We reached out to Anto Mohsin, assistant professor in the Liberal Arts Program, to discuss his new book, Electrifying Indonesia: Technology and Social Justice in National Development (University of Wisconsin Press, 2023), published just before the new year. Mohsin’s work stands at the intersection of Science and Technology Studies and Indonesian Studies, and interrogates the relationship between Indonesian technological development in the post-World War II period, specifically electrification, and concepts of nation-building and social justice.
How would you describe your personal inspiration behind writing this book?
Having been trained as an engineer, I have always been interested in the history of electrical science and technology. This was further solidified in graduate school, where I learned about the interesting scholarship in the history of electrification of different regions. However, I found out there was no book-length study on the electrification of Indonesia. So, I decided to research and write about how Indonesia electrified its territory for my dissertation. This book was built on my dissertation research.
What are the work’s key interventions in your fields of inquiry?
I situate my book at the intersection of Science and Technology Studies (STS) and Southeast Asian studies. I focus on Indonesia and Southeast Asia more broadly, a geographic region largely left out of STS scholarship, and study a less examined topic in Southeast Asian studies: the history and sociology of technology. In this regard, my book contributes to producing critical humanistic and social scientific studies of technology in Asia. It shows that technology storytellers need to focus beyond the origins or future orientations of technology when narrating technology stories. This includes also focsuing on the historical processes by which the technology was creatively adapted and used in the context of changing social, cultural, and political factors. Studying technoscientific projects in Indonesia or another country matters because it can help us better understand technological development and meaning-making in our increasingly global and interdependent technological culture.
How would you define your research methodology and the nature of your sources?
I did archival research and patchwork ethnography and carried out oral history interviews with actors who participated in the electrification process and related activities. The primary sources and voices used are fundamental to sustaining the work’s scholarly insights.
Besides other academics in your field, what audiences do you most hope will read your book, and how might they benefit from your work?
Upper-level undergraduate and graduate students interested in STS, energy studies, Indonesian studies, and Southeast Asian studies might find my book useful. Professionals and policymakers in the energy industry, as well as general readers, can learn about the history of modern Indonesia, Indonesian politics and societies, and the energy transition process in the largest archipelagic country in the world.
