Andy Fuller and Zaki Arrobi have edited a special edition of Inside Indonesia, which has grown out of their work for the Sacralizing Security project. In this edition of Inside Indonesia their contributors also extend their analysis, beyond solely touching on security issues, to adjacent themes related to contemporary Islamic practice and identity politics. Part of the…

It’s (kinda) all in a name. The terms ‘preman’ and ‘jawara’ are frequently used as synonyms. Sometimes ‘jawara’ is used as a means to explain ‘preman’. Both terms have rich connotations in Indonesian and non-standardised Malay. Preman figure as characters in novels and films; sometimes as objects of ridicule, while at others as symbols of…

By Andy Fuller and Jolien van Veen The Pandemic has disrupted one of the vital features of anthropological work: the very act of being there, being in amongst the circumstances one analyses describes and explores. Being there, over a period of time, facilitates insights and shifts in questions; it shapes narratives, terminology and creates access…

By Lotje Krouwel, Zaki Arrobi and Jolien van Veen Lotje, Zaki and Jolien, PhD candidates in the SACRASEC research cluster at UU, organized a workshop on sensorial ethnography on June 7-8th 2021. Below is a brief summary of some of the issues we discussed. What can sounds, images, smells, touch and taste teach us about…

Negotiating public security provision in Brazil by Jolien van Veen  Who should be protected or punished? And who is responsible for executing punishments or protective measures? The answers to these questions are not straightforward but depend on the ways in which security is understood, performed, and experienced in a particular context. While it is often…

by Zaki Arrobi. (First published on the Corona Governance in Urban Margins website, 20th October, 2020) As Covid-19 cases continue to climb across Indonesia, Jakarta and some other local administrations have reimplemented “large scale social restrictions” (PSBB) in an attempt to control viral spread. Jakarta moved to “transitional” PSBB on the 12th of October 2020,…

By Murtala Ibrahim. (First published on the Corona Governance in Urban Margins website, 23rd November, 2020). Jos is one of the largest cities in central Nigeria and serves as capital of Plateau State. The emergence of coronavirus as a national health crisis caused both the federal and state governments to enact social distancing regulations. Similar…

*First published here Inside Indonesia More than one year into the COVID-19 pandemic, the virus is still having unforeseen impacts Indonesia has followed a common trajectory to many nations. From underplaying the presence or impact of the virus in the early days, implementing a ‘lockdown’ of sorts (in Indonesia known as Large-Scale Social Restrictions, Pembatasan…

Trained in Religious Studies (University of Jos, Nigeria), I received my Ph.D. at the Department of Philosophy and Religious Studies, Utrecht University in 2017. After concluding a one-year research fellowship at the Institute of Cultural Anthropology, Freie University Berlin, I was accepted as a postdoctoral researcher under the SACRASEC project at the Department of Cultural…

I am an anthropologist living in Utrecht, the Netherlands. In the past two years, I have taught courses to undergraduate students at the University of Amsterdam and Utrecht University. My interest in urban governance and security started during my fieldwork in Medellín, Colombia, in the fall of 2017. At the time, I conducted research on…