Colonising the 'home' in British Malaya/Malaysia: lessons for academic-practitioner collaborations

Academic-practitioner collaborations carry the potential for social change, but their perils must be critically reflected upon. This paper interrogates a form of collaboration that was rooted in the colonial logic of bringing civility to the homes of the colonised through the practices of ‘domestic science’ (or ‘home economics’). Colonial state and non-state actors colluded, directly and indirectly, to elevate a specific gendered vision of the ‘good’, a vision which took on notably nationalist expressions within postcolonial Malaysia. The paper draws reflections from Malaysia’s colonial and postcolonial encounters with domestic science/home economics to engage with questions of coloniality and power underpinning academic-practitioner collaborations today.