Darulfunun Institute

Institute for Development, Research and Initiatives (IDRIS)

Category: Research Article

  • Waste Management in the Circular Economy Framework: A Study on Biomass and Compost Potential Production in Payakumbuh City

    » Journal of Regional Development and Technology Initiatives

    This study explores the potential of integrating waste management strategies with circular economy principles to enhance biomass and compost production in the greater Payakumbuh area. As regional urbanization and domestic waste levels continue to rise, there is an urgent need to shift from linear waste disposal systems toward resource-oriented waste valorization. This paper proposes a circular model that repositions organic household waste as a green input for local biomass energy and organic fertilizer production, thereby contributing to environmental sustainability, regional agricultural resilience, and green economic development. Drawing on interdisciplinary frameworks from circular economy theory, waste-to-resource models, and regional development planning, the study analyzes the feasibility of composting and anaerobic digestion as localized waste treatment technologies. It also examines governance challenges, infrastructure readiness, and community engagement in the region. The case of Payakumbuh, where agricultural productivity and urban waste generation are closely intertwined, illustrates both the opportunities and constraints of implementing circular economy strategies in smaller Indonesian urban centers. By conceptualizing a closed-loop system tailored to the socio-economic characteristics of Payakumbuh, this research provides a foundation for future empirical studies and policy interventions aimed at sustainable resource management and low-carbon regional transformation.

  • Waste Management in the Circular Economy Framework: A Study on Biomass and Compost Potential Production in Payakumbuh City

    » Journal of Regional Development and Technology Initiatives

    This study explores the potential of integrating waste management strategies with circular economy principles to enhance biomass and compost production in the greater Payakumbuh area. As regional urbanization and domestic waste levels continue to rise, there is an urgent need to shift from linear waste disposal systems toward resource-oriented waste valorization. This paper proposes a circular model that repositions organic household waste as a green input for local biomass energy and organic fertilizer production, thereby contributing to environmental sustainability, regional agricultural resilience, and green economic development. Drawing on interdisciplinary frameworks from circular economy theory, waste-to-resource models, and regional development planning, the study analyzes the feasibility of composting and anaerobic digestion as localized waste treatment technologies. It also examines governance challenges, infrastructure readiness, and community engagement in the region. The case of Payakumbuh, where agricultural productivity and urban waste generation are closely intertwined, illustrates both the opportunities and constraints of implementing circular economy strategies in smaller Indonesian urban centers. By conceptualizing a closed-loop system tailored to the socio-economic characteristics of Payakumbuh, this research provides a foundation for future empirical studies and policy interventions aimed at sustainable resource management and low-carbon regional transformation.

  • The Political Dimension of Prophethood on Civilizing the Moral Ethics, Justice, and Class Reform

    » Perwakilan: Journal of Good Governance, Diplomacy, Customary Institutionalization and Social Networks

    This paper highlights the political dimension of Muhammad’s Prophethood as a comprehensive civilizational project aimed at improving moral ethics, justice, and class reform in the framework of society leadership and governance. Using a conceptual–narrative approach that draws from classical Islamic historiography (Sirah Nabawiyah) and modern interpretive context, the study situates the Prophet’s mission as both a spiritual awakening and a political transformation grounded in tauhid (divine unity). The research argues that the Prophet redefined politics as an ethical mission, transforming it from an arena of domination into a means of cultivating justice and moral consciousness. The Meccan phase illustrates moral resistance and class awakening, where faith became a force of ethical protest against social oppression. The Hijrah to Medina marked a transition from moral resistance to institutional civilization, establishing the Charter of Medina as one of the earliest constitutional models of pluralistic justice. Within the Madinan foundation, the Prophet institutionalized justice, social economy instruments of moral ethics governance, creating a balance between spirituality, law, and civic duty. The study concludes that Prophet Muhammad’s leadership civilized politics by linking power to moral purpose and embedding ethics in governance, economy, and society. His vision of a madani (civilized) community presents an enduring model of ethical statecraft where human dignity, equality, and compassion guide public order. This synthesis of faith and justice demonstrates that the foundation of Islamic civilization is moral ethics based, not material, anchored in the pursuit of righteousness, social welfare, and universal peace.

  • One Roof Integrated Six-Year Secondary High School in Indonesia: A Proposal for Efficiency and Quality Improvement

    » Perwakilan: Journal of Good Governance, Diplomacy, Customary Institutionalization and Social Networks

    Indonesia’s secondary education system is currently divided into two distinct stages: junior and senior high school. While this structure aligns with traditional education policy frameworks, it has shown inefficiency in addressing Indonesia’s education vision, geographic diversity, resource limitations, and quality disparities, particularly in rural and remote areas. This article proposes the integration into a unified six-year secondary school model as a solution to systemic inefficiencies and quality concerns. By analyzing educational statistics, policy documents, and international best practices, this paper outlines the potential of integrated secondary schools to reduce operational fragmentation, optimize teacher deployment, and strengthen curriculum continuity. Drawing from a qualitative document analysis approach, the article references data from the government records and relevant international practices from other countries. The articles also provide the case study made in Perguruan Darulfunun Payakumbuh. The discussion highlights how school mergers can maximize infrastructure utilization, reduce student retention, optimize teacher allocation, relieve costs, and enrich student learning. Key challenges identified include legal and administrative adjustments, resistance from local stakeholders, and the need for professional teacher realignment. This integrated model aligns with the national compulsory education mandate, ensuring a smoother transition between lower and upper secondary education. The article concludes by recommending phased policy reform and pilot programs to explore the feasibility and scalability in diverse regional contexts across Indonesia.

  • How Indonesia Should Go Further with Decentralization: Revisiting the Views and the Visions

    » Perwakilan: Journal of Good Governance, Diplomacy, Customary Institutionalization and Social Networks

    Indonesia’s vast geography and cultural diversity pose long-standing challenges to the centralized governance systems. Following the collapse of the New Order regime in 1998, the country embarked on an ambitious decentralization campaign, transferring authority and resources from the central government to local governments through Laws No. 22 and 25 of 1999. Despite the progress made, recent trends suggest a drift back toward recentralization and inefficiencies in subnational governance. This article investigates how Indonesia should move forward with a deeper and more coherent decentralization policy, drawing insights from the ideas of key early independence-era thinkers, as well as the reform era. Using a qualitative historical-interpretive approach, the study analyzes political writings, speeches, and conceptual contributions of late figures, framed alongside policy and governance developments in post-Reformasi Indonesia. The findings reveal that decentralization was not merely an administrative concern but a philosophical and moral imperative for these thinkers. Hatta promoted village autonomy; Sjahrir advocated democratic pluralism; Malaka emphasized grassroots empowerment, while the reformists underscored decentralization as a pillar of democratic resilience. The study concludes that Indonesia’s decentralization project must go beyond partial devolution. It should embody the ethical and participatory principles rooted in the country’s intellectual tradition that work towards strengthening local democracy, fiscal independence, regional capability, and innovation. Reviving these foundational visions is vital to ensuring that decentralization serves not just efficiency, but also the quality of justice, inclusivity, prosperity, and national diversity.                              

  • Online Learning and Open Education: Transforming Beyond Digitalization

    » Journal of Regional Development and Technology Initiatives

    The global shift toward digital transformation has significantly accelerated the adoption of online learning and open education models. However, in an increasingly complex and fast-changing world (VUCA), digitalization alone is no longer sufficient as an objective. This article aims to explore how online learning and open education can evolve beyond digitalization by aligning with broader global challenges, trends, and emerging societal needs. Using a conceptual and literature-based approach, the paper examines how open education contributes to contemporary issues such as technological advancement, sustainability, regional development, inclusiveness, and public participation. In this context, open education is not merely defined by free access to digital platforms but rather as a paradigm shift toward collaboration, open knowledge, and democratized learning. Education is increasingly understood as a participatory and sustainable ecosystem, rather than a one-directional process. This study emphasizes that building an inclusive, adaptive, and future-relevant education system requires the integration of policy innovation, technological advancement, and values of openness. The article provides practical policy insights, implications, and strategic recommendations for transitioning from simple digital educational access to a development and transformation strategy, particularly in developing countries where educational inequality and sustainability gaps remain key concerns.

  • Online Learning and Open Education: Transforming Beyond Digitalization

    » Journal of Regional Development and Technology Initiatives

    The global shift toward digital transformation has significantly accelerated the adoption of online learning and open education models. However, in an increasingly complex and fast-changing world (VUCA), digitalization alone is no longer sufficient as an objective. This article aims to explore how online learning and open education can evolve beyond digitalization by aligning with broader global challenges, trends, and emerging societal needs. Using a conceptual and literature-based approach, the paper examines how open education contributes to contemporary issues such as technological advancement, sustainability, regional development, inclusiveness, and public participation. In this context, open education is not merely defined by free access to digital platforms but rather as a paradigm shift toward collaboration, open knowledge, and democratized learning. Education is increasingly understood as a participatory and sustainable ecosystem, rather than a one-directional process. This study emphasizes that building an inclusive, adaptive, and future-relevant education system requires the integration of policy innovation, technological advancement, and values of openness. The article provides practical policy insights, implications, and strategic recommendations for transitioning from simple digital educational access to a development and transformation strategy, particularly in developing countries where educational inequality and sustainability gaps remain key concerns.

  • Reconstructing the Concept of Bela Negara: From Excessive Jargon to an Empirical Civic-based Approach

    » Perwakilan: Journal of Good Governance, Diplomacy, Customary Institutionalization and Social Networks

    The term bela negara (BN) has been widely used in Indonesian national discourse, often associated with state-led campaigns, ideological ceremonies, and symbolic narratives. However, its application has increasingly shown symptoms of conceptual excessivism, overused, abstract, and disconnected from everyday civic life. This article aims to reconstruct BN into a measurable and meaningful framework through an empirical, civic-based approach. By adapting behavioral and marketing evaluation models, such as customer satisfaction index (CSI), servqual, and theory of planned behavior, this paper proposes the model partisipasi bela negara (MPBN). The model offers six key dimensions: public awareness, perceived relevance, emotional engagement, civic intention, real action, and loyalty to the national narrative. These dimensions enable both scholars and policymakers to assess the effectiveness of BN initiatives based on citizen experience and engagement. The model serves as a strategic tool for transforming BN concept into a participatory, democratic, and context-sensitive concept, particularly relevant in today’s digital and pluralistic society. Rather than functioning as a rigid ideological imposition, BN should evolve into an inclusive civic identity that empowers public participation and strengthens national cohesion through trust, value, and meaningful contribution.

  • Digital Learning Co-Creation: A Conceptual Study between University and Learning Hub in Underdeveloped Urban Areas

    » Journal of Regional Development and Technology Initiatives

    This article presents a conceptual co-creation model of digital learning between universities and learning hubs in organizing online lectures as a strategy to increase literacy access in underdeveloped urban areas. The background of this study comes from initial observations conducted at Darulfunun Payakumbuh, a community-based institution that has facilitated students from various universities to take online lectures with the support of study rooms, connectivity, and mentoring. In the context of limited infrastructure and learning facilities at home, a collaboration between higher education institutions and digital learning centers such as Darulfunun is a potential solution to overcome the gap in access to education. This study uses a conceptual approach by combining the principles of co-creation (co-initiation, co-design, co-delivery, co-reflection) and the Customer Satisfaction framework, especially the expectation-perception-reaction model towards digital learning services. The discussion is directed at the design of shared facilities, adaptive collaboration mechanisms, and measuring student satisfaction with the quality and access to online lecture services. This study produces a conceptual model that can be used as a reference for further research and development of community-based higher education policies, with implications for increasing digital literacy and equality of access to higher education in marginalized areas.

  • Digital Learning Co-Creation: A Conceptual Study between University and Learning Hub in Underdeveloped Urban Areas

    » Journal of Regional Development and Technology Initiatives

    This article presents a conceptual co-creation model of digital learning between universities and learning hubs in organizing online lectures as a strategy to increase literacy access in underdeveloped urban areas. The background of this study comes from initial observations conducted at Darulfunun Payakumbuh, a community-based institution that has facilitated students from various universities to take online lectures with the support of study rooms, connectivity, and mentoring. In the context of limited infrastructure and learning facilities at home, a collaboration between higher education institutions and digital learning centers such as Darulfunun is a potential solution to overcome the gap in access to education. This study uses a conceptual approach by combining the principles of co-creation (co-initiation, co-design, co-delivery, co-reflection) and the Customer Satisfaction framework, especially the expectation-perception-reaction model towards digital learning services. The discussion is directed at the design of shared facilities, adaptive collaboration mechanisms, and measuring student satisfaction with the quality and access to online lecture services. This study produces a conceptual model that can be used as a reference for further research and development of community-based higher education policies, with implications for increasing digital literacy and equality of access to higher education in marginalized areas.

  • Influence of Metal Dopant (Cu, Co, Sm, Sn) on Ni/ScSZ Thin Film Anode in Solid Oxide Fuel Cell

    » Journal of Regional Development and Technology Initiatives

    Solid oxide fuel cells (SOFCs) are highly efficient electrochemical conversion devices that generates electrical energy through electrochemical reaction of gaseous fuel. Doping on the SOFC anode catalyst has the potential to increase the performance and tolerance of SOFC towards hydrocarbon fuel. An understanding of the doping effect of different type of catalyst on the SOFC anode is essential due to the differences in the characteristics of the catalysts and the impact on the existing anode catalyst microstructure with the dopant addition. This study is aimed to identify the effect of metal catalysts doping on the microstructure and electrochemical performance of Ni/ScSZ thin composite anodes on the SOFC electrolyte supported cell with surface infiltration method. The impact on the anode catalyst’s microstructure, distribution of element and elemental analysis was carried out using SEM-EDX and XRD analysis. The electrochemical performance of the cells were evaluated by the maximum power density and open-circuit-voltage (OCV) from the current-voltage (iV) measurement in hydrogen and in biogas. The results of this study found that the presence of dopant introduction of 5wt% dopant/Ni can be detected by EDX, but not with lower concentration. For Sn, Sm and Cu doped cells, the XRD analysis detected Ni3Sn, Ni2Sm and Cu0.81Ni0.19 alloy formed, respectively. Doping by 0.5 wt% of Sn/Ni and 5wt% of Sm/Ni  improved the electrochemical performance in hydrogen by three-fold and two-fold (184mW/cm2 and 100mW/cm2, respectively) compared to 49 mW/cm2 in the undoped cell. Addition of Cu showed the best tolerance with biogas operation. Co addition on the other hand posed a negative impact and the microstructure of the anode become overly dense. This work observed different impact dopant by various dopant on the cell’s porosity which influenced the electrochemical reaction. As the result with biogas deviates from previous investigation with anode supported cell, it can be concluded that for electrolyte supported cell with thin anode which have limited catalytic area as the reforming reaction reaction compete with the triple phase boundary area for  electrochemical reaction.

  • Influence of Metal Dopant (Cu, Co, Sm, Sn) on Ni/ScSZ Thin Film Anode in Solid Oxide Fuel Cell

    » Journal of Regional Development and Technology Initiatives

    Solid oxide fuel cells (SOFCs) are highly efficient electrochemical conversion devices that generates electrical energy through electrochemical reaction of gaseous fuel. Doping on the SOFC anode catalyst has the potential to increase the performance and tolerance of SOFC towards hydrocarbon fuel. An understanding of the doping effect of different type of catalyst on the SOFC anode is essential due to the differences in the characteristics of the catalysts and the impact on the existing anode catalyst microstructure with the dopant addition. This study is aimed to identify the effect of metal catalysts doping on the microstructure and electrochemical performance of Ni/ScSZ thin composite anodes on the SOFC electrolyte supported cell with surface infiltration method. The impact on the anode catalyst’s microstructure, distribution of element and elemental analysis was carried out using SEM-EDX and XRD analysis. The electrochemical performance of the cells were evaluated by the maximum power density and open-circuit-voltage (OCV) from the current-voltage (iV) measurement in hydrogen and in biogas. The results of this study found that the presence of dopant introduction of 5wt% dopant/Ni can be detected by EDX, but not with lower concentration. For Sn, Sm and Cu doped cells, the XRD analysis detected Ni3Sn, Ni2Sm and Cu0.81Ni0.19 alloy formed, respectively. Doping by 0.5 wt% of Sn/Ni and 5wt% of Sm/Ni  improved the electrochemical performance in hydrogen by three-fold and two-fold (184mW/cm2 and 100mW/cm2, respectively) compared to 49 mW/cm2 in the undoped cell. Addition of Cu showed the best tolerance with biogas operation. Co addition on the other hand posed a negative impact and the microstructure of the anode become overly dense. This work observed different impact dopant by various dopant on the cell’s porosity which influenced the electrochemical reaction. As the result with biogas deviates from previous investigation with anode supported cell, it can be concluded that for electrolyte supported cell with thin anode which have limited catalytic area as the reforming reaction reaction compete with the triple phase boundary area for  electrochemical reaction.