New Marginals, Old Marginals: Building Vulnerability and Resiliency in the Age of COVID-19 in Indonesia

This is an ethnographic study of how certain groups are coping with a global pandemic of COVID-19 caused
by a novel pathogenic coronavirus: SARS-CoV-2. We frame our research within the field of disaster studies
perceiving the virus as a natural feature which would only turn into a disaster when it meets with vulnerable
ecological, social, political and cultural structures. Our research identifies these structures emphasizing on
the government’s role in creating them and investigate marginality by considering intersectional variables.
We focus on how various population managements to control the disease have been marginalizing preexisting
vulnerable groups and the creation of new ones. We address two questions: In which ways are preexisting
marginal groups vulnerable prior to, in the course of, and in the aftermath of the pandemic? To what extent
has the pandemic politics become a new structure of vulnerability for preexisting marginal groups and
creating new ones? A consortium consisting of researchers from various backgrounds will conduct a
patchwork ethnography to identify certain marginal(-ized) groups in different localities in Indonesia. Relying
on our information networks, we focus on the in/capability of the government tackling the crisis as another
structure of marginalization. Keywords: pandemic; vulnerability; marginality; disaster