Bosman Batubara

Biography

I am an Indonesian, a PhD fellow at Water Governance Department, IHE-Delft Institute for Water Education and Department of Human Geography, Planning and International Development, University of Amsterdam, The Netherlands (2015-now). I gained master in Water Resources Engineering from VU Brussels and KU Leuven, Belgium (2010-2) and bachelor from Geological Engineering, Gadjah Mada University, Indonesia (2000-5). Shortly after bachelor graduation, I joined mining company as exploration geologist for two years. After working for extractive sector, I enriched my understanding about Indonesia's agrarian movement through involvements as community organizer in East and Central Java. I am now working on my dissertation: Near-South Urbanization: Flows of people, water, and capital in and beyond (post-) New Order Jakarta.

My keywords: capitalism, urbanisation, groundwater, land subsidence, socio-ecological crisis.

Topic

Research Summary

"Floods in (post-) New Order Jakarta: A Political Ecology of Urbanization".

My dissertation aims to understand how uneven urbanization produced persistent flood events in the capital City of Jakarta, and how development of flood infrastructure are productive of unevenness under the (post-) New Order authoritarian regime of Indonesia (1965-now). 

Supervisory committee:
Promotor: Margreet Zwarteveen

Co-supervisor: Michelle Kooy

Committee member: dr. ir. Y.P.B. (Yves) van Leynseele  

Publications

Books

Batubara, Bosman, Bagas Yusuf Kausan, Eka Handriana, Syukron Salam and Umi Ma’rufah. 2021. Banjir Sudah Naik Seleher: Ekologi Politis Urbanisasi DAS-DAS di Semarang. Semarang: Cipta Prima Nusantara.  

Batubara B (2020) Teman Rebahan: Kapitalisme dan Covid-19. Yogyakarta: Penerbit Gading

Batubara B, Warsilah H, Wagner I, and Salam Sy. 2020. Maleh dadi Segoro: Krisis sosial-ekologis kawasan pesisir Semarang-Demak. Yogyakarta: Lintas Nalar.

Mariana, A. and Batubara, B. (eds.). 2015. Seni dan sastra untuk kedaulatan petani Urutsewu. Yogyakarta: Literasi Press. 

Batubara, B. and Utomo, P.W. 2012. Kronik Lumpur Lapindo: Skandal pengeboran migas di Sidoarjo. Yogyakarta: INSIST PRESS.

Prasetia, H. and Batubara, B., (eds.). 2010. Bencana Industri: Relasi Negara, Perusahaan, dan Masyarakat Sipil. Jakarta: Desantara.

Articles

Batubara, B., Kooy, M., van Leynseele, Y., Zwarteveen, M., and Ujianto, A. 2022. Urbanization in (post-) New Order Indonesia: connecting unevenness in the city with that in the countryside. Journal of Peasant Studies. https://www.tandfonline.com/doi/full/10.1080/03066150.2021.2000399

Batubara, B. and Rachman, N.F. (accepted) Extended agrarian question in concessionary capitalism: the Jakarta’s Kaum Miskin Kota. Agrarian South: Journal of Political Economy.

Batubara, B. and Handriana E. 2021. Urbanisasi Sebagai Pabrik Krisis Sosial-Ekologis: Berdialektika dengan PRISMA 1971-2021. PRISMA 40(4): 49-68.

Batubara, B. and Handriana E. 2021. Dari krisis sosial-ekologis ke ekologi sosial: Kasus Semarang suburbia (From socio-ecological crises to social ecology: Semarang suburbanization). PRISMA 40(3): 30-46.

Batubara B. 2021. Swyngedouw’s puzzle: Surplus-value production in socionature. Human Geography. 14(2): 292-295. 

Batubara B. 2019. Krisis, Ketidakadilan, dan Keadilan Sosial-Ekologis. PRISMA, 38(3): 66-84

Batubara, B., Kooy, M., Zwarteveen, M. 2018. Uneven Urbanisation: Connecting Flows of Water to Flows of Labour and Capital Through Jakarta's Flood Infrastructure. Antipode. 50(5): 1186-1205.

Batubara, B. (2017) Ekologi Politis Air: Akses, ekslusi, dan resistensi. Wacana, 35: 3-24. 

Zwarteveen, M.Z., J. Kemerink-Seyoum, M. Kooy, et al. 2017. Engaging with the politics of water governance. Wiley Interdisciplinary Reviews: Water (September 2017). DOI: 10.1002/wat2.1245

Batubara, B. (2015). Solidaritat mit kunstlerischen Mitteln. Stiftung Asienhaus. 2. p. 38-41.

Batubara, B., Batelaan, O. and Quevauviller, P. 2014. Science-policy interfacing on the issue of groundwater ecosystem and groundwater-dependent ecosystems in Europe: Implications for research and policy. WIREs Water 2014. DOI: 10.1002/wat2.1041 

Batubara, B. 2014. Crimes against humanity by corporation. Indonesian National Commission for Human Right Journal. 9. p. 169-194.

Batubara, B. 2014. Indonesiens Regierung unterstutzt weiterhin Rohstoffkonzerne. Stiftung Asienhaus. 4. p. 1-4. 

Batubara, B. 2013. Umweltzerstorung oder schwere menschenrechts verletzungen der fall der Lapindo schlammkatastrophe. Asienhaus. 2.p.34-7. Translated from Bahasa Indonesia into Deutsch by Anett Keller. 

Batubara, B. 2011. When the law betrays, literature must speak. Inside Indonesia. (105) Jul-Sep 2011. 

Batubara, B. 2010. Resistance through memory. Inside Indonesia. (101) Jul-Sep 2010. 

Conferences

Batubara, B., Kooy, M., Zwarteveen, M., Leynseele, Y., and Ujianto, A. (2019) Situated urbanization: the country and the city in the (post-) New Order Indonesia. The Journal of Peasant Studies Scholar-Activist Workshop-Writeshop, 1-7 July, 2019, Beijing.

Batubara, B. (2018) The sinking Jakarta: The socioecological crisis of land subsidence and the flood infrastructure fix. 2018 Interuniversity Programme in Water Resources Engineering Alumni Event. 26 February-1 March, Cuenca, Ecuador.

Batubara, B. Kooy, M. and Zwarteveen, M. (2015). Operationalizing a Political Ecology of Urbanization: Floods in Jakarta. International Conference on Political Ecologies of Conflict, Capitalism and Contestation: On the meaning of nature of contested 21st century political ecologies; organised by Wageningen University & Research Centre (WUR) and School of Oriental and African Studies (SOAS), University of London.