• Topic: Nation, City, Arena: Sports Events, Nation-Building and City Politics in Indonesia
• Lecturer: Friederike Trotier (Professor of University of Passau)
• Date and Time: 17:30-19:00, March 24th, 2021
• Zoom link: https://snu-ac-kr.zoom.us/j/3395374845 (ID: 339 537 4845)
• Inquiry: anthrobk21plus@snu.ac.kr
• Lecture Outline:

In 1962, Indonesia celebrated its national rebirth, modernity and international arrival by hosting the 4th Asian Games in Jakarta. Since then, Indonesia has hosted several other major multi-sport events. But the return to Indonesia in 2018 of the 18th Asian Games was significant: for the first time in the history of the Games, they were co-hosted: Palembang, capital of South Sumatra, staged the event together with Jakarta. These arrangements ? and their success ? reflected a new reality in Indonesia; the Jakarta-centric, one-nation autocracy of the New Order regime has been replaced by regional autonomy, local agency, and evolving center-periphery relationships. With heightened inter-city rivalry, greater attention is paid to marketing cities and regions than ever before. Palembang exemplifies this civic transformation. A once industrial city with a negative image has become an attractive regular fixture in the international sporting calendar. In part this has been achieved by urban renewal and targeted construction projects but equally important has been a strategy adopted by local leaders and officials to promote Palembang as Indonesia’s sports city and make it not just a prime sporting venue but also a sports tourism destination. This presentation scrutinizes the role of sports events in relation to national and local politics and links them to the increase in city marketing, local agency and inter-city competition in post-Suharto Indonesia. A key argument is that sports events reflect the country’s development in the past two decades from being nation-centric ? where Jakarta had a dominant place ? to being far more decentralized; here, in the new structure of regional autonomy, cities have a heightened role as arenas of representation and local agency.