Institute of Social and Cultural Anthropology and The Ethnographic Collection

Nurman Nowak, M.A.

Nurman Nowak is a PhD-candidate and research staff at the department of anthropology. His interests concern urban lives and livelihoods in Indonesia.

Nurman's dissertation explores the dynamics of culture and politics in informal spaces, the habitat of the so called “urban poor” and lower middle class. These dynamics stem from the contingency of the (un)structured Urbanism of Jakarta. What kind of survival strategies, logics and world views? What ideas of power, politics and authority and what kind of concepts concerning agency and (self-) determination evolve from these circumstances? These questions form the core of his research endeavors.

Nurman studied Asian Studies at the University of Bonn and Southeast Asian Studies at the University of Passau. During his appointment as junior staff in the Jakarta-office of a German political foundation he came in touch with urban issues that eventually became his research themes.


anthropology in the city, statehood and informal spaces, collective identities (nation, ethnicity, religion), social sagregation, social movements, anthropology of politics


Island Southeast Asia (Indonesia, Malaysia, Singapore), Urban (Southeast) Asia, Greater Jakarta


Jakarta/Indonesia (February 2020 - January 2021)
Field work in West- and North Jakarta in various urban kampung, in informal markets and in and around Superblocks to explore urban lives and livelihoods in the context of the urban development regime, social sagregation and crises (Corona Pandemic 2020/21/22). This field work was funded by a research scholarship by DAAD. Field work conducted in affiliation with the faculty of Social Science, Universitas Indonesia, Depok.

Malaysia (Autumn 2014 - Spring 2015)
Field work in the context of M.A. Southeast Asian Studies (Uni Passau) in collaboration with UKM (National University of Malaysia / Universiti Kebangsaan Malaysia) in West Malaysia (Selangor, Negeri Sembilan, Kuala Lumpur) under the theme Avatars of Orang Asli Identities: The Construction and Re-Construction of social identities among the indigenous peoples on the Malaysian Peninsular.