In this Humanitarian Governance webinar, Dr Yogi Permana will discuss the various ways that Indonesian cities grapple with floods.
- Date
- Wednesday 4 Feb 2026, 13:00 - 14:00
- Type
- Webinar
- Spoken Language
- English
- Room
- Teams
- Ticket information
You will receive the Teams link in the registration confirmation email.
Floods represent one of the most persistent and damaging disasters in Indonesia, a nation highly vulnerable to the impacts of climate change.
Despite significant investments in flood management infrastructure, several Indonesian cities continue to grapple with flooding issues, while others have effectively reduced their risks. In Politics of Dry Feet, Dr Yogi Permana explores the reasons behind these disparities.
Based on extensive field research, Permana argues that local political economies – not merely technical capabilities – are key to understanding divergent outcomes. By examining four cities, he shows how collusion between political and business interests undermines spatial planning, flood defence and emergency response, while alliances between reform-minded leaders and civil society foster more resilient outcomes.
Bridging anthropology, political science and urban political ecology, Permana offers a political economy perspective on flood risk management that is relevant to scholars, practitioners and policymakers alike, both within and beyond Indonesia.
The talk will be followed by a 'reflection' by Professor Lisa Schipper (University of Bonn, Germany) who will broaden out the discussion around Disaster Risk Reduction, and the everyday politics of vulnerability.
About the speaker
Yogi Setya Permana is a researcher who specializes in climate governance, flood risk and political ecology. He earned his PhD from Universiteit Leiden and is currently affiliated with Indonesia’s Research and Innovation Agency (BRIN).
With over a decade of experience in conducting fieldwork and political-economic research across various locations in Indonesia, his work focuses on how state-society relations, natural resource politics and environmental crises influence vulnerability, resilience, institutional performance, and policy responses.
He is in the process of writing a book titled Flooded by Politics, which is under contract with Palgrave Macmillan.
- More information
This webinar is an initiative of the Humanitarian Studies Centre (HSC) at ISS, which hosts the project ‘Humanitarian Governance: Accountability, Advocacy, Alternatives’ (HUM-GOV). The HUM-GOV Project has received funding from the European Research Council (ERC) under the European Union’s Horizon 2020 research and innovation programme under grant agreement No. 884139.
- Related links
- Humanitarian governance: accountability, advocacy, alternatives
Humanitarian Studies Centre