Home / Team / Fuat Edi Kurniawan

Fuat Edi Kurniawan is a sociologist and interdisciplinary researcher whose work connects labour, social protection, digital transformation, gender, climate resilience, food systems, and socio-environmental justice. As Director of Research and Community Development at DEEP EnGender, he leads the organisation’s research agenda and supports the development of evidence-informed initiatives grounded in community priorities.

He has more than seven years of experience across national research institutions, government agencies, academic collaborations, and internationally supported projects. His work combines quantitative, qualitative, and digital research methods to examine how technological, economic, and environmental changes affect workers, women, rural communities, Indigenous Peoples, and other groups facing structural inequality.

At DEEP EnGender, Fuat oversees research design, data analysis, publication development, research quality, and the production of reports, policy briefs, and other knowledge outputs. He also develops partnerships with academic institutions, government agencies, civil society organisations, and community stakeholders. His leadership helps ensure that the organisation’s research remains methodologically sound, ethically grounded, accessible, and relevant to community needs.

Before assuming his current role, Fuat served as a research affiliate at DEEP EnGender, coordinating project implementation, digital data collection, research timelines, and collaborative writing. He previously worked as a researcher at Indonesia’s National Research and Innovation Agency and the Indonesian Institute of Sciences. In these roles, he designed and implemented multi-year studies, supervised field teams, coordinated national surveys, developed research instruments, and produced academic and policy-oriented outputs.

His research experience covers climate resilience, peatland and mangrove restoration, Indigenous forest conservation, social protection, labour-market transformation, digital work, gender and agricultural mechanisation, refugee livelihoods, fisheries, food security, public health, and community responses to technological change. This breadth allows him to connect social research with practical programme development across ecological, economic, and institutional contexts.

Fuat holds a Master of Arts in Sociology and a Bachelor of Social Sciences in Sociology from Universitas Gadjah Mada, Indonesia. His postgraduate education was supported through a fully funded scholarship from the UGM Graduate School. He works in Javanese, Indonesian, and English.

Education

• 2022 — Master of Arts in Sociology, Universitas Gadjah Mada, Indonesia
• 2015 — Bachelor of Social Sciences in Sociology, Universitas Gadjah Mada, Indonesia

Selected Research and Grant-Supported Projects

• Project Coordinator, Revitalisation of Degraded Peatlands and Mangroves through Smart Agro-Silvofishery, Batu Ampar Village, West Kalimantan, Indonesia, 2024–2025
  Implemented through the FINCAPES initiative, funded by the Government of Canada through Global Affairs Canada and led by the University of Waterloo, Canada.
• Project Coordinator, Indigenous Forest Conservation with the Mului Community, East Kalimantan, Indonesia, 2023
  Supported by the National Research and Innovation Agency.
• Lead Researcher, National Survey on the Prevalence of Drug Abuse, Bengkulu, Indonesia, 2023
  Supported by Indonesia’s National Narcotics Board in collaboration with the National Research and Innovation Agency and Statistics Indonesia.
• Team Member, Improving Refugee Resilience through Enhanced Livelihood Opportunities, Indonesia, 2022
  Supported by the United Nations High Commissioner for Refugees.
• Team Member, Empowering Coastal Women through Digital Technology Training, Indonesia, 2022
  Supported by the National Research and Innovation Agency in collaboration with Sugiyama Jogakuen University, Japan.
• Project Coordinator, Political Ecology in Investment Projects: Agrarian Inequality and the Decline of Agricultural Land, Indonesia, 2022
  Supported by the National Research and Innovation Agency in collaboration with Universitas Pasundan and Institut Ilmu Al-Qur’an An-Nur Yogyakarta.
• Lead Researcher, National Survey on the Prevalence of Drug Abuse, Southeast Sulawesi, Indonesia, 2021
  Supported by Indonesia’s National Narcotics Board in collaboration with the Indonesian Institute of Sciences and Statistics Indonesia.
• Team Member, Fisheries Sector Improvement: Educational Design for Human-Capacity Development, Indonesia, 2020–2021
  Supported by the Indonesian Institute of Sciences.
• Team Member, Technology and Innovation Ecosystem for Accelerating Indonesia’s COVID-19 Response, Indonesia, 2021
  Supported by the Ministry of Research and Technology in collaboration with the Indonesian Institute of Sciences.
• Team Member, Readiness of Indonesian Society to Face the Development of Artificial Intelligence, Indonesia, 2020
  A collaboration involving the Indonesian Institute of Sciences, the Agency for the Assessment and Application of Technology, the Ministry of Manpower, and Universitas Indonesia.
• Lead Researcher, Qualitative Study of Green Economic Development for the 2020 Population Census Long Form, Indonesia, 2022
  Supported by Statistics Indonesia in collaboration with the National Research and Innovation Agency.
• Lead Researcher, Strengthening Social Protection to Increase Community Productivity, Yogyakarta, Indonesia, 2019
  Supported by the Indonesian Institute of Sciences.
• Team Member, Vocational Education and Human-Resource Development for Employment in the Digital Era, Indonesia, 2018
  Supported by the Indonesian Institute of Sciences.
• Field Coordinator, Community Readiness in Facing the Global Village, Indonesia, 2015
  Conducted through the Indonesian Institute of Sciences in collaboration with Universitas Gadjah Mada.
• Team Member, Evaluation of PT Pembangkitan Jawa-Bali’s Corporate Social Responsibility Programme, Indonesia, 2015
  Conducted through the Center for Environmental Studies at Universitas Gadjah Mada.

Selected Publications

Triyono, Pradipta, L., Barid, V. B., Kurniawan, F. E., and Muslim, F. (2025). “Informal Sector Workers’ Income and Access to Social Security in Indonesia.” In Managing Disruption and Developing Resilience for a Better Southeast Asia, pp. 165–180. Springer Nature. https://doi.org/10.1007/978-981-96-2116-3_12

Aini, Y. N., and Kurniawan, F. E. (2023). “The Maternal Sociodemographic Determinants of Low Birth Weight in Indonesia.” Jurnal Kesehatan Masyarakat, 18(4), 536–545. https://doi.org/10.15294/kemas.v18i4.42006

Kurniawan, F. E. (2021). “The Dilemma of Agricultural Mechanization and the Marginalization of Women Farmworkers in Rural Areas.” Sodality: Jurnal Sosiologi Pedesaan, 9(2). https://doi.org/10.22500/9202132575

Kurniawan, F. E., and Aruan, N. L. (2021). “Digitalisasi dan Pola Kerja Baru: Dampak bagi Industrialisasi dan Respons Kebijakan Ketenagakerjaan.” Jurnal Sosioteknologi, 20(3), 395–409. https://doi.org/10.5614/sostek.itbj.2021.20.3.11

Kurniawan, F. E., et al. (2021). “Mapping of Changes in the Utilization of Marine Resources in the Small-Scale Fisheries Subsector in Indonesia, 2008–2017.” Jurnal Perikanan Universitas Gadjah Mada.

Kurniawan, F. E. (2020). “Industrial Relations in the Digital Sharing Economy: A Critical Review of Labour Informalisation and Social Partnership Relations.” Journal of Indonesian Social Sciences and Humanities, 10(1).

Kurniawan, F. E. (2018). “Food Sovereignty and the Paradox of Agricultural Development.” Journal of Indonesian Social Sciences and Humanities, 8(1).

Selected Books and Chapters

• Pemuda, Modal Manusia, dan Masa Depan Pekerjaan. Cantrik Pustaka, Indonesia, 2024.
• “Pengelolaan Pertanian Lahan Gambut.” In Praktik Ekonomi Hijau di Indonesia. Yayasan Pustaka Obor Indonesia, 2024.
• “Riset Sosial Budaya dalam Pengendalian COVID-19.” In Lesson Learned: Riset Sosial Budaya dalam Pengendalian COVID-19. Yayasan Pustaka Obor Indonesia, 2021.
• UMKM dalam Era Transformasi Digital. Yayasan Pustaka Obor Indonesia, 2018.

Selected Policy Outputs

• Empowerment Strategies for Refugees in Indonesia to Support Pathways to Third-Country Solutions. Policy report, United Nations High Commissioner for Refugees and National Research and Innovation Agency, Indonesia, 2023.
• Labour Market Reform in Indonesia’s Fisheries Sector. Policy brief, Indonesia, 2019.
• Expanding BPJS Ketenagakerjaan Coverage for Indonesia’s Informal Sector. Policy paper, Indonesia, 2019.

Selected Public Commentary

Kurniawan, F. E., Ginting, S., and Suwardi, A. C. (2026). “World Bank Carbon Program Risks Further Infringing upon Rights of Indonesian Indigenous Community.” Mongabay, 28 January 2026.

Kurniawan, F. E. (2020). “UU Cipta Kerja, Neoliberalisme, dan Deregulasi.” detikNews.

Kurniawan, F. E. (2019). “Hubungan Kerja Virtual.” detikNews.

Kurniawan, F. E. (2018). “Kedaulatan Pangan dan Paradoks Pembangunan Pertanian.” detikNews.

Editorial and Reviewer Roles

• Article Reviewer, International Review of Social History, Cambridge University Press, 2026
• Reviewer, Jurnal Jamsostek, 2023–present
• Editorial Board Member, Journal of Indonesian Social Sciences and Humanities, 2018–2021

Selected International and National Engagements

• Presenter, “Ecological Crisis in West Borneo: Palm-Oil Expansion and Threats to Food Sovereignty,” International Conference on Social Development Asia-Pacific Biennial Conference, Thammasat University, Bangkok, Thailand, 2022
• Presenter, “The Crisis of Labour Regeneration in Agriculture: Between Social Order and Anomie,” International Conference on Social Science and Humanities, London, United Kingdom, 2019
• Presenter, “Factor Analysis and Mapping of Food Security in Papua Province,” Seminar Nasional Kebudayaan III, Universitas Brawijaya, Malang, Indonesia, 2019

Awards and Recognition

• Fully Funded Graduate Scholarship Recipient, Graduate School, Universitas Gadjah Mada, Indonesia, 2020
• Best Presenter, Digital Research Methods Workshop, Indonesian Institute of Sciences, Indonesia, 2020