Dr. Mechthild von Vacano

Academic Career

• Since November 2022: Senior Lecturer and Postdoctoral Researcher at the Institute of Social and Cultural Anthropology, University of Freiburg; since February 2023 also Study Coordinator for the B.A. Programs

• October 2022: PhD at Freie Universität Berlin, awarded with summa cum laude (highest distinction), title of the dissertation “Economic Subjects at Work: Livelihoods and Life Conduct in a Jakarta Neighborhood“

• 2019 – 2022: Trainer in continuing education for academics, especially for (prospective) doctoral researchers

• 2018 – 2019: B.A. Study Coordinator at the Institute for Social and Cultural Anthropology, FU Berlin

• 2014 – 2015: Guest Researcher at Universitas Indonesia in Jakarta, funded by a one-year DAAD scholarship for doctoral students

• 2011 – 2018: Lecturer and Predoctoral Researcher at the Institute of Social and Cultural Anthropology, FU Berlin

• 2009-2011: Research Associate at the International Academy for Innovative Pedagogy, Psychology and Economics (INA)

• 2008 – 2010: Visiting Lecturer at the Institute of Social and Cultural Anthropology, FU Berlin and at the Institute for Asian and African Studies, Humboldt University of Berlin (HU)

• 2008: Magistra Artium at Freie Universität Berlin (FU) – Major: Social and Cultural Anthropology; Minors: Political Science (FU) and Southeast Asian Studies (HU)

• 2005 – 2008: Scholarship awarded by the Heinrich-Böll-Foundation

Committee Work & Memberships

Memberships

• Since April 2024: Member of the Board of the Research Focus Area “Kulturen und Gesellschaften in Raum und Zeit”, University of Freiburg
• Since April 2024: Advisory Member of the Doctoral Studies Board, University of Freiburg
• Since January 2024: Co-Speaker of the Working Group on Economic Anthropology, German Association for Social and Cultural Anthropology (DGSKA)
• Since January 2024: Member of the Directorate of the Internal Accreditation Committee (IAA), University of Freiburg
• Since October 2023: Deputy Member of the Faculty Council, Faculty of Humanities, University of Freiburg
• 2015 – 2018: Member of the Academic Senate, Free University of Berlin
• 2013 – 2017: Elected Member of the Faculty Council of Political and Social Sciences, Free University of Berlin
• 2013 – 2018: Elected Member of the Institute Council of the Department of Social and Cultural Anthropology, Free University of Berlin (2015–2017 as deputy representative)

Thematic Focus

• Economic anthropology: work, exchanges and transfers, platform economies, money and payment, popular and diverse economies
• Psychological anthropology: economic subjectivity, life conduct, morality and ethics

Further thematic interests in teaching and supervising theses:

• Gender/Queer Studies
• Critical Race Studies & Anti/Racism
• Disaster Research
• Tourism Studies
• Ethnographic Writing

Regional Focus

• South East Asia/Indonesia, particularly Toraja, Sulawesi; Bantul, Java; Jakarta
• Germany

Staring April 2026: DFG Reserach Network ‘WiWeiter |Wirtschaftsanthropologie Weiter Denken. Evolving Economic Anthropological Perspectives on Dis/Integration, Crises, and Post/Growth’

Co-organized with Verena La Mela and Andreas Streinzer

This DFG-funded research network brings together early career researchers from German-speaking regions working in economic anthropology. The network is guided by the idea of Wirtschaftsanthropologie weiter denken in a dual sense: expanding the field by broadening how “the economy” is conceptualized, and advancing it by strengthening its public relevance. The network seeks to move beyond narrow conceptions of the economy to address broader questions of how life is sustained under conditions of global dis/integration, crisis, and socio-economic transformation. At the same time, it aims to communicate economic anthropological research in local contexts and contribute to civil society and political debates. More information will be available soon on the project website.

in preparation: Cashless archipelago: potential and pitfalls of digital-financial inclusion in Indonesia

In recent years, Indonesia has undergone a rapid shift toward digital payments. Street vendors in Jakarta now offer QR codes, motorbike taxi rides are paid through ride-hailing apps, and some stores in the capital’s shopping malls no longer accept cash. These developments reflect the Indonesian government’s ambition to become a cashless society by 2050, a vision tied to expectations of economic growth driven by e-commerce and domestic consumption. Against this backdrop, the project examines the practices and policies surrounding digital payments and digital financial inclusion in Indonesia. It explores how different actors—state institutions, financial technology companies, and everyday users—promote, shape, and negotiate these systems, and how the spread of cashless infrastructures reshapes the economic lives of ordinary people across the Indonesian archipelago.

2013- 2022: Economic subjects at work: Livelihoods and life conduct in a Jakarta neighborhood

This project explores the work and lives of ordinary people in the sprawling megacity of Jakarta. It is based in the microcosm of a lower-middle-class neighborhood where residents engage in a wide range of income-generating activities. Through close ethnographic engagement, the research portrays these economic lives as plural and often contested—shaped by the disruptive effects of platform capitalism as well as enduring ideals of neighborly support. Based on fourteen months of ethnographic fieldwork and a person-centered approach, the project examines how ordinary Jakartans navigate these diverse economic arrangements, scrambling to make ends meet while pursuing their visions of a good life. The main fieldwork was conducted while affiliated as a visiting researcher at the Department of Anthropology, Universitas Indonesia, and supported by a one-year doctoral scholarship from the DAAD.

2009 – 2013 Individual and Collective Long-Term Coping with Extreme Suffering and External Aid after a Natural Disaster – Meaning and Emotions

This project examined how people experienced, interpreted, and coped with the aftermath of the 2006 earthquake in Yogyakarta province, Central Java, Indonesia. Focusing on three villages in Bantul, the research explored how individuals and communities dealt with the long-term consequences of disaster and the presence of external aid. The analysis considered material, social, psycho-religious, and emotional dimensions of coping and how these processes were shaped by local contexts. The project was part of an international, interdisciplinary collaboration between researchers from Germany, Indonesia, and New Zealand, bringing together perspectives from psychology and anthropology. It was based on qualitative interviews and participatory research methods and conducted in cooperation with the Faculty of Psychology at Universitas Gadjah Mada and the Institute for Community Behavioral Change in Yogyakarta. The research was funded by the Fritz Thyssen Foundation.

For a complete list, see https://orcid.org/0009-0004-6487-1785

Monographs and Edited Volumes

• 2014 [ed. with M. Zaumseil, S. Schwarz, G.B. Sullivan & J.E. Prawitasari-Hadiyono] Cultural Psychology of Coping with Disasters: the Case of an Earthquake in Java, Indonesia. New York: Springer. 
• 2010 ReiseReflexionen – SelbstBilder. Eine rassismuskritische Studie über Ethnotourismus in Tana Toraja, Indonesien. Berlin: regiospectra. 

Journal Articles and Book Chapters

• 2023 “Liebe, Handwerk, Hierarchie: Anthropologische Betrachtungen zur Vielgestalt der Liebe”. In: T. Stodulka, A. von Poser, G. Scheidecker and J. Bens (eds.): Anthropologie der Emotionen: Affektive Dynamiken in Kultur und Gesellschaft. Berlin: Reimer, 335-344. https://doi.org/10.5771/9783496030874-335 
• 2021 “Going Gojek, or Staying Ojek? Competing Visions of Work and Economy in Jakarta’s Motorbike Taxi Industry”. In: W. Monteith, D.-O. Vicol & P. Williams (eds.): Beyond the Wage: Ordinary Work in Diverse Economies. Bristol, UK: Bristol University Press, 211-231. https://doi.org/10.51952/9781529208948.ch009 
• 2019a “Reciprocity in Research Relationships”. In: T. Stodulka, F. Thajib & S. Dinkelaker (eds.): Affective Dimensions of Fieldwork and Ethnography. New York: Springer, 79-86. https://doi.org/10.1007/978-3-030-20831-8_7 
• 2019b “Reciprocity Reconsidered: Towards an Ethic of Economic Participation”. In: T. Stodulka, F. Thajib & S. Dinkelaker (eds.): Affective Dimensions of Fieldwork and Ethnography. New York: Springer, 123-134. https://doi.org/10.1007/978-3-030-20831-8_11 
• 2017 “Sharing Economy” versus “Informal Sector”: Jakarta’s Motorbike Taxi Industry in Turmoil. In: ANUAC 6 (2): 97-101. https://doi.org/10.7340/anuac2239-625X-3076 
• 2015 [with G. Findeisen and K. Großmann] “Umkämpfte Gendernormen”. In: G. Stange, R. Jordan & K. Großmann (eds.), Handbuch Indonesien. Angermünde: Horlemann, 143-151. 
• 2014a [with M. Zaumseil] “Understanding Disasters: An Analysis and Overview of the Field of Disaster Research and Management”. In: M. Zaumseil, S. Schwarz, M. von Vacano, G.B. Sullivan & J.E. Prawitasari-Hadiyono (eds.), Cultural Psychology of Coping with Disasters. New York: Springer, 3-44. https://doi.org/10.1007/978-1-4614-9354-9_1 
• 2014b [with M. Zaumseil, S. Schwarz, G.B. Sullivan & J.E. Prawitasari-Hadiyono] “A Cultural Psychological Framework for Coping with Disasters”. In: M. Zaumseil, S. Schwarz, M. von Vacano, G.B. Sullivan & J.E. Prawitasari-Hadiyono (eds.), Cultural Psychology of Coping with Disasters. New York: Springer, 85-102. https://doi.org/10.1007/978-1-4614-9354-9_3 
• 2014c [with M. Zaumseil, S. Schwarz] Contextualizing the Research: “Introduction to the Case Study in Java, Indonesia”. In: M. Zaumseil, S. Schwarz, M. von Vacano, G.B. Sullivan & J.E. Prawitasari-Hadiyono (eds.), Cultural Psychology of Coping with Disasters. New York: Springer, 105-127. https://doi.org/10.1007/978-1-4614-9354-9_4 
• 2014d “The Material Dimension of Coping: Socioculturally Mediated Biophysical Process”. In: M. Zaumseil, S. Schwarz, M. von Vacano, G.B. Sullivan & J.E. Prawitasari-Hadiyono (eds.), Cultural Psychology of Coping with Disasters. New York: Springer, 183-201. https://doi.org/10.1007/978-1-4614-9354-9_9 
• 2014e [with S. Schwarz] “The Religious Dimension of Coping: The Roles of Cosmologies and Religious Practices”. In: M. Zaumseil, S. Schwarz, M. von Vacano, G.B. Sullivan & J.E. Prawitasari-Hadiyono (eds.), Cultural Psychology of Coping with Disasters. New York: Springer, 245-264. https://doi.org/10.1007/978-1-4614-9354-9_12 
• 2014f [with M. Zaumseil, S. Schwarz, G.B. Sullivan & J.E. Prawitasari-Hadiyono] “Concluding Remarks”. In: M. Zaumseil, S. Schwarz, M. von Vacano, G.B. Sullivan & J.E. Prawitasari-Hadiyono (eds.), Cultural Psychology of Coping with Disasters. New York: Springer, 345-350. https://doi.org/10.1007/978-1-4614-9354-9_17 

Additional Publications (Selection)

• 2024 »Wir schaffen Räume um zu lernen«. Interview with Mike vom indonesischen Punk-Kollektiv Taringbabi. In: iz3w 404, 15.08.2024, S. 36-37. https://www.iz3w.org/artikel/punk-kollektiv-subkultur-aktivismus-zukunftsvision.
• 2022 Plattform-Kapitalismus meets „informelle“ Wirtschaft: Wie Gojek die Motorradtaxi-Branche Jakartas aufmischte. In: Südostasien 2/2022, online. https://doi.org/10.11588/soa.2022.2.20926  
• 2011 »Total mystisch, total anders einfach!« Rassismuskritische Analyse von Ethnotourismus in Toraja. In: Südostasien 1/2011, S. 48-50. https://doi.org/10.11588/soa.2011.1.4105  
• 2010 Grauzone Indonesien. Bericht über die ILGA Asien Konferenz 2010 in Surabaya. In: Südostasien 3/2010, S. 63-65. https://doi.org/10.11588/soa.2010.3.4539

Talks, Workshops and Panels (Selection)

• 2025a Panel “From dispossession to commoning? On the politics of property transfers”, Conference of the German Society for Social and Cultural Anthropology (DGSKA), 29 September-02 October 2025. 
• 2025b “Arbeit, Liebe und Fürsorge: Unsichtbare Care an unerwarteten Orten.” Invited talk at the Department of Social & Cultural Anthropology’s Colloquium, Goethe University Frankfurt a.M., 22 July 2025.
• 2025c “genug statt mehr? Post-/Wachstumsdebatten aus einer Perspektive des Globalen Südens”. Invited talk at University of Bern, 09. Mai 2025.
• 2024a “Brokers, clients, stooges: Opportunity and dependency in Indonesia’s Electoral Economy.” Presentation at EASA Conference, Barcelona, 23-26 July 2024.
• 2024b “Von der Ungerechtigkeit des Tausches. Aushandlungen von Un/Gleichheit in ökonomischen Beziehungen”. Lecture, Lecture Series ‘Economic Inequality – A Plural Perspective’, Institute for Economics, University of Freiburg, 4 July 2024.
• 2024c “The ethics of rezeki. Moral contestations of surviving, sharing and striving”. Presentation at the Workshops ‘Morality at Work’, Newcastle University, UK, 23-24. Mai 2024.
• 2024d “Betting on debt: A tale of promise and peril in Indonesia’s electoral economy”. invited talk at the Anthropological Colloquium, Institute of Social and Cultural Anthropology, University of Hamburg, 09. April 2024.
• 2023a “The morality/rationality of rezeki: a key concept in Indonesian everyday economics”. Presentation at the Southeast Asia Meet-Up, University of Zurich, 01. Dezember 2023. 
• 2023b Panel “Re/conceptualizing the Economic Subject: An Invitation for Contestation”, Conference of the German Society for Social and Cultural Anthropology (DGSKA), Munich, 25.-28. Juli 2023. 
• 2023c “Doing Neighborhood. A praxeological take on neighborhood relations”. Presentation at the DGSKA Conference, Munich, 25.-28. Juli 2023. 
• 2023d The „enough economy“: An Indonesian alternative to growthism? Presentation at the workshop “Degrowth and Anthropology: Deepening the Dialogue,” London School of Economics, 05.-06. Juni 2023. 
• 2021 “Forms of the ‘informal’. Thoughts on ‘form’ and forms in the Indonesian motorbike taxi industry”. Presentation at the workshop “The Un/Making of Forms: Formographic Inquiries into Practice, Accountability, and Infracritique,” TU Dresden, 02.-03. September 2021.

A full overview of courses can be found here: Lehrveranstaltungen_von Vacano_04.2024. 

Current & Recent Courses at University of Freiburg  

Summer Semester 2026

• BA/MA: Contested Foodways: Lifestyle, Ethics, and Social Justice
• MA: Research design and methods
• MA: Methods of Cultural Anthropology and Geography (Global Studies Programme; in co-teaching with Annika Mattissek)
• BA: Mentorat zur Vorbereitung des Studienprojekts/Auslandssemesters

Winter Semester 2025/26

• BA: Tauschen, Kaufen, Teilen: Einführung in die Wirtschaftsanthropologie
• BA/MA: Queere Anthropologien: Körper, Begehren, Politiken
• BA/MA: Post/Work: Anthropological Reflections on Labour and Value

Summer Semester 2025

• BA/MA: Debt and Credit in Anthropological Perspective
• BA: Einführung in die Religionsanthropologie
• BA: Mentorat zur Vorbereitung des Studienprojekts/Auslandssemesters

Summer Semester 2024

• BA: Methoden der Ethnologie: Eine Praxisorientierte Einführung
• BA: Mentorat zur Vorbereitung des Studienprojekts/Auslandssemesters

Winter Semester 2023/24

• BA/MA: Decolonizing Anthropology: Werkstattseminar zur institutsübergreifenden Ringvorlesung 
• BA: Bares und anderes Geld: Wirtschaftsanthropologische Perspektiven

Summer Semester 2023

• BA: Methoden der Ethnologie: Eine Praxisorientierte Einführung
• BA/MA: Rassismus. Theorien, Kritiken, Verortungen

Winter Semester 2022/23

• BA: Wirtschaftsethnologie: Tauschen, Geben, (Ver-)Teilen – (Alltags-)Ökonomische Beziehungen aus anthropologischer Perspektive