Humanities Colloquium- Agus Suwignyo (History): Citizenship, welfare and the non-state institution: Theorizing the case of the 20th century Indonesia

The emergence of post-Second World War independent states in Southeast Asia not only marked the switch of the category of the region from formerly “Western colonies” into that of “developing” and “the South-group” countries. It also assumed the legacy of State-driven citizenship and public welfare. The aim of this presentation is to theorize and to invite further debate on the complexity that such a State-driven paradigm of citizenship and public welfare presented in the context of 20^th century Indonesia. By far, standard Indonesian historiography suggests that the role of the State was looming large in the affairs. Yet, in this presentation it is argued that both state and non-state institutions exchanged roles and influenced each other in the creation of public welfare and citizenship across the late colonial and post-colonial periods, thus making co-existence of a dual institutional system.

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