scholarly journals Friction within harmony: Everyday dynamics and the negotiation of diversity in Yogyakarta, Indonesia

2017 ◽  
Vol 48 (1) ◽  
pp. 71-90 ◽  
Author(s):  
Edwin de Jong ◽  
Argo Twikromo

Most studies on diversity in Southeast Asia focus on the nation-state, with much less attention given to everyday encounters and the negotiation of diversity in local contexts. This article investigates the discourses and practices of various actors in the historically tolerant, generally peaceful, and diverse city and special region of Yogyakarta, Indonesia. This study examines this ethnic, religious and cultural diversity and illustrates the negotiations among various interest groups and actors that strive to maintain this balance, or sometimes to strategically disrupt it. As such, the findings offer a different way to understand and interrogate the challenges confronting present-day diversity both on a local level in Yogyakarta, and also for Indonesia and Southeast Asia at large.

2015 ◽  
Vol 19 (2) ◽  
pp. 161-183 ◽  
Author(s):  
Anna M. Gade

Based on research in Indonesia in 2010–2013, this essay explains how Muslims expect norms of Islamic law to mobilize religious response to environmental crisis. It surveys attempts since the 1990s to develop “environmental fiqh (Muslim jurisprudence)” in Indonesia, justified in theory by rationales such as that actions causing environmental harm stem ultimately from human moral failing, and also that human aims and activities, including those protected by Islamic law, require a healthy biosphere. Many Indonesians expect Islamic ecological rulings to fill a critical gap in global persuasion, and to be successful when other (non-religious) environmental messages fail. Considering several key fatwas (non-binding legal opinions given in answer to a question) from the local level to the national in Indonesia, this paper explains how law and “outreach” (Ind. dakwah) come together to cast Islamic law of the environment in terms of foundational causes and ultimate effects. These religious norms coexist with and complement other globalized constructions (such as those of the nation-state and NGOs) that they increasingly incorporate.


2019 ◽  
Vol 9 ◽  
pp. 34-56
Author(s):  
Méropi Anastassiadou-Dumont

The article examines Muslim pilgrimages to Christian places of worship in Istanbul after the 1950s. It aims to answer whether and how the Ottoman heritage of cultural diversity fits or does not fit with the pattern of the nation-state. After a brief bibliographic overview of the issue of shared sacred spaces, the presentation assembles, as a first step, some of the key elements of Istanbul’s multi-secular links with religious practices: the sanctity of the city both for Christianity and Islam; the long tradition of pilgrimages and their importance for the local economy; meanings and etymologies of the word pilgrimage in the most common languages of the Ottoman space; and the silence of the nineteenth century’s Greek sources concerning the sharing of worship. The second part focuses more specifically on some OrthodoxGreek sacred spaces in Istanbul increasingly frequented by Muslims during the last decades.


2020 ◽  
Vol 18 (1) ◽  
pp. 79-95
Author(s):  
Oliver Kühschelm

Since the eighteenth century, but with increased dynamism in the twentieth century, calls on consumers to buy national products have proliferated all around the world. This article discusses which historical constellations have given rise to the demand for patriotic shopping. Each case raises the question whether the demand was voiced within the framework of a broad national movement with political, cultural, and economic goals or was rather a case of business interest groups attempting to increase sales. These are not mutually exclusive alternatives: calls to buy national have often entailed an element of both. However, some have more the character of a movement beyond the immediate control of business groups, while others are just a promotional campaign. All in all, the demand for nationally minded consumption has mostly sought to establish business as deserving the solidarity of citizens. It has also displayed a patriarchal and authoritarian bent. But have such exhortations produced the desired effect? It is doubtful that any buy national campaign or movement has fundamentally changed the shopping patterns of consumers, at least if we discount physical violence and short-term success. Yet the call for patriotic consumption has often prepared the discursive ground for protectionist measures. As an effort to promote consent, they have tied into the hegemonic project of the capitalist nation state.


2014 ◽  
Vol 69 (02) ◽  
pp. 287-310
Author(s):  
Nathalie Clayer

Abstract Drawing on studies that envisage the local as a site where nation-state building and the affirmation of sovereignty are produced rather than simply reproduced, this article proposes to shift the focus to the local level. By exploring the case of school policies in interwar Albania, at the very heart of the assertion of the new state’s sovereignty, it studies the control of local space as the locus of these processes. More specifically, it focuses on the power relations surrounding the role of religion in school space, state appropriation of school buildings structuring religious spaces, and the effect of the inscription of actors involved in these negotiations—be they agents of these policies or not—into social spaces.


2008 ◽  
Vol 43 (1) ◽  
pp. 1-25 ◽  
Author(s):  
Alfred Stepan

AbstractSome polities have strong cultural diversity, some of which is territorially based and politically articulated by significant groups that, in the name of nationalism, and self-determination, advance claims for independence. In this article such polities are defined as ‘politically robustly multinational’. If the goal is peace and democracy in one state in such a polity, this article advances theoretical and empirical arguments to show that ideal typical ‘nation-state’ making policies are less appropriate than policies associated with new ideal type I construct called ‘state-nation’. Countries discussed are Spain, Belgium, and Canada and the ‘matched pair’ of successful Tamil political integration via state nation policies in India, and failed Tamil political integration due to nation-state policies in Sri Lanka.


Sign in / Sign up

Export Citation Format

Share Document