French anthropologist Adeline Martinez has found contradictions in Indonesia's mitigation policies after disaster victim relocations in her research discussed in an Institut Français d’Indonésie (IFI) seminar in Jakarta on Wednesday.
rench anthropologist Adeline Martinez has found contradictions in Indonesia's mitigation policies after disaster victim relocations in her research discussed in an Institut Français d’Indonésie (IFI) seminar in Jakarta on Wednesday.
According to Martinez, the contradictions have triggered differences of opinion among Indonesian institutions, scientists and other people about how they should deal with the risk of volcanic eruption. The differences of opinion have led to different practices in disaster-prone zones.
After Mount Merapi erupted in 2010, the Indonesian government set up a disaster risk reduction program for the eruption victims, through which they were relocated to safer places.
In the seminar, Martinez analyzed the purpose of the government’s relocation policy and its consequences for the life and daily activities of residents in the southern part of Mt Merapi.
“A question I highlighted in my research is what pattern structure has been formed between areas and living environment in Java, and is there any pattern continuity when it is confronted with changes caused by the relocation of the residents,” she said.
Having obtained her Master's degree in sociology from Poitiers University, Martinez is pursuing her study of anthropology at Aix-Marseille University, in which she is focusing on the problems related to people’s forced relocation and migration.
Working at the IrAsia Laboratory in Marseille, Martinez is interested in studying the social changes and problems triggered by the Indonesian government’s policy for relocating people in disaster-prone areas around Mt Merapi.
“I want to expand my research with other cases on resident relocations in other areas across Indonesia,” she said. (ebf)
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