Life in the details: the sociology of the everyday turn in contemporary Brunei

This article considers the utility of a sociology of the everyday as a timely and productive lens for understanding contemporary Bruneian society. Drawing on recent studies, it highlights an emergent epistemic and methodological shift in the study of Brunei. There is a gradual move beyond earlier externally mediated and schematic renderings of societal formation towards more grounded engagements with everyday negotiation, situated identity formation, and the micro-social textures of ordinary life. By critically engaging inherited modes of categorization and representation, the article demonstrates the analytical value of inquiry attentive to the contingencies and ambiguities of lived experience. In doing so, it argues that expanding intellectual space for local voices remains central to the production of more reflexive and context-sensitive understandings of contemporary Brunei.