Examining Disaster Risk Reduction in Indonesia

This book offers a critical examination of the global diffusion and local reception of disaster risk reduction (DRR) programs through the lens of Indonesia’s unique challenges and successes. This book critically examines the global diffusion and local reception of risk by implementing Indonesia's disaster risk reduction (DRR) programs. Global efforts to strengthen local disaster resilience capacities have become a staple of international development in recent decades. Yet, the successful implementation of DRR projects designed to enhance local resilience remains vague. There are pockets of success in the post-2018 Central Sulawesi Earthquake, but a gap nevertheless remains between global expectations and local realities. Through a critical realist study of global and local worldviews of risk in Indonesia, this book argues that the global advocacy of DRR remains inadequate because of a failure to prioritize person-orientated ethics in its conceptualization of disaster resilience. Much of the research and policies on DRR have used social science methods only to complement the technological improvement approach offered in reducing disaster risk, especially in the Global South. This book invites readers to revisit disaster as a social problem and as a social construct. This book emphasizes the importance of social science disciplines to answer extensive topics on DRR—from empirical, theoretical, and philosophical approaches—to provide a critical arena and generate dialogue around a people-centered approach to DRR. Vis-à-vis regional comparison, the authors provide a valuable lens to understand the underlying social structures that make resilience possible and unpack the extent to which local governments, communities, and persons interpret and modify their behavior on risk when faced with the global message on understanding a systemic situation. This book is an essential resource for  researchers, professionals, and students in areas of resilience, risk management, development studies, and area studies. It provides fresh perspectives and fostering dialogue on DRR in the Global South.

Deny Hidayati is a senior researcher at the Research Cluster on Human Ecology at the Research Centre for Population, the National Research and Innovation Agency (BRIN). She is formerly a researcher at the Indonesian Institute of Sciences (P2K-LIPI) from 1986 to 2021. Her Ph.D. degree was obtained from the Geography Department (Human Ecology program) at the Australian National University, Canberra, in 1995. She has been conducting research related to disasters since 2006. Her research includes community vulnerability and preparedness in anticipating disasters (earthquakes, tsunamis, floods, and landslides) (2006-2015); community resilience in facing environmental changes and disasters (floods and haze in Jambi) (2015-2019), and development strategy of a risk culture for strengthening multi-disaster risk reduction in Palu, Central Sulawesi, in 2021. She has also carried out research related to climate change.

Yanu Endar Prasetyo has a Ph.D. in rural sociology. His research focuses on poverty, food insecurity, and community sustainability. In his dissertation, he developed a rural vulnerability framework to analyze Walmart closures' socio-economic impact in rural Missouri. During his Ph.D. at the University of Missouri-Columbia, he published an article on a bibliometric analysis of environmental and resources sociology (2019) with his adviser, Hua Qin, in the Journal of Society and Natural Resources, and recently an article on ‘Exploring the dynamic relationships between risk perception and behavior in response to the coronavirus disease 2019’ in the Journal of Social Science & Medicine (2021). This project was funded by the Natural Hazards Center, University of Colorado-Boulder. Prasetyo received the MU International Engagement Award for Outstanding Student Contribution (2020), the Freeda Thomas Yeo Agricultural Fund (2020), and the Lionberger scholarship (2020-2021).

Jonatan Lassa is a senior scientist (disaster risk management) based at the Institute of Geological and Nuclear Sciences (GNS Science), New Zealand. He is also a senior fellow (adjunct) in Humanitarian, Emergency, and Disaster Management at Charles Darwin University, Darwin, Australia, as well as a Senior Fellow at the Resilience Development Initiative and the Institute of Resource Governance and Social Change in Indonesia. His research interests encompass non-traditional security, conflict, disasters, climate change adaptation, risk mitigation, crisis management and leadership, political will for resilience, disaster governance and recovery, food security, complex networks, NGOs, and human security, with a strong focus on Southeast Asia and the Pacific. Jonatan was the first to coin and define the term disaster risk governance, a concept now widely recognized and utilized. Over the past 20 years, he has conducted research and provided consulting services to more than 30 humanitarian organizations across four continents. He has authored over 150 publications, including peer-reviewed articles in leading academic journals and book chapters.

Syarifah Aini Dalimunthe is a researcher in the Population and Disaster Research Group at the Research Center for Population, Indonesian National Research and Innovation Agency (BRIN). Her expertise spans Disaster Risk Reduction, societal perceptions of nature, and Disaster Risk Financing. She has led the Indonesian study for BBC Media Action's Climate Asia Initiative and contributed to the European Union-funded Land Use Policies and Sustainable Development in Developing Countries (LUPIS) project. Syarifah collaborates with international organizations such as JICA and RIHN, focusing on water and energy nexus research. Her current projects include SATREPS BRICC (Building Resilience in Coastal Communities) and the SATREPS Earthquake Early Warning System (2025–2029). She is also involved in Blue Citizens research with the Third Institute of Oceanography (TIO), The People’s Republic of  China, and the Tsunami Merah Putih project, advancing tsunami early warning systems to promote early action and achieve zero casualties.