Production of Social Science in Indonesia: An Incomplete Reform From Above

Abstract

The production of social science in developing societies has attracted scholars across the continents. Certain perspectives dominate these studies, like academic capitalism and academic dependency. While these perspectives are useful to assess the position of national social science, they overlook the level of development of social science in a country. Employing institutional and social science division of labor perspectives and using Indonesia as a case, the article argues that the current poor state of the Indonesian university system can be traced to a failure to embrace wide‐ranging reforms on the part of politicians and universities. The causes for this failure can be found in a relatively weak production of the social sciences. This study reveals that shortfalls in state policy on higher education are the source of low academic productivity. Reforming this policy must be made a priority to strengthen social science and make it useful for formulating policy in the public sphere.