Grounding Knowledge, Going Beyond Words
Spirit
We realized that universities as a place for scientists to assemble have the task of producing knowledge that must be useful for the wider community. It is inappropriate for the knowledge produced and the educated elite to be distant from reality or even to establish the inequality and injustice in society. STPN Press as a public institution strives to make the knowledge produced and published be able to serve the interests of the wider community, especially those who are marginalized at the grassroots level. Thus, science is supposed to be grounded for the benefit of mankind. In a broader perspective, scientific accountability and institutional management are not only addressed to the public but also to the spiritual dimension, God. Science is not dedicated to worldly material interests or to the interests of science itself, but is dedicated to mankind and is enshrined towards total devotion to God Almighty. It is in that spirit that STPN Press dares to operate with a slogan, “Grounding Knowledge, Going Beyond Words”.
Tasks and Goals
As an educational institution, STPN is obliged to carry out the tridharma or three virtues of higher education that are manifested in research activities and community service by concentrating on politics and agrarian and land policies. As a manifestation of accountability towards the public, the results of the research must be disseminated to the wider community. In order to disseminate this knowledge, STPN Press plays an important role as both the organizer and implementer of the distribution of ideas generated from the research of STPN lecturers as well as colleagues and the wider community, until they reach the readers.
As a publishing institution, it is no exaggeration for STPN Press to become an outlet for interaction and exchange of ideas among national and international agrarian and land researchers. In particular, this institution wants to provide quality reading materials for the wider public regarding this field as references in this field are quite limited, even though land and agrarian problems that occur in society continue to occur and are increasingly acute in the forms of conflicts, inequality and injustice, uncertainty of land ownership, unfair allocation of land use, and so on. With these problems in society, it is as if there is a lag between the availability of knowledge facilities and knowledge itself. This is becoming a problem. Therefore, this publishing institution is expected to be able to open up the existing stagnant channels in the academic world. Teaching might become tedious, because the material is not constantly developed. There is no development because new knowledge is not generated through research. Research can also be in the same situation, if it is produced only to fulfill administrative obligations and the results are only to be bound and then stored on solitary shelves. If they are published, they will break out of that solitary prison. Afterwards, knowledge will be widely read and fed back into teaching, gain public response, and circulate continuously. Thus, science is a never-ending journey.
History of Establishment and Achivement
The first publications that marked the existence of STPN Press were two translated books regarding the revival of agrarian reform studies which were originally teaching materials at the LiBBRA (Agrarian Reform Joint-Learning Circle) forum organized by STPN together with several other institutions in 2008.
Until 2021, more than 100 books have been published, with 300-1000 copies of each being printed, which are distributed free of charge to various places, including university libraries, land offices throughout Indonesia, academics and colleagues in agrarian and land research communities in Indonesia, students, community libraries, village libraries, and individuals. Since 2013, STPN Press books have been presented on the website through which STPN books can be downloaded easily and free of charge as well. STPN Press’s book production uses public funds so that the results are distributed free of charge, including the delivery fees, to various places. STPN Press ensures that its book production can be accessed as widely as possible in both digital and print versions.
In STPN Press, books are produced from the research of lecturers and colleagues, selected student theses, and agrarian dissertation series produced from within and outside the country that have been translated into Indonesian language. STPN Press strives to present quality products that lead to public discourse. Therefore, the publishing process is designed well from manuscripts, print and online publications, free of charge distribution, to launching and discussions, so that it can reach the wider community. Hopefully, in the future, STPN Press will be able to produce more products that are beneficial for the academic and the wider community, further expand the reach of its publications, and maintain its consistency so that it can become a reference for publishing quality books regarding land and agrarian affairs.
