Moralizing Space? Islam, (in)Security and Territoriality in Urban Kampung of Jakarta

My dissertation's research studies the role of Islam in the production of (dis)order and (in)security in the everyday life of urban kampung of Jakarta. This project attempts to unravel the intricate relationship between religion, security, and territoriality and seeks to contribute to conceptual debates about authority, morality, materiality, and spatiality. In doing so, it employs an ethnographic exploration of the everyday religious and security practices of the residents in an inner city kampung of urban Jakarta. This research argues that any contemporary analysis of religion and security must attend to the complex entanglements between morality, materiality, and spatiality. It introduces the conceptual framework of "moral space" that allows us to analyse the interconnections between religion, security, and territoriality in urban Jakarta and beyond.

Taking insights from the recent debates on the anthropology of morality, 'material turn' in the religious and security studies, and 'urban religious infrastructure', I argue that Islamic morality and materiality have significantly shaped the ways in which (in)security is sensed, embodied, spatialized, and enacted in the everyday life of 'urban majority' in Jakarta. In doing so, this study demonstrates that Islamic morality, manifested in embodied religious practices and material culture like built-environments and objects, has played a critical role in authorizing vernacular security practices, remaking political subjectivity, and rendering particular moral aspiration tangible.