Introducing Monica Bouman
Monica Bouman (PhD) is one of the initiators in 2012 of the foundation of the Indonesia Nederland Society. With an Indo-European background and ancestors from Bandung, her parents left Indonesia in 1950 to settle in the Netherlands, where she was born and raised.
After her studies in the Social Sciences at the Katholieke Universiteit Nijmegen (now Radboud University), where she finished her PhD study with a dissertation on the political ethics and spirituality of Dag Hammarskjöld, she became an independent researcher of dialogue and a practitioner in fostering dialogue in the sectors of health education and provincial politics in the Netherlands.
Monica strongly believes that the people of Indonesia and the Netherlands have rich capabilities in common in the field of deliberation and decision-making; the so-called ‘poldermodel’ resembles ‘gotong royong’ and both peoples have traditions of decision making by consensus seeking. In the face of climate change, globalization and the future of the youth in Indonesia and the Netherlands, both countries can profit by sharing knowledge and experiences, and by learning a new unity in diversity.
She enjoys the team spirit in the INS board of operating ‘klein maar fijn’ from an independent position in a bilateral and international setting.
