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Project Overview

The British Council  Newton Fund

This University of Warwick–Universitas Indonesia collaborative research project on The Gendered Everyday Political Economy of Kampung Eviction and Resettlement in Jakarta is generously funded by The British Council by means of a Newton Fund research grant of £83,000.

The project is a timely and pressing intervention to study the gendered social and economic effects of recent evictions and kampung demolitions in Jakarta, where the intensification of an evictions regime in the city in the past two years has resulted in thousands of families losing their homes. According to the Jakarta Legal Aid Institute, in the year 2015 alone, 8,145 families were evicted from their homes while 6,283 businesses were also removed.(1) Our research gathers testimonies from kampung women, evictees, and social housing residents in order to deepen understanding of how women's economic and social lives are affected by evictions in the city.

Our collaborative project also brings together researchers from Universitas Indonesia and the University of Warwick in order to establish lasting collaborative research links between the two institutions. The close collaboration forged between researchers in Jakarta and Warwick will lay the foundations for many years of joint scholarly participation around issues of economic development and social welfare.

Beside our collaborative fieldwork-based research, our joint endeavours include skills-sharing and capacity-building activities. Through specialist workshops and other means of support we are working together to improve access to publishing in international peer-reviewed journals in order to bring research by Indonesian scholars to a wider academic audience.

Newton Fund grants are intended to support areas relevant to the economic development and welfare of partner countries. For the purpose of the Newton Institutional Links Programme, we define research and innovation with development relevance as activities that have the potential to contribute to the economic development and social welfare of Newton Fund countries, benefitting poor and vulnerable populations in these countries and beyond. (2)

(1) Agnes Anya (2017). 'City aims to provide 'nicer' flats for low-income residents' The Jakarta Post

(2) Newton Fund (2017). 'Institutional Links' The British Council