I joined the Center for Southeast Asian Studies (CSEAS) in December 2023 as a research fellow after completing my PhD degree in Area Studies at the Graduate School of Asian and African Area Studies (ASAFAS) of Kyoto University. During my doctoral studies, I was also affiliated as a special research fellow (DC 1) at the Japan Society for the Promotion of Science (JSPS). My research focuses on the everyday practices of security and social controls in Indonesian cities.
Cities are filled with both implicit and explicit efforts to control the complex gathering of diverse people and things that comprise them. My interest lies in how the various processes of controlling and being controlled produce socio-spatial patterns that shape urban spaces. As a researcher focusing on cities in Indonesia, I also pay attention to the impacts of the unceasing urban expansion and rapid changes in governance institutions that have occurred during the past several decades.
While living in Jakarta for more than eight years, daily encounters with mysteries and questions eventually formed the basis of my research. For example, why is the street vendor area in one place managed by thugs, while in another place it is controlled by the local government? Why do many neighborhoods have security guards, CCTV cameras, and gates that restrict non-resident access, while in other neighborhoods, residents walk past each other’s homes regardless of their familial relationship? Starting from these questions and based on my undergraduate experience as a criminology major at the University of Indonesia, I examined the practice of barricading public roads with gates and other obstacles (residential street barriers), which is rampant in Jakarta. During my graduate studies, I analyzed the process by which residential street barriers spread across the city along with urban growth, by diversifying their uses, from traffic maintenance to crime prevention, and disease control.
I strive to gain a holistic view in my research. Secondary data on social issues in Indonesian cities is often lacking; therefore I use alternative sources spread across the internet, collect scattered official documents and media, and use my own feet to map objects and events of interest from one end of Jakarta to the other.
Recently, I have expanded my area of study to the suburbs of Jakarta to reconsider peri-urbanization—which is characterized by the village-city interface—in relation to the practice of security and social controls. Specifically, how do 1) the installation of security devices such as CCTVs, which represents urbanity and impersonalized social relationships, and 2) the tolerance of pre-marital cohabitation, which symbolizes societal acceptance of individualistic morality, both spread in suburban areas? By joining CSEAS, I hope to explore questions like these to further broaden and deepen my research.
