“A major transformation is a fundamental change that shakes the foundations of economic, political and community life,” said Prof. Dr. der Soz. Rochman Achwan, MDS., Professor of the Department of Sociology, Faculty of Social and Political Sciences, University of Indonesia (FISIP UI) in a public lecture held regularly in hybrid manner at Auditorium Juwono Sudarsono FISIP UI and via Zoom. He conveyed the importance of using certain theoretical perspectives to explain the major transformational events that are happening today. By referring to Karl Polanyi’s theory of major transformations due to capitalism, Prof. Rochman emphasized the pandemic and the internet as causes of major transformations in the present.
This major transformation is due to many things, such as political changes, economics, wars, health disasters, and technological revolutions. He emphasized the importance of paying attention to the dangerous post-transformation tendencies when new economic patterns are adopted without understanding the cultural and societal context.
He gave an example of theoretical thinking to see the pandemic phenomenon in Indonesia, not just seen as a matter of health problems, but related to issue identification. According to him, the pandemic is a kind of x-ray tool to see agents of change, namely strategic groups that have political influence, initiate innovative changes and are active in implementing these changes.
Prof. Rochman said that the crisis and major transformation actually gave birth to new breakthroughs such as the sharing economy with the aim of providing access or services to everyone by providing facilities through digital platforms. The hope is to improve resource efficiency and avoid potential environmental damage due to uncontrolled consumption.
He also hopes that sociologists and students can identify the social, political, and economic sequences that occur during and during a pandemic. Their role is very important and influential because in Indonesia, social protection and social cohesion are more prominent than the market economy.
“Sociology must be able to explain the platform economy in the form of a digital platform as a business organization model without borders, which is made possible by the internet and communication technology. This platform is a transformation from the nikefication process, which is a model of people working in factories, to an uberization model that no longer needs a special location to work,” said Prof. Rochman.
He revealed that the tendency of this digital platform in the future will be a super platform that dominates data control, has a global reach, is super exploitative, and very powerful. Together with social media, digital economy platforms will become increasingly interconnected and become a consumer force against the exploitation of capital owners.
The public lecture “Sociology, Pandemic, and Platform Economy” presented by Prof. Rochman was the inaugural Selo Soemardjan Memorial Lecture – a pioneer of sociology in Indonesia, the first dean of FISIP UI. This activity was attended by approximately 100 students.
Dean of FISIP UI, Prof. Dr. Semiarto Aji Purwanto, said that the digital-based economy has been envisioned for a long time, but the pandemic accelerated the process. On the same occasion, the Head of the Department of Sociology, Dr. Ida Ruwaida also said that the activity was an arena for academics to contextualize Prof. Selo Soemardjan’s thoughts critically and broadly, with current issues. “Hopefully, through this activity, we will not only build a tradition of appreciation for scientists who are productive and contribute academically, but also care about social issues, as exemplified by Prof. Selo,” said Dr. Ida.
