This cluster focuses on understanding the complex relationship between people and their living spaces within social, political, and economic contexts. These three dimensions are closely intertwined in shaping how individuals interact with their environments and how these relationships evolve over time.

Social, political, and economic transformations play a major role in shaping the ways people relate to their living spaces. Living space is not merely a physical setting where people reside and build their lives, but also a reflection of broader social, political, and economic issues that drive significant changes within society. Members of this cluster approach the interaction between humans and their environments through a range of theoretical perspectives, including human ecology, behavioral ecology, semiotic perspectives, ethnoecology, history, political ecology, ecofeminism, and Science and Technology Studies (STS), which examines the connections between humans and other living beings (plants, animals, microorganisms), as well as the physical and material environment.

The cluster’s scope extends beyond Traditional Ecological Knowledge (TEK), often referred to in Indonesia as local wisdom in environmental management. It also includes topics such as migration, landscape transformation, the construction of space and place, extractivism, dispossession of community living spaces, agrarian justice, climate justice, activism and social movements, and other cross-boundary issues in both rural and urban landscapes. The cluster encourages interdisciplinary approaches and focuses on phenomena and issues related to managed spaces and community life, serving as a foundation for teaching, research, and critical engagement with stakeholders beyond academia.

1. Cultural adaptation to environmental change, including climate change
2. Community-based environmental management
3. Critical perspectives on “local wisdom” in environmental governance
4. Science and Technology Studies (STS), particularly knowledge production processes
5. Tenurial conflicts and approaches to conflict transformation
6. State territorialization and counter-territorialization
7. Issues related to resource extraction (primitive accumulation and enclosure) and their impacts on marginalized groups across gender, ethnicity, class, age, and other social dimensions
8. The politics of nature conservation
9. A progressive study of economic and political dynamics shaping human–environment relations, along with the social, cultural, and political responses of various actors, including activism, resistance, and environmental justice movements.
10. Climate change issues, including mitigation, adaptation, and resilience
11. Land, green, and marine grabbing issues