Career Development of Early Career Social Science Researchers in Indonesia

This project has been funded by the British Academy (Award Reference: IWW24\100315) under its 'International Writing Workshops' Scheme to support career development of Early Career Social Science researchers in Indonesia. The project is being led by Brunel University of London, in collaboration with Yarsi University in Jakarta, Indonesia.

Indonesia faces complex and multifaceted challenges of social exclusion and inequalities that continue to impede its journey toward equitable and sustainable development. These issues manifest in stark economic disparities, health inequities, nutritional imbalances, digital divides, and urban segregation, disproportionately affecting marginalised populations. Addressing these deeply entrenched problems demands rigorous academic inquiry to inform effective and evidence-based policy solutions. Indonesia’s unique geographical diversity and socio-cultural complexities including archipelagic infrastructure gaps and culturally embedded social stratification, require context-specific research that captures the nation’s distinct challenges. However, there are currently significant barriers for early career social science researchers working on these pressing issues of social inequality and exclusion to publish their work in leading peer-reviewed journals, secure grants to drive their research agendas and access academic networks. Indeed, it has been pointed out that the vast majority of key social science research on Indonesia are published by researchers based outside the country.

In light of this, the project will bring together 15 early career social science researchers across Indonesia working on issues of social inequalities and exclusion. Social Science ECRs in Indonesia face significant challenges in getting their work published in international peer-reviewed journals and securing grants. The inter-disciplinary project will provide comprehensive support to ECRs from across Indonesia’s diverse provinces to enhance their writing skills, confidence and academic networks. Led by UK- and Indonesia-based academics from multiple social science disciplines with relevant editorial experiences and grant successes, the project will have 3 phases: (a) pre-workshop online induction and training, (b) 3-day residential workshop in Jakarta which will include dedicated support for writing articles and grant applications, and (c) follow-on activities including oneto-one mentorship, draft feedback and peer writing groups. These activities will lead to increased research outputs, boost grant success and build support networks among ECRs in Indonesia, thereby enriching the country’s research capacities.

Meet the Principal Investigator(s) for the project

Dr Utsa Mukherjee - I am a Reader and Director of Research at the Department of Education, Brunel University of London. My research spans the disciplines of Sociology and Social Geography, with inter-connected research interests in the study of (a) childhood, youth and families, (b) social inequality, (c) leisure and (d) environmental social sciences. My work across these thematic areas is guided by a commitment to equity and social justice. I am interested in exploring and theorising the way social inequalities are reproduced across time and place, and the way structural inequalities mediate everyday experiences of children, youth and families. I am currently PI of two British Academy funded projects: (i) Centring Families in Iceland’s Just Transition (with Dr Auður Magndís Auðardóttir and Dr Auður Aðalsteinsdóttir) (BA funding contribution: £ 294,842) (ii) Enhancing Writing Skills and Building Academic Networks: Supporting Career Development of Early Career Social Science Researchers in Indonesia (with Dr Fitri Arlinkasari, Prof Vina Adriany, Prof Emma Wainwright and Dr Indra Yohanes Kiling) (BA funding contribution: £ 21,210) My first monograph Race, Class, Parenting and Children’s Leisure (Bristol University Press, 2023) was the runner-up of the British Sociological Association's Philip Abrams Memorial Prize 2024. I have also solo-edited two interdisciplinary volumes: Childhoods & Leisure (Palgrave Macmillan, 2023) and Debating Childhood Masculinities (Emerald, 2024). My latest co-edited volume is Rethinking Racial and Classed Inequalities in Contemporary Education: Bourdieusian Perspectives (Bristol University Press, 2026). I am the Associate Editor of Journal of Family Studies. I am also the Book Review editor of Sociological Forum and Children & Society. I am an editorial board member of the following peer-reviewed journals: British Journal of Sociology British Journal of Sociology of Education Sociology Compass Children & Society Sociological Forum Leisure Studies World Leisure Journal I am a Trustee of Academy of Social Sciences (the UK's national academy of academics, practitioners and learned societies in social science). I am currently an executive committee member cum Equality, Diversity and Inclusion (EDI) Officer of the Geographies of Children, Youth and Families Research Group of the Royal Geographical Society (with Institute of British Geographers). I have been an executive committee member of Leisure Studies Association. Within Brunel, I am the Co-Lead of the Education, Identities and Society (EIS) research group within the Department of Education as well as a member of the pan-university Centre for Global Lives and Centre for Health and Wellbeing Across the Lifecourse (CHWL). I am a member of Economic and Social Research Council's (ESRC) Assessor College and Peer Review College. I also peer-review grant applications for British Council, National Science Centre (Narodowe Centrum Nauki) Poland and Independent Research Fund Denmark.

Related Research Group(s)

Health and Wellbeing Across the Lifecourse - Inequalities in health and wellbeing in the UK and internationally; welfare, health and wellbeing; ageing studies; health economics.

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Project last modified 22/09/2026