The Asia-Pacific region is currently navigating a severe “poly-crisis,” characterized by the volatile convergence of ecological emergencies, political instability, and persistent socio-economic precarity. As the home to sixty percent of the global population, the region faces intensifying hydro-meteorological disasters—from rising sea levels to shifting precipitation regimes—which do not occur in a vacuum but intersect with deep structural inequalities. In Southeast Asia, this fragility is compounded by a resurgence of authoritarianism and the “shrinking of civic space,” which marginalizes the very civil society actors essential for disaster response. Mainstream development paradigms, often anchored in top-down technological fixes and macroeconomic growth, have frequently exacerbated these vulnerabilities, leading to environmental degradation and the dispossession of local communities through projects that disregard indigenous life-worlds.

In response to these failures, alternative development frameworks—locally rooted, ecologically regenerative, and socially just—are emerging as vital counterweights. Across the region, grassroots initiatives in agroecology, solidarity economies, and participatory resource governance are demonstrating that situated knowledges can deliver resilience where universalist models fail. However, for these praxis-based alternatives to effectively reshape policy and global theory, we must confront an underlying epistemic crisis. Mainstream social sciences in the Global South often suffer from the “captive mind” (S.H. Alatas, 1974), characterized by an uncritical reliance on Western concepts that render local realities invisible. To bridge the gap between grassroots innovation and formal institutions, there is an urgent need to cultivate knowledge production that is autonomous yet globally engaged.

Autonomous social science serves as the critical bridge in this endeavor. It does not advocate for isolationism or a rejection of global scholarship, but rather calls for a “dialogical engagement” rooted firmly in local histories and community priorities. This approach challenges the “coloniality of knowledge” by empowering scholars and communities to define their own categories of justice and resilience, rather than relying on derivative frameworks. Crucially, as argued by Syed Farid Alatas (2025), true intellectual autonomy also requires liberation from internal hegemonic biases—such as androcentrism, culturalism, and sectarianism—that often predate colonialism. By transcending both external Eurocentrism and internal prejudices, social sciences can regenerate from the Global South to address the power dynamics inherent in ecological and political transformations.

It is within this landscape of urgency and opportunity that PSP3 IPB University, in collaboration with AltDev UP CIDS (Philippines), IRASEC (Thailand), and the Sajogyo Institute (Indonesia), convenes this International Conference and Writing Workshop. This event is designed to move beyond technical solutions to climate change, fostering instead a critical reflection on knowledge, power, and justice. By strengthening autonomous social sciences, we aim to equip scholars and practitioners with the theoretical tools to challenge hegemonic discourses and articulate alternative development imaginaries that are contextually meaningful and historically grounded.