Gerben NOOTEBOOM is Associate Professor at the Department of Anthropology at the University of Amsterdam, The Netherlands. He teaches courses on State and Society, Asian Studies, Social Theory and Anthropology of Development. He is educational director of the Master Contemporary Asian Studies.
As a researcher, he has worked on issues of social security, poverty, inequality, rural transformation, social change, ethnic violence, livelihood, migration, child labour, illegality and human adaptation to environmental change. Most of his fieldwork has been done in East Java and East Kalimantan, but recently two research project on rural change in Central Java have been started.
Some publications include: Styles of Social Security in Upland East Java (in Koning and Hüsken, eds. [2006]), Vulnerability and Resilience of Madurese Migrants in East Kalimantan (in Titus and Burgers, eds. [2008]), Out of Wedlock, Migrant-Police Partnerships in East Kalimantan (in Aspinal and Van Klinken, eds. [2011]), Against Green Development Fantasies: Resource Degradation and the Lack of Community Resistance in the Middle Mahakam Wetlands, East Kalimantan, Indonesia (with De Jong [2011]), Magic Bullets and Development (with Mario Rutten [2011]), and Beyond the Landgrab Hype (with Laurens Bakker [2014)).
Currently, most of his research deals with anthropological perspectives on and critiques of development, risk, rural transformation, and social science in Southeast Asia.
Keywords: risk, reciprocity, illegality, inequality, poverty, environmental change, rural transformation, ethnic conflict, rural development.
Research projects:
2011 - 2015 NWO/Wotro Integrated Programme: GULF-STATE CONCESSIONS IN INDONESIA AND THE PHILIPPINES : CONTESTED CONTROL OF AGRICULTURAL LAND AND FOODCROPS (with Rosanne Rutten).
2005 -2009 'CHANGING WATER: AQUATIC-ECOLOGICAL CHANGE AND ADAPTION [...] IN THE MIDDLE MAHAKAM WETLANDS, EAST KALIMANTAN, INDONESIA, financed by the Netherlands Organization for Scientific Research (NWO). (With Edwin de Jong).
Nooteboom, G. and L. Bakker (2014). Beyond the Gulf State Investment Hype: The Case of Indonesia and the Philippines. In Mayke Kaag & Annelies Zoomers (Eds.), The Global Land Grab: Beyond the Hype (pp. 170-184). London: Zed Books.
G. Nooteboom & M. Rutten (2012). Magic bullets in development: assumptions, teleology and the popularity of three solutions to end poverty. In L. Botes, R. Jongeneel & S. Strijbos (Eds.), Re-integrating technology and economy in human life and society: proceedings of the 17th annual working conference of the IIDE, Maarssen, May 2011. Vol. I (pp. 103-120). Maarssen: IIDE.
Nooteboom, G. (2011). 'Out of Wedlock: Migrant - police partnerships in East Kalimantan'. In: State and Illegality in Indonesia . Aspinal, E & Gerry van Klinken (Eds.). Kitlv Press/Iseas Press. Leiden , Singapore .
Bakker, L., G. Nooteboom, and Rosanne Rutten (eds. special issue) (2010). Localities of Value: Ambiguous Access to Land and Water Resources in Southeast Asia . Asian Journal of Social Science, 38 (2).
Nooteboom, G. and E. de Jong (2010). Green Development Fantasies: Resource Degradation and the Lack of Community Resistance in the Middle Mahakam Wetlands, East Kalimantan, Indonesia . Asian Journal of Social Science, 38 (2).
Nooteboom, G. (2008). 'Through Turbulent Times: Diversity, vulnerability, and resilience of Madurese livelihoods in East Kalimantan '. In: Rural Livelihoods, Resources and Coping with Crisis in Indonesia . A Comparative Study. Titus, M. J. and Paul P.M. Burgers (Eds.). Amsterdam University Press. Pp. 43-70.
De Jonge, H. & G. Nooteboom (2006). Why the Madurese? Ethnic Conflicts in West and East Kalimantan compared. Asian Journal of Social Science, 34(2), 354-376.
Nooteboom, G. (2005). Demystifying State Provocation and Violence in Indonesia . Journal of the Humanities and Social Sciences of Southeast Asia and Oceania , 163(1) (Review essay).
Nooteboom, G. (2006). 'Styles of Social Security in Upland East Java '. In J. Koning & F. Husken (Eds.), Ropewalking and Safety Nets: Local Ways of Managing Insecurities in Indonesia . Leiden , Singapore : Brill.
Nooteboom, G. (2003). A Matter of Style: Social security and livelihood in Upland East Java. PhD Dissertation online (see link below).