Reimagining Nusantara: a reflexivity between fact and fictional expectation
Funding period: 1 February 2026 – 30 April 2026
Type of funding:
International Fellowship
DOI: https://doi.org/10.69752/VFZJ-2E66
Award Number: USF-INT-251009
Galuh Indraprahasta is a research professor of human geography at the Urban-Rural Dynamics Research Group of the Research Center for Population at the National Research and Innovation Agency (BRIN) in Jakarta. He earned a PhD in Geography from Ghent University in Belgium, an M.Sc. in Regional and Rural Development Planning from IPB University in Indonesia, and a bachelor’s degree in Urban and Regional Planning from the Bandung Institute of Technology in Indonesia. Galuh also works as an adjunct lecturer (part-time) at IPB University, where he teaches and supervises postgraduate students in urban and regional studies. He also engages in professional networks, being a member of the Indonesian Regional Science Association (IRSA) and the Indonesian Association of Urban and Regional Planners (IAP), as well as serving as an expert/resource person for several national and international institutions.
Galuh’s main research interest covers three themes, i.e. globalising cities and urbanisation, smart cities and regional innovation, and the spatiality of climate change and sustainability transition. He aims to bridge the relationship between the dynamics of urban and regional spaces and contemporary changes, particularly economic globalisation, technological progress, and climate change. While mostly working on urban areas, Galuh is also interested in understanding the transformation of the countryside, notably inspired by the discussions on the network turn in urban geography, extended urbanisation, urban-rural linkages, and in-situ urbanisation. His diverse work in urban and regional studies has been published in relevant reputable journals, including Habitat International, Cities, Area, Growth and Change, Journal of Urban Affairs, among others.
As a member of the wider academic community, Galuh is eager to expand and maintain his professional networks. He has collaborated with various academic communities in Indonesia and beyond through various avenues, including research projects, joint publications, and conference and workshop participations. For instance, he was part of the Cool Infrastructures research project, an international research consortium studying urban heat. He has also collaborated with academics from Gadjah Mada University, Bandung Institute of Technology, IPB University, Kyoto University, and the Leiden-Delft-Erasmus Universities (LDE) alliance on diverse avenues within the domain of urban and regional studies.
As a USF International Fellow, Galuh will spend three months at the Asian Urbanism cluster – the Asia Research Institute (ARI) at the National University of Singapore (NUS), under the mentorship of Prof. Tim Bunnell. Galuh’s research agenda in ARI–NUS attempts on providing an additional perspective on the ongoing project of Indonesia’s new capital city of Nusantara. He will mainly focus on the imaginaries of urban futures of Nusantara by exploring the normative ideals of the conceptualisation of global, smart and green cities, and how these concepts have manifested on the ground within and beyond Nusantara. His starting point is how imaginaries have begun to shape the urban futures through targets, policy setting and policy documents, with a particular emphasis on performativity. Another pivotal point would be how the transition in the country’s leadership from Joko Widodo to Prabowo Subianto has altered the dynamics of future-making in Nusantara.
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