| This dissertation addresses two issues associated with Malaysia's economic and social development agendas since the 1970s. Firstly, it studies divorced middle-class Malay mothers' individualized and agentic approaches to writing their own narratives and their attempts to retain middle-class status. Secondly, it explores key Malay middle-class values - Islam, family, and consumer behavior - as they are exemplified by the actions of the women in this study. This research also sheds light on these middle-class values and contributes to a body of literature relating to the emergence of middle-classes in developing nations. Malaysia's developmental agendas since 1970 have transformed fundamentally the social, political, religious and familial landscape to create a Malay middle class. Malay middle-class women have made significant educational and occupational gains, have been involved in Islamic movements, have supported the growth of nuclear families constructs, and have been active consumers in a modern economy. These agendas, however, have simultaneously redomesticated women's roles within Malay society, with the consequence that middle-class divorced women are stigmatized for their divorced status. Based on ethnographic research conducted in the Klang Valley area of Malaysia during 2003, this dissertation uses what Mahmood (2005) calls the 'redirection' and 'recoding' of individual practice in the pursuit of identity. While divorced single-mothers previously were engaged in Islamic identity, motherhood roles, and consumer activity according to codes and meaning afforded them as married women, they continue to engage those locations of identity construction in divorce by 'recoding' meaning and by 'redirecting' emphases. These cornerstones are central to single-mothers' agency as they construct individualized social networks and localized cultural strategies to maintain middle-class identities - despite divorced status. |
