2020 Volume 2020 Issue 49 Pages 69-84
Since the 1950s Indonesia has attracted foreign social science and humanities researchers. Therefore, when the U.S. government initiated an area studies program in the 1960s, Indonesian Studies immediately emerged as one of the main research and study interests. Students and scholars came to Indonesia to study the relationship between religion, culture, and politics. They returned and brought their knowledge of the people, history, culture, and language of the country, strengthening the area studies program in the U.S. However, in contrast to the role of foreign scholars in developing Indonesian Studies in the U.S. and Europe, Indonesian academics have shown little interest on learning about people and cultures outside of their own country. This essay examines why area studies knowledge is less popular among Indonesian academics. Drawing on the history of area studies at the Indonesian Institute of Sciences (LIPI), it also demonstrates how area studies knowledge relates to state’s policy.
From the 1960s to early 1970s, area studies at LIPI followed an international relations approach to studying regional influences on domestic politics. From the 1970s, the New Order developmentalist regime instructed that research should focus more on domestic social problems, therefore area studies were discouraged. The interest in area studies re-emerged in the 2000s, facilitated by foreign grants to strengthen Southeast Asian Studies. In around 2015, the government changed its development policy to emphasize international connectivity and a quest for a greater Indonesian contribution to the international market. As a result, the national research priority has changed and area studies at the LIPI has once again been sidelined and shifted toward transnational studies.
