Civic Rights in A Digital Age (CRIDA) | December 3, 2024
Adu Jitu Melawan Otokrat
Diah Kusumaningrum, et al.
This publication has been produced with financial support from Norway. The contents of this publication are the sole responsibility of Hivos and Humanis and can in no way be taken to reflect the views of the Government of Norway.
“Oh, please, not another report on shrinking civic space in Indonesia.” Rest assured, we are aware that many organizations have put together compelling overviews and analyses on the topic. To honor their hard work, we strive to go beyond (re-)reporting on the issue and offer one that allows democracy-loving actors to effectively push back against the shrinking civic space.
Our baseline study is designed to inform Connect, Defend, Act! (CDA), a project conceived by Hivos and Humanis under the support of the Norwegian Agency for Development and Cooperation (NORAD). With a particular focus on Indonesia, we look at the threats that civil society actors (CSAs) are facing, map their ecosystems and capacities, and put forward strategies to support them.
Relying on desk research and key informant interviews, this baseline study commits itself to feminist methodologies of pluriversality, intersubjectivity, intersectionality, and positionality. That said, we did not come in with our pre-defined notions of civic society and CSAs—rather, we try to understand how these are understood and lived by the subjects of this study. In selecting publications to review and participants to interview, we center the perspectives of women, youth, SOGIESC diverse groups, as well as other minorities and marginalized groups. Our preliminary readings led us to reconceptualizing “civic space” into “civic spacetime” and to treating connect-defend-act not as a linear sequence.
