Ten Years of Democracy in Indonesia (1998-2008)
Call for Papers
Participants
Open to all M.A. students, PhD students and senior researchers with an interest in Indonesia. Maximum number of participants: 25
Organising Group
Timo Kivimäki (Ph.D. Political Science), Senior Researcher, NIAS, Univ. of Copenhagen
Tobias Axelsson, (Ph.D. Economic History, Lund Univ.), lecturer, Lund University
Axel Fredholm (Ph.D. Sociology, Lund Univ.), lecturer, Lund University
Maj Nygaard-Christensen (M.A. Anthropology, AU), PhD candidate, Aarhus University.
Michael Eilenberg, (M.A. Anthropology, AU), PhD candidate, Roskilde University
Jakob Trane Ibsen (M.A. Political Science, KU), PhD candidate, Roskilde University
Invited Speakers and resource persons
• Pujo Semedi, Universitas Gajah Mada (confirmed)
• Ben White, University of Amsterdam (tbc)
• Mason Hoadley, Lund University (confirmed)
• Ann Booth, SOAS (confirmed)
• Olle Törnquist, University of Oslo (confirmed)
• Nils Ole Bubandt, University of Aarhus (confirmed)
Background
Indonesia’s elections in 2009 will be the third democratic election to take place since the fall of the authoritarian regime of former president Suharto in 1998. At the same time as democracy seems to be taking root, there is an intensified struggle over the accountability and the scope of political power and the distribution of economic and natural resources. The democratisation processes of the past ten years have, by and large, created new opportunities for local communities to exercise influence – formal and informal alike. Issues of governance, identity politics, grassroots mobilisation, citizenship and national belonging are all important aspects of the Indonesian democratisation process.
Aim
The aim of the workshop is to facilitate discussion of research on or relating to Indonesia within the social sciences in the Nordic countries. In the light of the coming 2009 presidential and parliamentary elections in Indonesia this common focus will allow for a variety of social scientific perspectives to contribute to a deeper understanding of Indonesian politics, economy, society and culture after Suharto. We hope that the workshop will function as an inter-disciplinary and cross-regional update for participants. We therefore welcome papers on any topic on Indonesian politics, economy, history and culture. We do hope, however, that some threads can be drawn to Indonesia’s experiences with democracy over the past ten years. The bulk of participants should be from the Nordic countries, but a small number of presenters will be brought in from Indonesia or from research environments in other countries.
Papers
Papers may be in the form of a draft article, a draft grant proposal, a draft chapter for a thesis etc. We welcome papers from researchers at various levels; from the most experienced Indonesia hands to the youngest researchers who are just commencing their studies, and from all disciplines within the social sciences.
Deadline
Application for the workshop is to be sent to norindostudies@gmail.com by April 15th, 2009, including an abstract of a maximum of 500 words. The deadline for submitting papers is 30 April 2009. Papers are to be sent to the same email address.
Since Master’s students cannot be expected to have travel funds of their own, we hope to have a small amount available for travel grants. The sooner you apply, the better the chance of receiving funding. However, students who wish to apply for travel grants should do so no later than 10 April.
The Nordic Indonesia Studies Network
The workshop will serve as the inaugural event for a new research network; the Nordic Indonesia Studies Network (NISN). Much scholarly work on Indonesia is carried out in and from the Nordic countries, but few links are drawn between the research groups and institutions across or even within the different Nordic countries. There are certainly strong research environments; at the University of Copenhagen, at Lund University, at Göteborg University, and smaller groups at several other institutions; Agder University College, Helsinki University, Roskilde University, Aarhus University, Oslo University, to name a few. Since the mid-1990s, there has been little in the way of a Nordic network of Indonesia Studies. This workshop seeks to remedy this situation by forming a new Nordic Indonesia Studies Network under the auspices of the Nordic Institute of Asian Studies. The organising group represents anthropology, political science, economic history and sociology. In addition we focus on a variety of regions across Indonesia – West Kalimantan, Aceh, Middle Java, West Java in particular – and Timor Leste.
