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with long term changes in macro structures. The structures can
be cultural, cultural, geographical, economic, social, and so on,
and they are thought of as having an existence virtually inde-
pendent of human behaviour. In order to construct a viable
approach to social change, therefore, it is essential to a general
theory of the dialectical interrelationships of the micro and
macro “moments” of the social totality (personality, conscious-
ness, action, culture, and social structure) and the “levels” of
macro structure (economy, politics, state, culture, geography). 18
Some social scientists (Emmanuel Le Roy Ladurie, Eric
Hobsbawm, Barrington Moore, Clifford Geertz, Ernest Gelner,
and Alain Touraine) do attempt to integrate all the levels. They
are in effect true methodological structures, combining micro,
macro, and multistructural perspectives. Further, in order to
explain social structural change a subtheory of actions must be
incorporated into a more general theory. Conscious human
behaviour is purposively motivated or goat directed and mean-
ingful, and is rightly called action. The relationships of action,
agency, and structural change, therefore can be explain. 19
Let me suggest that the bulk of interesting work in social
history in the regional history of Southeast Asia can be clus-
tered around the following topics or complexes of questions. 20
1. Demography and kinship;
2. Urban and rural studies;
3. Classes and social groups;
4. The history of “mentalities” or collective consciousness or

18 Fernand Braudel’s longue duree approach, see Fernand Braudel, On
History (Chicago London: The University of Chicago Press, 1980), pp. 25
54; and Ibid., pp. 182.
19 Ibid., pp. 183.
20 see E.J. Hobsbawm, “From Social History to the History of Soci-
ety”, in P.A.M. Geurts and F.A.M. Messing (eds.), Theoretische en
Methodologische aspecten van de Economische en Sociale Geschiedenies, Vol. I
(Den Haag: Martinus Nijhoff, 1979), pp. 98.

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