Dissertation by Dr. Onat Kibaroğlu
National University of Singapore, 2022
This dissertation is an intervention into the burgeoning genre of platform studies, exploring the... more This dissertation is an intervention into the burgeoning genre of platform studies, exploring the roots and impacts of a novel form of urban infrastructure that is now ubiquitous in Indonesia. Scholarly literature on the expanding economy of platforms, has so far lacked a full appreciation of how profoundly the phenomenon has been shaped by urban conditions (Davidson et al., 2018). Some earlier scholars have argued that digital technologies would make cities obsolete (Graham and Marvin, 1996), and assert that revolutions in communication will completely distort our relationship with space (Taylor, 2011). Digitally mediated sharing economy prove to be, nonetheless, practical solutions that are firmly rooted in and moulded by urban realities, as much as they are widely imagined as virtual orchestrators of electronic data through disparate mobile devices. Within the last decade, Gojek, a centralised urban mobility application, became the most vivid form of infrastructure across the Indonesian archipelago, accommodating vast pools of workers and governing the circulation of people and everyday items in cities. Using this platform’s emergence as a case study, this dissertation aims to rethink and update our conceptualisation of the ‘city’ in accord with the digital age, thus delving into who and what makes up contemporary ‘urban infrastructure’ in Southeast Asia. Such a study offers to delineate the boundaries of the city according to circulations of labour and extends the body of literature regarding ‘labour as infrastructure’ into discussions of where and who constitutes as ‘urban’.
Peer-Reviewed Journal Articles by Dr. Onat Kibaroğlu
Street Smart Technology: Gojek as Urban Infrastructure, 2021
As a vibrant and contested site of everyday practices, Indonesian cities provide a fertile ground... more As a vibrant and contested site of everyday practices, Indonesian cities provide a fertile ground to study the mutual dynamics of human experience with modernisation, industrialisation, digitalisation and most recently the emergence of the sharing economy. The dense nature of urban Indonesia boast chronic inefficiencies experienced by the masses and numerous forms of ‘lacking’ — all of which can be latent opportunities that enterprising minds could capitalise upon. Gojek intervened into the urban milieu of Indonesia in 2015 and began to rapidly centralise the divergent streams of ojek by tying them into a single mobile application interface. Gojek took the chronic issues of urban infrastructure in Indonesian cities as an abundant habitat to thrive within — not an irksome setting to avoid — inserting itself in the chaos as an automated and efficient dispatcher of millions of drivers. Gojek, as this chapter demonstrates, is an assemblage which leverages administrative software, cheap hardware, regulatory grey areas, geographic positioning systems (GPS) and a vast readily available workforce; cobbling together an everyday technology that is profoundly versatile, locally acclimatized, adaptive to shape-shifting urban conditions — hence ‘street smart’.
ARMG Publishing, 2020
As a technology that can be traced back to the late 1990s in its structural fundamentals, 'blockc... more As a technology that can be traced back to the late 1990s in its structural fundamentals, 'blockchain' came into mainstream public discourse as of 2017. Previously discussed in the fringes of the technology-savvy circles, blockchain has now became a global phenomenon and indeed an industry that is rapidly growing and capturing a notable share of the public imagination along with academic discourse. Blockchain's emergence in the realm of technology is essentially thanks to the invention of bitcoin as both a speculative asset and as a digital store of value. Many governments around the world have made public claims regarding their enthusiasm in adopting 'blockchain' in various ways; varying from Russia, Estonia and Ukraine in Europe all the way to Venezuela in Latin America and even the Marshall Islands in the Pacific Ocean. This paper puts out the objective of achieving self-sovereign identities on the blockchain is a promise that has not yet manifested on the ground, albeit it disproportionately captures a significant share of the contemporary discourse on the three larger concepts of self-sovereignty, digital identity and the blockchain. A key reason for the lack of manifestation of this promise is that, there is little agreement as to what is actually meant by 'self-sovereign identities'-in stark comparison to the major consensus over the concepts of 'blockchain' or 'cryptocurrencies'. In order to explore the genealogy of the core concept of 'identity', the theoretical genesis of 'biopolitics' is consulted, demonstrating that our contemporary technological epoch is best defined as an era of the emergence of 'biodigital' power. The paper ultimately argues that the reason for this disproportional share of discourse is created by certain actors to utilise the growing rhetoric on 'blockchain' and the libertarian notion of 'self-sovereignty' as façades to potentially pursue biocapitalist objectives.
Southeast Asian Studies by Dr. Onat Kibaroğlu
Southeast Asia Globe, 2020
Will Grab ride out the pandemic, or crash without a single dollar in profit? As the local brand t... more Will Grab ride out the pandemic, or crash without a single dollar in profit? As the local brand that kicked Uber out the region in 2018, Grab has assumed the role of flagbearer for technology champions in Singapore. But in the pandemic era, its core business model bringing drivers and passengers together is in jeopardy
Jeepneys are an inseparable feature of Manila’s urban scenery. Virtually all of current
operation... more Jeepneys are an inseparable feature of Manila’s urban scenery. Virtually all of current
operational Jeepneys are handmade, cobbled together using parts of surplus Jeeps that were
left behind due to logistic costs by the American troops after the Second World War. Ever
since, unnamed Filipino innovators have reassembled this military technology into a ‘public
good’, by adopting them into urban transport vehicles that hold up to 20 passengers at a time
(though not all those passengers may actually fit inside the vehicle, as many youngsters are
very used to hanging from their rear end throughout their journey). The reassemblers, as they
may be referred as, extended the frames and the seating capacity to accommodate more
passengers, added solid metal roofs to deal with the tropical sun of Manila, and decorated the
vehicle with vibrant colours and bright chrome hood ornaments
Set in a context of ubiquitous digitality, this thesis proposes to examine and conceptualise what... more Set in a context of ubiquitous digitality, this thesis proposes to examine and conceptualise what is put forward as ‘street smart technology’, a novel assemblage of smartphone based technologies and the street economy in Southeast Asia. In order to delineate this novel form of technology, the study will develop a genealogical case study of two of its archetypes: ‘Grab’ and ‘GoJek’. Probing into their rearrangements of safety, temporality and mobility in everyday urban life, I argue that these digital ride hailing firms insert themselves into micro-frictions within metropolitan contexts and catalyse a new form of Taylorist industry. This widely emerging form of industry circulates capital and labour in the open streets of urban metropolises, and manifests an inverse trend in the labour markets of developed and developing economies. In Singapore, smartphone based platforms such as Grab and GoJek tend to catalyse the informalisation of labour practices through creating a mainstream precarious alternative to the formal economy, whereas in Indonesia, these platforms tend to formalise various aspects of an already prevalent and highly precarious ‘street economy’. I seek to follow and demonstrate the methodologies of mutual adaptation and constant negotiation of these digital platforms with the ‘street economy’ of Indonesia, proposing that Grab and GoJek’s contemporary pervasiveness in Southeast Asia is due to their ability to consolidate smartphone technology and the street economy into a unique business model. This study draws its methodology and theoretical approach from the disciplines of Anthropology and Political Economy and bridges the scholarship in the fields of Science and Technology Studies and Southeast Asian Studies, targeting to capture the socioeconomic flux and technological innovation underway in Singapore and Indonesia.
Set in a context of ubiquitous digitality, this thesis proposes to examine and conceptualise what... more Set in a context of ubiquitous digitality, this thesis proposes to examine and conceptualise what is put forward as ‘street smart technology’, a novel assemblage of smartphone based technologies and the street economy in Southeast Asia. In order to delineate this novel form of technology, the study will develop a genealogical case study of two of its archetypes: ‘Grab’ and ‘GoJek’. Probing into their rearrangements of safety, temporality and mobility in everyday urban life, I argue that these digital ride hailing firms insert themselves into micro-frictions within metropolitan contexts and catalyse a new form of Taylorist industry. This widely emerging form of industry circulates capital and labour in the open streets of urban metropolises, and manifests an inverse trend in the labour markets of developed and developing economies. In Singapore, smartphone based platforms such as Grab and GoJek tend to catalyse the informalisation of labour practices through creating a mainstream precarious alternative to the formal economy, whereas in Indonesia, these platforms tend to formalise various aspects of an already prevalent and highly precarious ‘street economy’. I seek to follow and demonstrate the methodologies of mutual adaptation and constant negotiation of these digital platforms with the ‘street economy’ of Indonesia, proposing that Grab and GoJek’s contemporary pervasiveness in Southeast Asia is due to their ability to consolidate smartphone technology and the street economy into a unique business model. This study draws its methodology and theoretical approach from the disciplines of Anthropology and Political Economy and bridges the scholarship in the fields of Science and Technology Studies and Southeast Asian Studies, targeting to capture the socioeconomic flux and technological innovation underway in Singapore and Indonesia.
In rather unusual clarity, Michel Foucault lays out the key concepts that he will discuss and ext... more In rather unusual clarity, Michel Foucault lays out the key concepts that he will discuss and extrapolate in this particular lecture as primarily "the State" and "racism"-hence "State racism". To do so, he puts the concept of "racism" on standby for the most part of his lecture and goes on to situate and contextualise "the State". Through a genealogical history, Foucault claims that the concept of "biopower" comes first, on the site of the individual, with the practice of discipline and within the early-industrialisation context of 17th Century Western Europe-arguably the when the ideological foundations of the modern state are laid. He then moves on to explain the second genealogical shift (a historical event in Foucauldian terms) where "…we see something new emerging in the second half of the 18th Century: a new technology of power, but this time it is not disciplinary…it exists on a different level, on a different scale and because it has a different bearing area, makes use of very different instruments…unlike discipline, which is addressed to bodies, the new nondisciplinary power is applied not to man-as-body but… to man-as-species (Foucault, Society Must Be Defended, Ch. 11, Pp. 242)". This shift is defined by "biopolitics" and its subject is the "population" which it defines through the advent of "statistics" and controls through the processes such as "birth rate, mortality, longevity… a whole series of related economic and political problems (Foucault 243)". Simply put, "biopower" is to the "individual" while "biopolitics" is to the "population".
This study puts out the origin of the concept of "financial inclusion" and demonstrates its relev... more This study puts out the origin of the concept of "financial inclusion" and demonstrates its relevance in the Indonesian context. The key objective of this paper is to expose and analyse which stakeholders are driving the current financial inclusion schemes in Indonesia and to question their particular interests. The study then concludes by demonstrating what particular data is needed to be obtained through further research and intelligence to accurately measure what real impact these schemes have upon Indonesians.
The legendary archeologist John Miksic, a short biography
This paper aims to provide the historical context of the South China Sea dispute and then move on... more This paper aims to provide the historical context of the South China Sea dispute and then move on to explore two distinct aspects surrounding the recent conflict. Both of these aspects were relatively less featured on the contemporary headlines after the Hague Tribunal ruling. The paper will investigate how the South China Sea exposed impacted certain rifts and camps within two major multilateral institutions: The Association of South East Asian Nations (ASEAN) and the European Union (EU). The analysis will then move on the current environmental aspect of the conflict. The island building activities of the involved parties on coral reefs have been framed mostly as a security issue, while fishing disputes have rather arised concerns of sovereignty, focusing less on the depletion rates of such resources. Both activities however, among with many others, have been destroying one of the richest natural habitats in the world. The paper will therefore aim to examine and put out the key drivers of the environmental devastation under these two categories.
Southwest Asian Studies by Dr. Onat Kibaroğlu
This brief piece is a thought experiment on global visibility. Al Jazeera of Qatar and Gojek of I... more This brief piece is a thought experiment on global visibility. Al Jazeera of Qatar and Gojek of Indonesia may seem as two unlikely cases of comparison. However, when conceptualized as forms of infrastructure, a wide number of stark similarities can be observed in their rather clear role as agents of global visibility for their respective contexts.
The key feature that differentiates the experience of the ojek and the dolmuş is the diverse sens... more The key feature that differentiates the experience of the ojek and the dolmuş is the diverse sense of temporality they respectively espouse as apparently similar domains of urban infrastructure. That positions dolmuş somewhere between an ojek and a bus line — its geographic itinerary is pre-determined just like a bus, but its temporal itinerary is discretionary per its users, just like an ojek. The element of ‘shared randomness’ in a dense urban setting can be observed live when one takes a dolmuş. Experiencing ‘the city’, hence, is done within different temporalities in the domains of ojek and dolmuş. In the ojek model, the notion of time, or more specifically duration of a journey is an individual affair. In the domain of dolmuş however, the duration and the itinerary of the journey is determined collectively — depending on a rather improvised and unpredictable average of schedules of the passengers aboard.
A conventional genealogy of “innovation” begins from Schumpeter, runs through neoclassical econom... more A conventional genealogy of “innovation” begins from Schumpeter, runs through neoclassical economics (among others, Solow 1957; Krugman 1979), and emerges, shiny and polished, in the 21st century’s irrational exuberance over startups, unicorns and other mythical beasts. Seen from the Global South, however, innovation has a parallel genealogy, which begins from global structural inequality.
Underdevelopment emerges in the work of Prebisch, Frank, Sunkel and others as a constituent outcome of the technological superiority of the Global North. The idea of innovation as lack, produced through metaphors of impediment and mimicry as technological limits, now becomes a boundary condition. Innovation separates North from South; in its commonsense version, the need to overcome this limit is elevated to the obvious and necessary as the contemporary “measure of man” (Adas, 1990). How and when local innovation becomes the rallying cry for Southern states is a story of national incorporation into dominant global narratives of achievement and progress (not resistance to it).
The other side of that incorporation might be called, following Ackbar Abbas, a form of “poor theory”: the invisibility of local innovations, humble yet effective, socially responsive and indigenously developed, which may yet open up meanings of “the technological society” when given their due. This paper will explore these assertions through eclectic and disjointed discussions of Indonesia and Turkey.
(This conference paper was written for the workshop, “Interrogating Innovation,” held at Nanyang Technological University, Singapore, 15-16 August, 2019.)
‘Innovation’ is interrogated as a charged word which has the power to simultaneously influence an... more ‘Innovation’ is interrogated as a charged word which has the power to simultaneously influence and deter, develop and limit. In order to expose such form of political power, the genealogies of the word ‘innovation’ in Turkey and Indonesia are traced. The Turkish and Indonesian cases are selected due to their noticeably similar approach to ‘innovation’ albeit being ‘far apart’ both in geography and history. Turkey meets the word ‘innovation’ in the context of its accelerating EU candidacy during the early 2000s. In Indonesia, the word becomes popular in academia and policy papers during the same era, with common reference to the 'triple-helix’ model (referring to the cooperation of government-university-industry for development).
In both nations, the word ‘innovation’ is imported as a robust tool to achieve ‘technological sovereignty’ through the sophistication of their export industries. ‘Innovation’, in both cases, is positioned as an abstract boundary condition between their still industrialising nation and the already industrialised outside world, while also being presented as the practical cure itself for the developmental lag between the self and other. A nuance is that the expectation of ‘innovating' primarily lies with local SMEs in Turkey (which generate two-thirds of Turkish exports), whereas the key actor for driving ‘innovation’ in Indonesia is often expected to be governmental agencies, state universities and foreign investor companies (hence the often mentioned ‘triple-helix’ model’)
A recent research conducted by TomTom, the globally popular GPS navigation system,
revealed Istan... more A recent research conducted by TomTom, the globally popular GPS navigation system,
revealed Istanbul as the most congested city in the world. The alarming congestion figure stood at
58% — translating to the fact that an average Istanbullu 1 spends more than double the time he or
she originally should, in order to get from one part of the city to another: “Commuters in Istanbul
experience the worst traffic congestion overall, the evening rush hour is no exception. The average 30
minute drive in the city will take over an hour during evening rush hour, leading to an extra 125 hours
wasted stuck in traffic every year.”
Southeast Asia vs the Middle East
Blockchain Drafts by Dr. Onat Kibaroğlu
A draft methods practicum.
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Dissertation by Dr. Onat Kibaroğlu
Peer-Reviewed Journal Articles by Dr. Onat Kibaroğlu
Southeast Asian Studies by Dr. Onat Kibaroğlu
operational Jeepneys are handmade, cobbled together using parts of surplus Jeeps that were
left behind due to logistic costs by the American troops after the Second World War. Ever
since, unnamed Filipino innovators have reassembled this military technology into a ‘public
good’, by adopting them into urban transport vehicles that hold up to 20 passengers at a time
(though not all those passengers may actually fit inside the vehicle, as many youngsters are
very used to hanging from their rear end throughout their journey). The reassemblers, as they
may be referred as, extended the frames and the seating capacity to accommodate more
passengers, added solid metal roofs to deal with the tropical sun of Manila, and decorated the
vehicle with vibrant colours and bright chrome hood ornaments
Southwest Asian Studies by Dr. Onat Kibaroğlu
Underdevelopment emerges in the work of Prebisch, Frank, Sunkel and others as a constituent outcome of the technological superiority of the Global North. The idea of innovation as lack, produced through metaphors of impediment and mimicry as technological limits, now becomes a boundary condition. Innovation separates North from South; in its commonsense version, the need to overcome this limit is elevated to the obvious and necessary as the contemporary “measure of man” (Adas, 1990). How and when local innovation becomes the rallying cry for Southern states is a story of national incorporation into dominant global narratives of achievement and progress (not resistance to it).
The other side of that incorporation might be called, following Ackbar Abbas, a form of “poor theory”: the invisibility of local innovations, humble yet effective, socially responsive and indigenously developed, which may yet open up meanings of “the technological society” when given their due. This paper will explore these assertions through eclectic and disjointed discussions of Indonesia and Turkey.
(This conference paper was written for the workshop, “Interrogating Innovation,” held at Nanyang Technological University, Singapore, 15-16 August, 2019.)
In both nations, the word ‘innovation’ is imported as a robust tool to achieve ‘technological sovereignty’ through the sophistication of their export industries. ‘Innovation’, in both cases, is positioned as an abstract boundary condition between their still industrialising nation and the already industrialised outside world, while also being presented as the practical cure itself for the developmental lag between the self and other. A nuance is that the expectation of ‘innovating' primarily lies with local SMEs in Turkey (which generate two-thirds of Turkish exports), whereas the key actor for driving ‘innovation’ in Indonesia is often expected to be governmental agencies, state universities and foreign investor companies (hence the often mentioned ‘triple-helix’ model’)
revealed Istanbul as the most congested city in the world. The alarming congestion figure stood at
58% — translating to the fact that an average Istanbullu 1 spends more than double the time he or
she originally should, in order to get from one part of the city to another: “Commuters in Istanbul
experience the worst traffic congestion overall, the evening rush hour is no exception. The average 30
minute drive in the city will take over an hour during evening rush hour, leading to an extra 125 hours
wasted stuck in traffic every year.”
Blockchain Drafts by Dr. Onat Kibaroğlu
operational Jeepneys are handmade, cobbled together using parts of surplus Jeeps that were
left behind due to logistic costs by the American troops after the Second World War. Ever
since, unnamed Filipino innovators have reassembled this military technology into a ‘public
good’, by adopting them into urban transport vehicles that hold up to 20 passengers at a time
(though not all those passengers may actually fit inside the vehicle, as many youngsters are
very used to hanging from their rear end throughout their journey). The reassemblers, as they
may be referred as, extended the frames and the seating capacity to accommodate more
passengers, added solid metal roofs to deal with the tropical sun of Manila, and decorated the
vehicle with vibrant colours and bright chrome hood ornaments
Underdevelopment emerges in the work of Prebisch, Frank, Sunkel and others as a constituent outcome of the technological superiority of the Global North. The idea of innovation as lack, produced through metaphors of impediment and mimicry as technological limits, now becomes a boundary condition. Innovation separates North from South; in its commonsense version, the need to overcome this limit is elevated to the obvious and necessary as the contemporary “measure of man” (Adas, 1990). How and when local innovation becomes the rallying cry for Southern states is a story of national incorporation into dominant global narratives of achievement and progress (not resistance to it).
The other side of that incorporation might be called, following Ackbar Abbas, a form of “poor theory”: the invisibility of local innovations, humble yet effective, socially responsive and indigenously developed, which may yet open up meanings of “the technological society” when given their due. This paper will explore these assertions through eclectic and disjointed discussions of Indonesia and Turkey.
(This conference paper was written for the workshop, “Interrogating Innovation,” held at Nanyang Technological University, Singapore, 15-16 August, 2019.)
In both nations, the word ‘innovation’ is imported as a robust tool to achieve ‘technological sovereignty’ through the sophistication of their export industries. ‘Innovation’, in both cases, is positioned as an abstract boundary condition between their still industrialising nation and the already industrialised outside world, while also being presented as the practical cure itself for the developmental lag between the self and other. A nuance is that the expectation of ‘innovating' primarily lies with local SMEs in Turkey (which generate two-thirds of Turkish exports), whereas the key actor for driving ‘innovation’ in Indonesia is often expected to be governmental agencies, state universities and foreign investor companies (hence the often mentioned ‘triple-helix’ model’)
revealed Istanbul as the most congested city in the world. The alarming congestion figure stood at
58% — translating to the fact that an average Istanbullu 1 spends more than double the time he or
she originally should, in order to get from one part of the city to another: “Commuters in Istanbul
experience the worst traffic congestion overall, the evening rush hour is no exception. The average 30
minute drive in the city will take over an hour during evening rush hour, leading to an extra 125 hours
wasted stuck in traffic every year.”
Plans changed slightly when I got an unprecedented video call request just a few days before leaving for Surabaya, from a driver I met in Bali. It was Wayan Juli, the cousin of Gede (a very helpful interlocutor I met during my last phase in Bali). I had the chance to sit down with Wayan for an interview back in October and we kept in touch through Whatsapp and Instagram ever since. It was the first time he was calling me though, visibly excited to invite me for his daughter’s graduation at end of the month (31st January). When I mentioned him I was coming to Indonesia again this weekend, planning to spend a week or so in Surabaya, he was quite genuinely insistent for me to drop by Bali again, given I was so close. So I reconsidered my schedule and cut short Surabaya to 4 days and Jogja to 3, instead of the original plan of spending a week in both. I bought a flight from Jogja to Denpasar then another from Denpasar to Jakarta, letting me both attend Wayan’s ceremony on the 31st of January and be in Jakarta on time for my pre-paid accommodation reservation starting February 1st. I was glad of this detour, as not only I would get to see Wayan and Gede again, but it would be the first time I would be invited to stay with one of my interlocutors, since Armin in Bintan during 2018. I was looking forward to be able to experience the daily life of Wayan at his village, firsthand.
Now with a more circuitous plan at hand, I started detailing what I expected to achieve/observe/encounter at each location. It is difficult to put checkboxes next to fieldwork targets, as the field may unravel itself in a very different fashion than one may even educatedly guess, but I did have the basic objectives of: be able to meet my lead from Bali in Surabaya and prompt him to be a gatekeeper for me in the city in order for me to meet local pengojek who were involved in protests against their companies; observe the local transportation and payments scene in Jogjakarta and take a long Grab/Gojek trip to Borobudur where I would be most likely able to have a long conversation with the driver; meet with Gede and Wayan in Bali, be able to make it up to Karangasem and the graduation ceremony, while ideally meeting more friends of Wayan that could be interlocutors; meet with a Grab or Gojek corporate employee in Jakarta, while observing the new developments in urban transportation, such as the MRT and the Transjakarta integration with Gojek and Grab. Looking back, these general targets and milestones allowed me to navigate the field with an open mind, not an empty mind, and I could say I achieved them during these three flexuous weeks across Java and Bali.
Denpasar is no different than Indonesia for the most part. What made it a lucrative setting to conduct fieldwork was that certain boundaries are clearer and more publicly debated (conflicts in Bali drew attention to the taxi business in Indonesia in general), and more types of actors are found on the ground (tourism economy creates a ‘tour guide’ business for drivers, which does not exist in such significance in other parts of the country).
Drivers divide their work as online/offline within a day and are prevalently seasonal workers, even if local (Balinese drivers tend to be from the further Northern rural parts of the island). None of them could comfortably commit to a 12 month-5 days a week kind of job due to their family structure & expectations of them to be present in frequent ceremonies.
Drivers often use the Grab/Gojek platform to offer tours, drugs (in Kuta area at night), prostitution (offering their contacts), massage services (offered exclusively to white male customers) or just to improve their English with foreigners. It’s rare to be only offered a simple ride, the ride is often more of an informal sales pitch, an opportunity for them to monetise their local connections that could be of interest to tourists.
I would argue Grab/Gojek does not ‘offer’/‘give’ flexibility to the drivers — rather more precisely, their prevalence ‘maintains’ their long-prevalent flexibility (and hence their perpetual precarity), with some added perks over being ‘completely informal’, such as insurance and digital access.
Indonesian Grab/Gojek drivers enjoy a different level of social status and self identification than their Singaporean counterparts. In Indonesia, it is almost ‘cool’ or in many occasions a social status upgrade to drive for Grab/Gojek, wherein Singapore (in which I had done fieldwork during Spring 2018) to drive for Grab is almost always a downgrade in status and hence lowered job/life satisfaction.
Regarding their views on the owners of Grab/Gojek, it was overwhelmingly positive, and at the very least, indifferent. I noticed even Grab (not just Gojek) drivers felt proud or to some extent inspired by Gojek founder Nadiem Makarim’s new appointment as Education Ministry.
None of the drivers I spoke to see themselves as ‘entrepreneurs’ or freelance businessmen. Being a businessman is more closely associated with money and power in their mind, the suggestion often seemed too irrelevant for them at any level. To compare with Singapore, in the developed city-state I had encountered numerous drivers who were attracted to Grab ‘to have their own business’ instead of working for someone. In a context like Indonesia where working independently and informally is very common, to drive for Grab/Gojek does not translate to a significant shift in self-identification.
Underdevelopment emerges in the work of Prebisch, Frank, Sunkel and others as a constituent outcome of the technological superiority of the Global North. The idea of innovation as lack, produced through metaphors of impediment and mimicry as technological limits, now becomes a boundary condition. Innovation separates North from South; in its commonsense version, the need to overcome this limit is elevated to the obvious and necessary as the contemporary “measure of man” (Adas, 1990). How and when local innovation becomes the rallying cry for Southern states is a story of national incorporation into dominant global narratives of achievement and progress (not resistance to it).
The other side of that incorporation might be called, following Ackbar Abbas, a form of “poor theory”: the invisibility of local innovations, humble yet effective, socially responsive and indigenously developed, which may yet open up meanings of “the technological society” when given their due. This paper will explore these assertions through eclectic and disjointed discussions of Indonesia and Turkey.
Presented at the “Interrogating Innovation,” held at Nanyang Technological University, Singapore, 15-16 August, 2019
Upon successful completion of the course, the student is expected to be able to demonstrate strong knowledge on fintech applications; the history & usage of cryptocurrencies; and both these technology domains’ main market incentives and socioeconomic drivers–gathering a solid understanding of the opportunities in the ongoing revolution we are living in.
The course is divided into two main domains with equal importance: We will first understand the digital revolution of Fintech. Then we will build on that fundamental knowledge base to shift to how Cryptocurrencies offer a completely alternative and exciting domain of money. The internet of money, so to say.
1.In the first half of the course the student will thoroughly understand the reasons why banks partner with fintech companies in the fields of payments, insurance, lending, and digital KYC processes
2.In the second half of the course the student will be able to clearly identify and locate the historical foundations of blockchain technology and some theoretical approaches in regards to the Bitcoin and Ethereum ecosystems.