindigenizing it, building on a consideration of culture as the keyvariable. Outside of natural instinct, culture gives us information"to guide our behavior and interpret experiences" (p. 35).Although this information is ever-changing, a particular cultural groupknows its own shared assumptions, values, beliefs, and taboos. A cultureis a shared system with shared meanings (but not necessarily having ashared origin in history, as does an ethnic group). Culture, then, isnot a storehouse of traditions or customs; it is dynamic, transactional. Both theoretical and practical aspects of culture are thoroughlyexamined in the book, derived from the author's research findingsof successful and appropriate ways of doing a social worker's job.Many people with different perspectives were interviewed during thisresearch project; the findings that emerged have allowed the author topoint the way forward to a more culturally-compatible practice of socialwork, one that extends out from the individual to embrace the localcommunity, the culture, and spirituality. The book is also a rich lode of information on how not to do socialscience studies, often highlighting the gossamer nuances of culture thatare most difficult to see from the outside. Such information is asvaluable for an anthropologist as for a health worker, a school teacher,or a zoologist visiting a highland longhouse for the first time. (A. Baer, Oregon State University, Corvallis, OR, 97331-2914 USA)