Under the umbrella of a Research Project on Churches as Actors of Sustainable Development in Indonesia, my research concerns with how various churches groups in Eastern Indonesia have been engaging with development in the complex socio, political, economic, and cultural dynamics of contemporary Indonesia.  The aim is not only to understand churches as active partners interpreting the development policies of donors and the state according to their own interests, but also how the churches take critical positions, together with indigenous and civil society groups, in dealing with hazardous capitalistic development projects and policies. In this regards, I look more specifically at how in response to the expansion of capitalistic neoliberal development and globalization in Indonesia, the churches have developed certain positions, framings, agenda, institutions, and actions; why and with which implications.

I also look at the power relations and alliance building of the church with state, corporations, local communities, civil society NGOs, and indigenous people. Special attention will be paid to the way the concept of Sustainable Development (and other similar discursive practices) is introduced/developed/initiated in this trajectory and implemented at the various sites of project and resistance. Investigating the Churches’ engagement in Sustainable Development thus also means to look at alternative social and political goals the communities aspire to and that may very well enter informal agendas in the appropriation process of Sustainable Development projects.

In relation to capital (the topic of this Winter School), this research aimed to to (re-) examine the nexus between  religion, development, and social change; recognizing both hegemonic and emancipatory role of religious institutions (norms, values, organizations, pattern of behavior) and development activities  for social change and emancipation. How and to what extent can the interdisciplinary notion to capital— in connection with power, knowledge, values, believe system, discourse, governmentality, technology,  finance, etc. and  in a complex situation and context of local and global political, economic, and cultural interactions (state, market, civil society) —help us in understanding the role of religion in development and social emancipation?