Indonesian Journal of Social Sciences
Vol. 18 No. 1 (2026)

Vaccination and the politics of exclusion: The unintended consequences of Covid-19 response

Anton Novenanto (Department of Sociology, Faculty of Social and Political Sciences, Universitas Brawijaya)
Nindyo Budi Kumoro (Department of Anthropology, Faculty of Cultural Sciences, Universitas Brawijaya)
Yuni Kurniawaty (Department of Nursing, STIKES St. Vincentius a Paulo)
Laila Azkia (Department of Sociology Education, Faculty of Teacher Training and Education, Universitas Lambung Mangkurat)
Rusli Effendi (Komunitas Konservasi Indonesia WARSI)
Anastasya Kareth (Department of Anthropology, Faculty of Social and Political Sciences, Universitas Cenderawasih)
I Wayan Suyadnya (Department of Sociology, Faculty of Social and Political Sciences, Universitas Brawijaya)



Article Info

Publish Date
27 Jun 2026

Abstract

This study investigates how Indonesia’s Covid-19 vaccination campaign, while framed as a public health solution, inadvertently reinforced and reconfigured existing structures of marginalization. Drawing on collaborative ethnographic research conducted across four diverse sites—Surabaya, Banjarmasin, Jambi, and Jayapura—between September and November 2021, the study explores how crisis response mechanisms intersect with socio-spatial vulnerabilities. Using a political economy and disaster studies framework, the research conceptualizes marginality not as a static condition but as a dynamic process shaped by governance failures, cultural dissonance, and infrastructural inequities. This study employed a collaborative ethnographic approach, involving local researchers and digital coordination tools to document the lived experiences of healthcare workers, students, Indigenous communities, and religious groups. Data were collected through participant observation, interviews, and community engagement, focusing on how vaccine rollout strategies were perceived, resisted, or adapted locally. Findings reveal that vaccination programs often deepened exclusion: healthcare workers faced institutional neglect; students were deployed without adequate protection; Indigenous groups were overlooked or stigmatized; and religious communities contested biomedical narratives. These cases illustrate how technocratic crisis responses can reproduce systemic inequalities under the guise of resilience. The paper concludes that Indonesia’s pandemic governance prioritized control over care, transforming public health infrastructures into a mechanism of exclusion. It calls for a reorientation of disaster studies toward understanding vulnerability as a product of political and spatial dynamics, and urges more inclusive and context-sensitive crisis interventions.

Copyrights © 2026






Journal Info

Abbrev

IJSS

Publisher

Subject

Humanities Languange, Linguistic, Communication & Media Law, Crime, Criminology & Criminal Justice Public Health Social Sciences

Description

The focus and scope of this journal are quite broad but limited to the social sciences. The scopes are politics, sociology, anthropology-- including cultural and bioanthropology, education, culture, society, media and information, demography, economics, law, linguistics, history, ecology, ...