Changing Marriage Patterns in Southeast Asia: Economic and Socio-Cultural Dimensions

Various forms of partnering – such as officially registered marriages, cohabiting relationships, and other kinds of relatively stable relationships - are crucial in the formation of families throughout the world. Although, today, forms of partnering in the region are not restricted to formal marriage, the norm remains for couples to marry – to establish a new family, and to accept the cultural requirement to have children.

This book provides a comprehensive and up-to-date picture of partnerships and marriage in the Southeast Asian region using quantitative data alongside qualitative approaches.Through the research of demographers, sociologists and anthropologists, it examines the way trends in the formation and dissolution of marriages are related to changes in the region’s economy and society; illuminating both the broad forces affecting marriage patterns and the way these forces work out at the individual and family level.

Presenting the variety of contemporary marriage patterns in the region, with an emphasis on the ways in which marriage issues impinge on the welfare of those concerned, this book will be essential reading for students and scholars of Southeast Asia and the sociology of the family.

Gavin W. Jones is Professor and the Research Leader for the Asia Research Institute at the National University of Singapore. He most recently co-edited Ultra-low Fertility in Pacific Asia: Trends, Causes and Policy Issues, also published by Routledge.

Terence H. Hull holds joint appointments with the Australian Demographic and Social Research Institute and the National Centre for Epidemiology and Population Health, at the Australian National University, where he is J.C. Caldwell chair.

Maznah Mohamad is currently Visiting Senior Research Fellow with the Asia Research Institute and the Department of Malay Studies at the National University of Singapore. Her previous publications include Feminism and the Women’s Movement in Malaysia and The Malay Handloom Weavers.