Dr Robbie Peters

My research interest at present concerns the interaction of globalization and violence in processes of uneven economic development in urban Southeast Asia. This interests is reflected in my current book on the history of the large Indonesian port city of Surabaya, where I have conducted many years of field work in a poor inner urban neighbourhood. I have also written about the emerging hypermodern retail economy in Indonesia and related burning down of traditional markets, clearance of street vendors and beautification of streets that laid its foundations. I am also researching and writing on issues of surveillance and mobility in Indonesian cities and have most recently begun a study of motorbikes, migration and commodification in the lives of poor sales-girls in Ho Chi Minh City, Vietnam. As a teacher, I am the director of the Master of Development Studies Program and also run courses in development studies, the anthropology of development, the anthropology of Southeast Asia and ethnographic research and writing.

Publications

Books
Peters, R (2012). Surabaya, 1945-2010: neighborhood, state and economy in Indonesia’s city of struggle. Singapore: NUS Press.

Journal articles
Peters, R. (2012). ‘City of Ghosts: migration, work and value in the life of a Ho Chi Minh City Saleswoman’. Critical Asian Studies, 44, 4: 543-70

Peters, R. (2009). ‘The assault on occupancy in Surabaya: legible and illegible landscapes in a city of passage’. Development and Change (special edition: ‘Cities of Extremes’), 40 (5), Pp. 903-925.

Peters, R (2010). ‘The wheels of misfortune: the street and cycles of displacement in Surabaya’. Journal of Contemporary Asia, 40 (4), Pp 568-8.

Book chapters
Peters, R. (2011). ‘Mapping the pendatang: Mobility and the violence of urban renewal in Surabaya, in J. Khusyairi and L. Rabani (eds). Kampung Perkotaan: kajian historis-anthropologis atas kesenjangan social dan ruang kota (The Urban Kampung: an historical-anthropological study of social inequality and urban space). Jogjakarta: New Elmatera.

Refereed conference proceedings:
Peters, R (2010). ‘Death and the city: mortuary rituals and urban renewal in Surabaya’. Anthropology and the Ends of Worlds Symposium – 25 / 26 March 2010, University of Sydney:

Peters, R. (2010). ‘Mapping the pendatang: anti-terror as urban management in Indonesia’. Crises and Opportunities: Past, Present and Future. Proceedings of the 18th Biennial Conference of the Asian Studies