Shortlist
EuroSEAS Humanities Book Prize 2015

Surabaya, 1945-2010 presents the recent history of one of Indonesia's great port cities as viewed from a crowded low-income neighbourhood (kampung) called Dinoyo. By following the lives of Dinoyo residents over three generations, it provides a new perspective on landmark moments in the country's modern history, including the war for independence, the destruction of the Communist Party, the petrus anti-crime campaign, neighbourhood improvement projects, the fall of the New Order and the rise of democracy, as well as more recent government campaigns to fight terrorism and promote urban renewal.

During several long periods of residence in the kampung, Robbie Peters gathered richly detailed information about the responses of its residents to the tumultuous process of political reform and economic growth. He shows how their informal economy adapted to the forces of urban change, and how their neighbourhood-based social institutions promoted a 'participative' citizenship that resisted state attempts to shape a more exclusive citizenship that restricted the rights of newcomers to the city.

Residents of urban neighbourhoods such as Kampung Dinoyo make up a substantial proportion of Indonesia's urban population and their kampungs a significant proportion of urban land, yet they rarely appear in historical accounts of the Indonesian city. Peters' account of urban life as experienced by one group of kampung residents is a unique contribution to the literature on one of Asia's largest and most complex countries.