Rita Padawangi

Rita Padawangi is an Associate Professor at Singapore University of Social Sciences. She was appointed on 3 July 2017. Previously, she was a Senior Research Fellow at the Asia Research Institute, National University of Singapore.

With research interests spanning over the sociology of architecture and participatory urban development, Dr Padawangi has conducted various research projects in cities of Southeast Asia, particularly in Indonesia and the Philippines. Her commitment to social activism in the built environment keeps her connected with community groups and practitioners in many cities in the region.

Rita Padawangi is also the Coordinator of the second phase of the Southeast Asia Research Network (SEANNET 2, 2022-2027).

She was the Principal Investigator of Case study 6: Kampung Peneleh, Surabaya, Indonesia under SEANNET I, which was coordinated by IIAS between 2017 and 2022.

SEANNET is a community of scholars and practitioners with an interest in cities in Southeast Asia through the prism of the neighborhood. Supported by a grant from the Henry Luce Foundation, NY (2017-2021), case studies were carried out in six selected cities in Southeast Asia, namely, Mandalay, Chiang Mai, Bangkok, Ho Chi Minh City, Manila and Surabaya.

The second phase of SEANNET (2022-2027, also supported by the Henry Luce Foundation), is led by Singapore University of Social Sciences (SUSS). In this phase the number of case studies and activities will be expanded.

SEANNET seeks to engage the humanistic social sciences in a dialogue with urban stake-holders as co-contributors of alternative knowledge about cities. This is done through a combination of participatory field-research, in-situ roundtables, workshops, conferences, publications and new forms of pedagogy developed in collaboration with local institutions of learning. Our second ambition is to help shape and empower a community of earlycareer scholars and practitioners working on and from Southeast Asia. The SEANNET research teams comprise international and local scholars, students from local universities, and civil society representatives, all working together with the neighbourhood residents.

Website: www.ukna.asia/seannet