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Dr. L.G.H. (Laurens) Bakker

Faculty of Social and Behavioural Sciences
Programme group: Moving Matters: People, Goods, Power and Ideas
Area of expertise: law and justice with a focus on land use, resource conflict, discourses of authority and non-state violence, Indonesia
Photographer: Laurens Bakker

Visiting address
  • Nieuwe Achtergracht 166
  • Room number: B5.07
Postal address
  • Postbus 15509
    1001 NA Amsterdam
Contact details
  • Profile

    Laurens Bakker is associate professor at the Department of Anthropology. Most of his research is focused on Southeast Asia, particularly Indonesia.

    At present he is principal investigator for the ‘Securing the Local’ project, which studies the role of non-state security groups in countering the threat of extremist violence and in providing ‘human security’. This is a comparative project that takes places simultaneously in Kenya, Nigeria and Indonesia and that is funded by NWO-WOTRO through its Security and Rule of Law Program. Jointly with Mohamad Nasir of Universitas Balikpapan and Muhamad Muhdar of Prakarsa Borneo, he also heads the Tiram Research Project in East Kalimantan, Indonesia. This project is funded by the International Development and Law Organization (IDLO) and seeks to develop and strengthen the participatory law-making capacities of government, CSOs and local communities in regional resource management.

    Laurens Laurens studied cultural anthropology at Leiden University and received his Ph.D. in 2009 from the Radboud University Nijmegen, where he worked at the Institute of Anthropology and Development Studies and at the Institute for the Sociology of Law. His Ph.D. thesis “Who Owns the Land? Looking for Law and Power in East Kalimantan” is available from the Radboud University repository here.

  • Indonesian militias

    The 'State of Anxiety' project is a collaboration with Lee Wilson (University of Queensland, previously Cambridge University) funded by NWO and the ESRC that began in November 2009 and studies local security groups in Jakarta, Bali, Kalimantan and Sulawesi. The project investigates the political and economic influence these groups wield within their domains, their relationships with elements of the police and military as well local networks of criminality. A particular focus of the research is local conceptions of safety and threat, the ways insecurity figures in the affirmation of difference and processes of identification. How do these discourses of insecurity both facilitate political agency and exacerbate identity-based conflict between groups?

    Under the rule of President Soeharto's New Order, 'security' was a central tenet of nationalist political imaginaries. While the New Order was able to forcefully maintain order, disorder and instability were its constant companions (Day 2002), a means of justifying violent intervention and oppression. Post New Order, decentralization and regional autonomy have facilitated the burgeoning growth of sites of non-state authority throughout Indonesia. Civil militias, community organizations and NGOs are just some of the many kinds of non-state agents whose authority contests or exceeds that of the state within their domains. Claiming to preserve the safety of their local communities, common to these sites of localized authority are familiar discourses of exclusion and territorial control that are often cited as the hallmark of sovereign relations in modernity. Custom and tradition, often linked to the issue of control of land and natural  resources, are offered as principles of local governance and a countervailing force to the authority of the state.

    In exploring these issues we seek to establish the structural factors and processes of identification pertinent to the mobilization and manipulation of ethnic, religious or political identities in the respective field sites. The broader relevance of this research will be explored with respect to identity-based conflict elsewhere in Indonesia, and comparatively in other post-authoritarian contexts.

  • Publications

    2023

    2022

    2021

    2020

    • Bakker, L., Cohen, M., & Faaij, W. (2020). Antropoloog Gezocht. Amsterdam University Press. [details]

    2019

    • Bakker, L. (2019). Security blurs and citizenship: consequences in Indonesia. In T. Diphoorn, & E. Grassiani (Eds.), Security Blurs: The Politics of Plural Security provision (pp. 50-65). (Routledge Studies in Anthropology; Vol. 51). Routledge. https://doi.org/10.4324/9781351127387-4 [details]

    2018

    2017

    2016

    2015

    2014

    2013

    2012

    • Bakker, L., & Crain, J. (2012). Trade, transnationalism and ethnic infighting: borders of authority in Northeast Borneo. In B. Kalir, & M. Sur (Eds.), Transnational flows and permissive polities: ethnographies of human mobilities in Asia (pp. 109-126). (IIAS publications series; No. 7). Amsterdam University Press. http://www.oapen.org/download?type=document&docid=464418 [details]

    2011

    • Bakker, L. (2011). Ideals that don’t make money. Inside Indonesia, 106. http://www.insideindonesia.org/feature-editions/ideals-that-don-t-make-money [details]
    • Bakker, L. (2011). In and Out of the Newspapers: Ethnic Land Claims and the Regional Press in East Kalimantan. In T. J. Conners, F. Dhont, M. C. Hoadley, & A. D. Tyson (Eds.), Social justice and rule of law: addressing the growth of a pluralist Indonesian democracy (pp. 451-473). Diponegoro University. http://www.yale.edu/seas/YIF-Semarang2010.htm [details]
    • Bakker, L. (2011). Pengantar: Akses terhadap keadilan atas tanah. In W. Berenschot, A. Bedner, E. R. Laggut-Terre, & D. Novirianti (Eds.), Akses terhadap keadilan: perjuangan masyarakat miskin dan kurang beruntung untuk menuntut hak di Indonesia (pp. 39-52). (Seri sosio-legal Indonesia). HuMa. [details]
    • Bakker, L. (2011). Sharia en geschillenbeslechting binnen de Nederlandse rechtsorde. In H. Broeksteeg, & A. Terlouw (Eds.), Overheid, recht en religie (pp. 337-350). (Serie Staat en recht; No. 5). Kluwer. [details]
    • Bakker, L. (2011). Shariarechtspraak in Nederland: realiteit of fictie? Recht van de Islam, 25, 47-58. [details]

    2010

    • Bakker, L. (2010). Stone age careerists? Tourism and labour specialization in Siberut. In H. de Jonge, & T. van Meijl (Eds.), On the subject of labour: essays in memory of Frans Hüsken (pp. 166-170). In de Walvis. [details]
    • Bakker, L. G. H. (2010). "Dapatkah kami memperoleh hak ulayat?" Tanah dan masyarakat di Kabupaten Paser dan Nunukan, Kalimantan Timur. In M. Safitri, & T. Moeliono (Eds.), Hukum Agraria dan Masyarakat di Indonesia (pp. 183-212). HuMa, Van Vollenhoven Institute, KITLV.
    • Bakker, L. G. H., Nooteboom, G., & Rutten, R. A. (Eds.) (2010). Localities of Value: Ambiguous Access to Land and Water in Southeast Asia. Asian Journal of Social Science, 38(2). http://booksandjournals.brillonline.com/content/journals/15685314/38/2
    • Bakker, L., & Moniaga, S. (2010). The space between: land claims and the law in Indonesia. Asian Journal of Social Science, 38(2), 187-203. https://doi.org/10.1163/156853110X490890 [details]
    • Bakker, L., Nooteboom, G., & Rutten, R. (2010). Localities of Value: Ambiguous Access to Land and Water in Southeast Asia. Asian Journal of Social Science, 38(2), 167-171. https://doi.org/10.1163/156853110X490872 [details]

    2017

    2016

    • Bakker, L. G. H., & Wilson, L. (Eds.) (2016). Conflict, Security & Development (vol. 16, issue 4). Conflict, Security & Development, 16(4).

    2014

    2010

    • Bakker, L. (2010). Kalabubu, neck ornament. In P. Benitez-Johannot (Ed.), Paths of origins: the Austronesian heritage in the collections of the National Museum of the Philippines, the Museum Nasional Indonesia and the Netherlands Rijksmuseum voor Völkenkunde (pp. 188-189). ArtPostAsia. [details]
    • Bakker, L. (2010). Koraibi, shield. In P. Benitez-Johannot (Ed.), Paths of origins: the Austronesian heritage in the collections of the National Museum of the Philippines, the Museum Nasional Indonesia and the Netherlands Rijksmuseum voor Völkenkunde (pp. 210-211). ArtPostAsia. [details]
    • Bakker, L. (2010). Si tölu bagi, stone seat with three lasara heads. In P. Benitez-Johannot (Ed.), Paths of origins: the Austronesian heritage in the collections of the National Museum of the Philippines, the Museum Nasional Indonesia and the Netherlands Rijksmuseum voor Völkenkunde (pp. 192-193). ArtPostAsia. [details]
    • Bakker, L. (2010). Töla gasa, shell armlet. In P. Benitez-Johannot (Ed.), Paths of origins: the Austronesian heritage in the collections of the National Museum of the Philippines, the Museum Nasional Indonesia and the Netherlands Rijksmuseum voor Völkenkunde (pp. 190-191). ArtPostAsia. [details]
    • Bakker, L. G. H., Nooteboom, G., & Rutten, R. A. (Eds.) (2010). Asian Journal of Social Science (vol. 38, issue 2). Asian Journal of Social Science, 38(2).

    2021

    2019

    2018

    • Can, E., Patan, F., Smith, D., Sudarmanto, D., & Bakker, L. (Ed.) (2018). Portretten uit de Wildemanbuurt: Een onderzoek naar de wensen en behoeften van verschillende bewonersgroepen. Gemeente Amsterdam. [details]

    2016

    2013

    2011

    • Bakker, L. (2011). [Review of: M. Haug (2010) Poverty and decentralisation in East Kalimantan: the impact of regional autonomy on Dayak Benuaq wellbeing]. Anthropos (Salzburg), 106(1), 250-251. https://www.jstor.org/stable/23031843 [details]
    • Bakker, L. G. H. (2011). [Review of: D. Pospíšilová, I. Hladká (2010) Pavel Durdik (1843-1903): life and work; ethnological collection of the Island of Nias]. Annals of the Náprstek Museum, 32, 139-140. [details]

    Membership / relevant position

    • Bakker, L. G. H. (2017-2020). Board member for the Benelux, European Association for Southeast Asian Studies.

    Talk / presentation

    • Bakker, L. G. H. (keynote speaker) (25-9-2018). Agrarian Justice and Indonesian Law, 1st International Conference on Law, Governance and Social Justice, Purwokerto.
    • Bakker, L. G. H. (invited speaker) (12-2-2018). Sustainable Forestry in Indonesia: initiatives for sustainable palm-oil production, Clingendael.
    • Bakker, L. G. H. (invited speaker) (4-10-2017). On being a 'free (wo)man'. Criminality and social responsibility in Indonesia, Centre of South East Asian Studies.
    • Bakker, L. G. H. (invited speaker) (30-3-2017). Sustainable Forestry in Indonesia: initiatives for sustainable palm-oil, Clingendael.
    • Bakker, L. G. H. (invited speaker) (26-1-2017). Invited talk, Business, Human Rights and Security, Nottingham.
    • Bakker, L. G. H. (invited speaker) (1-12-2016). Creating a Legend Electronically: Myth-scripting and the Gangster Politician, Transgresser, manoeuvrer, héroïser : Fabrique des violences économiques et politiques, Nanterre.
    • Bakker, L. G. H. (invited speaker) (16-6-2016). Responsible Citizens (Sometimes) Break the Law: Violence, Security and Citizenship in Indonesia, University of Utrecht, Utrecht.
    • Bakker, L. G. H. (invited speaker) (16-6-2015). Local level bureaucratic encounters – Negotiating financial assistance in Indonesia, Bureaucratic Encounters conference, Copenhagen.
    • Bakker, L. G. H. (invited speaker) (19-11-2013). Hard-Fisted Piety: Christian Militias in the Minahasa, Sophia University Institute of Comparative Culture Lecture Series, Sophia University Tokyo.
    • Nooteboom, G. (invited speaker) & Bakker, L. G. H. (invited speaker) (1-10-2012). Why Gulf State Investments did not materialise in Indonesia and The Philippines, seminar Beyond the Landgrab Hype. Landac Utrecht, Utrecht.
    • Bakker, L. G. H. (invited speaker) (14-6-2012). ‘Hard-fisted piety: Christian militias in the Minahasa’, conference Militias, Religion and the Legitimation of Violence in Southeast Asia., National University of Singapore.
    • Bakker, L. G. H. (speaker) (8-6-2012). ‘Land and Resources in East Kalimantan. Competing Voices, Competing Claims’, The Asia Foundation research seminar.
    • Bakker, L. G. H. (invited speaker) (24-1-2012). ‘Shariarechtbanken en Geschiloplossing’, Symposium Islamitisch Recht of the European Law Students’ Association, Erasmus Universiteit, Rotterdam.
    • Bakker, L. G. H. (invited speaker) (28-11-2011). ‘Conservation and Exploitation: local responses to global developments’, the Sixth Open Science Meeting, Jakarta.
    • Bakker, L. G. H. (invited speaker) (11-11-2011). 'gemeentemediation als beslisproces tussen burger en overheid’, the Fourth Yearly Congress of the Vereniging voor Gemeentemediation, Zwolle.
    • Bakker, L. G. H. (invited speaker) (25-10-2011). ‘Gaining Ground in Balikpapan. Non-government actor strategies and the politics of violence in land conflict’, Kölner Ethnologische Kolloquium, University of Cologne.
    • Bakker, L. G. H. (invited speaker) (22-7-2011). ‘State of Anxiety: A Comparative Ethnography of ‘Security groups’ in Indonesia’, Universitas Sam Ratulangi, Manado, Indonesia.
    • Bakker, L. G. H. (invited speaker) (12-5-2011). ‘Extractive Industries, Indigenous Peoples and Human Rights in Indonesia’, Norwegian Center for Human Rights, University of Oslo,.

    Others

    • Bakker, L. G. H. (organiser) (24-9-2018). Vigilantes countering extremism? The securing the local project., Jogjakarta (organising a conference, workshop, ...).
    • Bakker, L. G. H. (organiser) (3-5-2018 - 4-5-2018). mid-term conference Securing the Local, Amsterdam (organising a conference, workshop, ...).
    • Nooteboom, G. (organiser) & Bakker, L. G. H. (organiser) (20-6-2014). 6th Southeast Asia Update, Amsterdam (organising a conference, workshop, ...).
    • Bakker, L. G. H. (organiser) (2012). organised the 4th Southeast Asia Update, Radboud University Nijmegen (organising a conference, workshop, ...).
    This list of publications is extracted from the UvA-Current Research Information System. Questions? Ask the library or the Pure staff of your faculty / institute. Log in to Pure to edit your publications. Log in to Personal Page Publication Selection tool to manage the visibility of your publications on this list.
  • Ancillary activities
    • No ancillary activities