NEWS

2022.04.19

The 43rd AJI Frontier Seminar was held : Dr. Alpradita Malik (Ritsumeikan University) made his presentation about residential environment and the social capital in slums in Indonesia (April 12, 2022) (Open Participation)

On Tuesday February 12, 2022, the 43rd AJI Research Frontier Seminar took place online. Dr. Alpradita Malik, a senior researcher for OIC Research Organization at Ritsumeikan University, gave presentation in English on the effects of housing on social capital in Indonesia under the title, "The Influence of Architecture on Social Capital Development: A Literature Study on the Case of Slum Settlements During COVID-19 Pandemic”.

Dr. Malik commenced by describing social capital in this context as a product of social interaction and cooperation and said research has found that in the case of upgrading from slum settlements, fostering social capital can increase neighborhood satisfaction. In addition, it was found that slum residents do not lack social interaction or bonding, but they lack the possibility to connect to a higher social status in order to increase their economic capability. He stated that socio-architecture focusing on the relationship between Human and Non-human actors has the potential to unite space, form, technique, and function, and would be the basis of his research on how architecture influenced social capital. Moreover, if communities can be involved in the design process, they will form a sense of belonging/ownership, which will increase their social capital as well as increasing satisfaction toward housing and resettlement in a slum alleviation project. He pointed out that for the success of such a program, spatial sequencing and configuration are important, but providing open spaces, while good for developing social capital, could lead to overcrowding due to the habitual interactions of slum dwellers, causing an increase in infection rates under the COVID-19 pandemic. He concluded that while social interaction is threatened, other parts of social capital could still be improved through community participation in the design process during the upgrading of slum settlements.

This thought provoking lecture ended with questions about the reasons why residents were relocated, about social capital in terms of community and cultural tradition in a Muslim society, about home ownership, and comments on solving social problems related to high rise government housing in big cities in the west. Dr. Malik tackled all the questions carefully, and everyone enjoyed his interesting presentation.

Dr. Malik delivering his presentation

Please visit the following link for previous AJI Frontier Seminars:
https://en.ritsumei.ac.jp/research/aji/young_researcher/seminar/archive/