Decolonizing Urban Agriculture in Bandung, Indonesia
The Universitas Padjadjaran and the RWTH Exploratory Research Space (ERS) Seed Fund Initiative enable a small group of researchers to co-operate for 10 months to lay the foundations for further research projects.
Urban agriculture is a key instrument of sustainable urban development – also in Southeast Asian countries. There, urban agriculture concepts from Western countries are too often copied which are unable to respond adequately to local challenges and potentials. Research has witnessed a lack of cultural-historical explorations that enable local traditions and knowledge cultures to be adequately taken into account – a goal that is made even more challenging by the difficult colonial past of the countries of Southeast Asia.
DUA (“Decolonizing Urban Agriculture”) therefore wants to use the example of the city of Bandung (Indonesia) to investigate how urban agriculture is shaped by colonial patterns and to what extent the concept of “decolonization” is suitable for arriving at new explanations and development possibilities. To this end, three interdisciplinary university partners are joining forces with expertise in urban agriculture, agroecology and the history of colonialism, as well as access to local and traditional knowledge. The partners want to use the ERS seed fund to build up joint knowledge in order to successfully apply for a BMBF call for “Modern Asian Research”.
DUA is working with a case study on urban horticulture in the Lembang Valley in Bandung as well as with desktop and archival work. In a series of 3 workshops DUA will examine the concept of decolonization in two directions, firstly, to better understand and plan urban agriculture in Asian cities, and secondly, to better inform Asia-related research of RWTH more in general.
Project Partners:
- RWTH, Chair of Landscape Architecture:
Frank Lohrberg & Katharina Christenn - RWTH, Chair of Modern History:
Alina Marktanner - Universitas Padjadjaran, Center for Environment and Sustainability Science:
Gemilang Lara Utama Saripudin & Mega Nurul Aini
