Decolonizing Lapindo “Science”: Power, Knowledge, and Legacies of Misinformation

This presentation surveys a series of influential studies by scientists affiliated with Lapindo Brantas, identifying a pattern of spreading misleading information about (1) what first triggered the Lapindo mudflow and (2) the mudflow’s social and ecological effects. These studies have been influential in shaping government responses to the disaster, from investigations to disaster management operations. And by promoting a narrative that shields Lapindo Brantas from responsibility, these studies also have undermined efforts by mudflow victims to receive justice and prevent unsafe energy mining in the future. Despite glaring flaws in many of these studies, many which will be outlined in this presentation, professional journals continue to publish these scientists’ reports, which raises broader questions about power and ethics within scientific institutions. I will conclude by asking whether it might be possible to decolonize Lapindo science, and consider what inquiry about geological, environmental, and human systems might look like outside of the hierarchies of power that often permeate mainstream global science. By paying closer attention to knowledge gathering activities of victims, residents, activists, and others who have touched by the disaster, alternative models of decolonized science might emerge to provide more accurate and nuanced information about disasters. Beyond advancing safety, equity, and resiliency among communities affected by the mudflow, these local scientific practices might provide lessons that could help vulnerable populations facing hazards throughout the world.

DISCUSSANT
Dr. Judith E. Bosnak (Leiden University, the Netherlands)

MODERATOR
Dr. phil. Anton Novenanto (Universitas Brawijaya, Indonesia)

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Arts of Living on a Damaged Planet

Arts of Living on a Damaged Planet (editors: Anna Tsing, Elaine Gan, Heather Anne Swanson, Nils Bubandt, University of Minnesota Press, 2017)

Divided into two main parts (Ghosts on a Damaged Planet and Monsters and the Arts of Living), this edited volume consists of contributions from various background and disciplines on how to be resilient with the damaged planet earth. This volume offers various “arts of living” from all over the planet.

DISCUSSANTS

- Dr. Nils Bubandt (Professor of Anthropology, Department of Culture and Society at Aarhus University, Denmark; editor and contributor of Arts of Living on a Damaged Planet)

- Dr. Suraya Afiff (Lecturer, Department of Anthropology, Universitas Indonesia; chair of Indonesian Anthropology Association)

- Dr. Anton Novenanto (Lecturer, Department of Sociology, Universitas Brawijaya)

MODERATOR

Dr. Hatib Abdul Kadir (Lecturer, Department of Anthropology & researcher, Center for Culture and Frontiers Studies, Universitas Brawijaya)

Via Zoom Meeting ID: 999 9204 3035 (Passcode: 28052021)

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Fire Otherwise: Lifeways Enhanching Fire Management in a Changing World

Webinar Series: "Fire Otherwise: Lifeways Enhanching Fire Management in a Changing World"

Speaker : Dr. Cynthia 'Cissy' Fowler, PhD (University of Hawaii)

Registration link: bit.ly/WebinarFire

This event is co-organized by The Forest & Society Universitas Hasanuddin, Sebijak Institute, Dala Institute, Universitas Gadjah Mada, and The American Institute for Indonesian Studies (AIFIS).

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Workshop on ELAN and Audacity

To build local linguists’ capacity in doing language documentation using tools for language documentation, PKBB and AIFIS are conducting a workshop on ELAN and Audacity. This workshop will be hosted for undergraduate students in Kupang, Nusa Tenggara Timur, the province where about 10 percent of the local languages are found. Most of the undergraduate students are native speakers of these local languages.

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Principle and Application of Technology in Observing Wildlife Population

Introduction:
- Technologies are needed to observe wildlife population, especially primates, in a more precise and applicative way to support the conservation of wildlife.
- The type of technology that can be used to observe wildlife population varies, such as bioacoustics, drones, Geographic Information System and its corresponding software, camera traps, thermal cameras, etc.
- Information regarding those technologies are still limited and not everyone has access to them. Therefore, a forum in which every person has access to discuss and gain knowledge to the latest technology is needed.

Purpose: To gather information and introduce the latest methods and technologies in observing wildlife population that are more precise and applicative, and also the challenges that follows.

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The Challenge of Mental Rehabilitation for Lapindo Mudflow’s Survivors

ABSTRACT

When explained as episodic, disasters are often based on its carrier agents, its temporality, its duration, and emerging attributions of industrial, sudden, slow disasters, etc. However, when the ability of authorities is incorporated, disasters are also intertwined with crises and incidents. In a long-term period, they can appear simultaneously and interchangeably. In such a situation, we are both perpetrators and survivors, because disasters, incidents, and crises are closely related to the illusions of control, especially the overconfidence of human ability to stem risks—say from a gas drilling by relying on science and technology. Thus, being able to control is an exchange of losses—the accumulation of national capital with the price of socio-ecological damages of local communities. In the context of restoring mental condition of survivors, as the payer, it becomes a complicated matter, especially when traditional psychological approach is being used and relying more on the modification and individual intervention to overcome problems which are systemic. Disasters took away individual, household, social, and cultural capitals. The subsequent question is: how do the survivors live in such social and environmental vulnerability which continues to increase? Popular terms such as “coping” and “adaptation” are insufficient to explain this because “coping” is a modification of individual’s internal system while “adaptation” is relatively carried out in a “manageable” situation framework. So, we shifted to “resilience” as to the ability to peel all of this. However, caution needs to be applied in the use of the concept which has recently become increasingly popular and has begun to be familiar in state-institutions, replacing the discourse of “sustainability”. The concept of “resilience” is included because it contains a positive final solution. In short, even though the crisis is not taken seriously and fully resolved, the system will automatically renew itself. Fortunately, there is hope that this concept can still be accessed as long as it is on the map of power relations and considering the context. A kind of ecological framework which involves various elements is stratified and contains relationships between social-ecological systems so that resilience must lead to transformative adaptations targeting the root causes of a problem from a corrosive human civilization. Thus, a critical view, local and containing practical work, including empowering networks, becomes an option that gives a glimmer of hope in the dark clouds. Furthermore, when talking about locality, the embodied everyday life will become the seed of memory which is more authentic than the dream of bureaucrats. This memory ensures the survival of a community so that it must be collected and made as input to the dominant system.

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AIFIS-MSU Conference on Indonesian Studies

Michigan State University is pleased to co-host the inaugural AIFIS-MSU Conference on Indonesian Studies, in collaboration with the American Institute for Indonesian Studies (AIFIS). The virtual event will be held from June 23 - 26, 2021.

The Program Committee welcomes proposals for panels, roundtables, and individual paper presentations on history, culture, anthropology, sociology, language, and arts related to Indonesia, and research advancing understandings of the ways that historical, sociocultural, economic, and political contexts shape contemporary and historical issues in Indonesia.

Submission Deadline: 31 March 2021 (11:59 pm EDT)

Types of Proposal Submission

Paper Presentation - Regular Session (Individual Submission)

Individuals may submit abstracts for paper presentations. The Conference organizers will form panels based on accepted abstracts submitted. The panel sessions are 90 minutes long with a maximum of 4 live paper presentations (15 minute each), followed by a discussion. A session chair will moderate and monitor time. Presenters are encouraged to volunteer as session chairs for the panel in which they are presenting. Paper presentation submission includes an abstract of up to 300 words. Each person may only submit one individual paper abstract.

Paper Presentation - Flip-Session (Individual Submission)

The organizers will similarly form panels for flip-sessions based on accepted proposals submitted by individuals. Presenters whose proposals have been accepted into a flip-session panel must submit a pre-recorded presentation prior to the conference (as a link to the recording on a cloud storage or a personal online media channel). The length of the presentation should be between 15 to 20 minutes. Flip-sessions during the conference dates are 30 minutes long consisting of a discussion among the audience and the presenters, with the assumption that session participants have watched the pre-recorded presentations prior to attending the session. All presenters in a flip-session panel are highly encouraged to watch pre-recorded presentations of their fellow panelists prior to the session. The organizers may assign session hosts to moderate the discussion, but welcome suggestions from presenters of individuals to serve as hosts. Paper presentation submission for flip-sessions includes an abstract of up to 300 words. Each person may only submit one individual paper abstract.

Panel Session (Group Submission)

A group of presenters may propose a panel session of 3 or 4 presentations based on work that share a set of common themes, issues, or research questions. The panel sessions are 90 minutes long. The panel organizers must identify a session chair and a discussant (who must also register for the conference) in the proposal submission. Panel session submission includes a panel abstract of up to 500 words, and individual paper abstracts of up to 300 words.

Refereed Roundtable Session (Group Submission)

Round-table sessions are intended to foster connections and substantive exchanges among a community of researchers and practitioners on a collaborative project, or a particular issue with implications on research and policy. The roundtable sessions are 90 minutes long and feature up to 4 presentations on the roundtable topic, as such the presentations do not have individual separate titles. Roundtable organizers should identify a session chair who will moderate the discussion. The roundtable session submission includes a brief description of the intended discussion for the roundtable of up to 500 words, and a preliminary list of invited participants (including name, affiliation, and contact information, who must also register for the conference). 

Click below button to submit your abstract!

For any inquiries, please contact us through:

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Coping with Indonesia’s Mudflow Disaster

An ongoing mudflow catastrophe in Sidoarjo, Indonesia has submerged a vast area and displaced many villagers. Victims have been coping with this disaster by calling it the Lapindo Mudflow after the company deemed responsible, demanding compensations from the government and Lapindo, forming victim groups, commemorating the disaster annually, and writing their stories to fight a collective memory loss. In many of these activities they were helped by volunteer activists. Kanal Newsroom is a media advocacy team setup to provide information for and train some victims to write, broadcast, and publish their stories online and in print. Voicing their conditions allowed some victims to create meanings of their predicament and put up a resilient response to the seemingly unending disaster.

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Historical Dimension and Institutionalization of Industrial Disasters: A Distance Observation

This presentation examines the time dimension and institutional evolution of industrial disasters in the world, including Indonesia in the last 70 years. The presenter will review risk management regimes related to industrial disasters in their interactions with intersecting risks, both natural factors and occupational safety and accident factors; as well as how various paradigms of scientific disciplines contribute to the study of industrial disasters. From the perspective of engineering studies, nuclear studies, geology, public health, disaster and disaster studies to social sciences and humanities.

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