Central & East European, Russian & Eurasian Studies (Erasmus Mundus International Master)

My visit to University of Glasgow was relatively brief.  My trip to Glasgow was three weeks in total. Overall, the stay in Glasgow was pleasant and I am thankful to be given the chance to visit University of Glasgow. I owe and sincerely thank Dr Clare McManus who had paved the institutional linkages between University of Indonesia and University of Glasgow. She had opened the initial communication and had intensively worked through the necessary collaboration platform. I personally chose October to be the time of the visit, hoping to get the maximum work during autumn.

The time given in Glasgow had been used to the maximum; to meet academics at UG, literature study and proposal writing for possible future research collaboration. The activities accomplished during the visit were as follows:

 

1.    Meeting with the academia at University of Glasgow. All the meeting was organized and accompanied by Dr Clare McManus as College International Lead.

During the exchange program, I managed to meet the following:
Professor Andy Furlong, Dean of Research College of Social Science
Professor Michele Schweisfurth, Chair in Comparative and International Education
Sarah Birch, Chair of Comparative Politics
Elaine Lew, Regional Manager (South East Asia)
Rachel Sandison, Director of Recruitment and International Office

2.    Literature Study on Citizenship, Youth and Democracy

The broad issue of youth and citizenship is a crucial to the current era of political openness in Indonesia. Since the 1998 (political) Indonesian Reformasi, the new democratic country has experienced a volatile transition. The initial study on youth at UG has provided me with the basic references to establish a module of citizenship education for Indonesian youth.

3.    Seminar Presentation for postgraduate students and faculty at IMRCEES.

A paper was presented, entitled “Greater Issues in Indonesian National Development : Bridging Social and Economic Empowerment” , held on 21st November 2014, 17-18.30 PM. The presentation outline the shifts in development perspectives and the fundamental institutional adjustments needed to establish a in a modern state.

4.    The formulation of a research proposal for the future Newton fund scheme.

I was introduced by Dr Clare McManus that the Newton Fund research scheme will be rolled in 2015. The research scheme is a great funding platform for a big research and a workshop collaboration between universities. An initial concept paper was developed on youth and democracy. A book on Historical Perspective on Youth Movement Indonesia was also published (Laksmono et.al, 2015). The Department of Social Welfare has decided to adopt youth welfare as the annual research agenda of the department.

 

Social SecurityandNationhood:
Perspectives onCitizenshipand New Responsibilites

Background
Today’s notion of development has somewhat changed with time. We have left the era of developmentalism, with state dominance and entered the new era of seamless inter-connections and greater world integration. In many sense and levels, we discovered new freedom and opportunities. Development now encompasses and further underlines individual attributes and needs. There was a period whereby, the state is dominant aDevelopment no longer persist as something totally imposing but has meanings and stressed the importance of the contextual understanding. There is more acknowledgement for characters, profiles and situation to any given problem focus.

Democracy has greatly influenced policy traditions. In many countries, the practice of democracy had completely changed the political landscape. Public accountability means maximum public participation and the accommodation of people’s voices. Participation and legitimacy becomes so central. Democracy means openness and should cater broad spectrum of perceptions and deal with different forms of interest. Development therefore has since become more and more complex. Previously, we only recognize development as the practice of basic need provision and infrastructure. It had mainly mean the development of the economy but now it will also include the development of the human capital. As population continues to grow, the scale of development will continue to increase.

What is crucial on current national development ? What is the fundamental and critical component to the continued efforts for national development? For long we have been brought to think that capital, skills and technology are the crucial elements. Although remains true, todays development needs more than just `elements’. It should rest on an awareness. It needs an ownership, as something that substantiate multi- ways dialog and participation. This will imply individual rights and equally underline the importance of responsibilities. It will be important to define our understanding the meaning and roles of responsibilities on different levels of undertakings. Individuals, family, civil society and the state. They will all have a say, but will also entails responsibilities. This is ownership in public policy. In essence, todays challenge is to produce civility though democracy. This will step beyond merely a legitimacy issue.

Citizenship as a Social Policy Issue
It is with above concerns, with particular interest on the future of social security, the concept citizenship comes into relevance. Citizenship refers broadly to cover forms and meanings associated with nationhood with its entailed rights and responsibilities. The title and proposed theme above encompasses broad discussion on how citizenship can and should be the societal foundation for national development. With specific interest to address the issue of social welfare and well being, this proposal will focus on the needed policy platforms for an inclusive and justice development. In the light of current openness and maturing democracy, what forms of commitments does society needs.

Objectives :
1. To discuss forms of new insecurity, instability and vulnerabilities within national and international social policy framework
2. Comprehend relevant theories of the state-society roles in the frame of maturing democracy
3. Bridging social capital, social security with economic sustainability.

Areas of Discussion/Panels
New Vulnerabilities and State Response : what are the new forms of insecurity or plights that deserves attention. Ideology and instruments for justice.A look into affirmative action.
Citizenship, Democracy and Education: could there be new formulation and understanding of social contract and characters for democracy. Education for citizenship.
Funding Social Security : how much taxes and public fund is involved and how social fund contributes to the economy. Analysis into tax paying patterns.
From Quality of life to Well Being and Happiness : deriving essence in wellbeing and framework for inter-disciplinary approaches. Changing values and specific age group issues ( aging, youth, children, women).
The ASEAN citizenship, Development Gap and Framework for Shared Responsibilities : new identity, assertiveness and new roles for global citizenship.

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First published: 25 November 2016