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RESEARCH INTERESTS - science and technology studies - technological politics - contemporary social theory - sociology of risk - nationalism - southeast asia (major: Indonesia, minor: Thailand and Singapore) - development and social change - sociology of intellectuals - game and entertainment (sociology of fun) - design studies
CURRENT PROJECT After being idle for a decade, nuclear power is increasingly gaining popularity among Southeast Asian states. The unprecedented rise of oil prices in international markets following the Iraq War, the global concern of climate change, and technological breakthroughs in the safety system of nuclear reactor design are among the crucial factors that render nuclear power a viable, strategic option for Southeast Asian countries to secure their energy supply. Most of these countries, including Indonesia, Thailand, Malaysia, the Philippines, and Vietnam have for some decades developed considerable capacity in nuclear research. But it is just recently that these countries are taking serious measures to materialize the production of nuclear power plant for energy purposes. The growing desire for nuclear power in Southeast Asia has been accompined by a variety of public responses in this region. These responses are by and large determined by democratic conditions in the respective country. In Indonesia, for example, the state’s plan to implement the nuclear energy program is being challenged by a strong anti-nuclear alliance constituted by various civil society groups demanding the current government to cut off the nuclear option from the national energy policy. Although lower in scale compared to its counterpart in Indonesia, Thailand’s anti-nuclear movements are fervently showing their disapproval, pushing the government to rethink the nuclear policy. Focused upon the emergence of the nuclear regime in Southeast Asia, this study is intended to conduct a comparative observation of nuclear politics in Indonesia and Thailand, two Southeast Asian nations with relatively new democratic experiences. By comparing nuclear politics in these new democracies, this study seeks to analyze similar and different structures of democratic institutions that shape how nuclear power is presented and contested. The comparative elements this study is designed to probe encompass three aspects related to the impacts of democracy to the ways in which nuclear power developments are arranged, materialized, and responded. The first element is concerned with the nature of the state’s interests in nuclear power. In this element, the question asked is “how the state perceives the role of nuclear power to fulfill its immediate interests”. The second element to be examined is nuclear institutions in respective countries that cover the entire network of actors, state and non-state, supporting the nuclear enterprise. In this element, the question to be answered is “what kind of network structure propping up the nuclear regime to be effective in bringing about the necessity for nuclear power” The third element looks into anti-nuclear movements in the two countries in terms of the mobilization of counter-narratives, resources, and public supports. Thus, the question is “to what extent democratic systems in Indonesian and Thailand facilitate anti-nuclear movements to take actions against the state.” THE SOCIAL CONSTRUCTION OF NETWORKED GAMES
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