About conflictrecovery.org

Social Sciences for the Study of Conflict in Indonesia is a cooperative research program linking the Pusat Penelitian Kemasyarakatan dan Kebudayaan (PMB), part of the Lembaga Ilmu Pengetahuan Indonesia (LIPI), and the Laboratoire Asie du Sud-Est et Monde Austronésien (LASEMA), part of the Centre National de la Recherche Scientifique (CNRS). The program commenced on 1 September 2001. This website is designed to facilitate research and communication among program participants, as well as to serve as a tool for the wider community of researchers, academics, policy makers, and members of civil society. The site was originally at communalconflict.com but as of 6 November 2006 moved to conflictrecovery.org to better reflect the changing focus of conflict research and mitigation activities in Indonesia with many affected areas are now undergoing post-conflict recovery. For post-conflict recovery to succeed it must proceed from a solid knowledge base, an understanding of stakeholder dynamics, and a willingness to use conflict-sensitive methods to promote equity, transparency, and participation. The change still reflects our belief that recovery from any type of violent internal conflict presupposes a deep understanding and treatment of its underlying causes.

An example of our approach can be found in the many communal conflicts that broke out in the years immediately preceding and following the fall of the New Order government in 1998. Although popularly regarded as religious conflicts or ethnic conflicts at the time, research found these labels to be insufficiently explanatory. In case after case, other issues were found to play important, if not dominant, roles in the genesis and persistence of conflict. Economic or social exclusion, unequal access to valued resources, competition between civilian and military elites, the myriad effects of globalization--these and others became objects of study as our work progressed. Religion and ethnicity were still considered important, particularly for mass mobilization serving a variety of purposes, from organizing violence to building peace.

At the outset, the research activities of many of the program members focused on the conflicts in Kalimantan and the general question of migration and conflict. Over the years, most of the areas of the country experiencing conflict became the subject of research, seminars and debates, resulting in a number of publications. This website is our notepad and storage bin, and will evolve with our work. Visitors are cordially invited to send us items and suggestions for improving or enriching this site.

Social Sciences for the Study of Conflict in Indonesia has been linked with other networks dealing with similar issues, including The Economics of Civil Wars, Crime and Violence (World Bank) and the Indonesian Conflict Studies Network (Nordic Institute of Asian Studies, NIAS, Copenhagen). The program is made possible by funding from the CNRS (mise à disposition for Dr. Hélène Bouvier-Smith), and from the French Embassy in Jakarta. Their support is gratefully acknowledged.

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