ISLAMIC YOUTH GROUPS IN INDONESIA: GLOBALIZATION AND UNIVERSALISM IN A LOCAL
CONTEXT

By Jeroen Peeters

These research project deals with a historical-anthropological study of
Islamic revivalism in Indonesia, covering the period (tentatively) from 1974
to 1994. Apart from the several articles, no major publication concerning this
phenomenon has been yet published. An important source of inspiration for this
research is the work of Featherstone, Appadurai, and Beyer on the process of
globalization of cultural values. Apppadurai has formulated this process in
terms of cultural integration and disintegration on a global level. Within
this context the study of religion is of particular interest, as religion
makes a conservative strategy against the homogenization of global culture
possible by stressing religious antagonistic groupings.
Another source is the work of Bourdieu and Appadurai on consumption. The
seventies in Indonesia saw the birth of several modern urban lifestyles, based
on a clearly defined set of commodities and activities. This initiated a
process of cultural differentation whereby the definition of social position
became increasingly based on the ability to consume. At university this social
distinction was particularly visible as members of both higher and lower
social strata met on the campus.
Resistance to this one-way flow of media images and mass consumption has led
to the prolific growth of Islamic youth groups in Indonesia. By focusing on
the rise of this countermovement in Indonesian universities, I hope to
highligth the way Muslim members of Indonesia's emerging middle class
formulate their answers to the challenge of global culture
The general objective of this project, in conformity with the `changing
lifestyles in Asia' programme, is therefore to study the globalization of
cultural values, by focusing on the resistance side of this proces which has
taken the form of an Islamic counterculture in Indonesia. In doing so the new
language of Islam, the role of commodities as part of a strategy of
self-identification, the process of commodization of religion, the problem of
authority and the cognitive framework of fundamentalism will be explored.
This research will combine a synchronic and a diachonic approach, which should
also enable me to collect data at both a macro- and microsocial level. The
main method in the synchronic approach of this project will be fieldwork
(during a period of up to 12 months). The information thus generated will be
complemented by the use of journals and non-officials documents or unpublished
material collected both during fieldwork and in libraries in the Netherlands
and Indonesia. A period of three years will be necessary to arrive at a final
presentation of both historical and anthropological data which will
(tentatively) take the form of a publication (in English) of more than two
hundred pages.

Jeroen C.M. Peeters (1963) studied History at Utrecht University and Leiden
University. At the latter university he obtained his M.A. (cum laude). From
1990 to 1994 he was Postgraduate fellow working within the framework of the
Indonesian-Netherlands Co-operation in Islamic Studies (INIS) at Leiden
University. He hopes to obtain his doctorate in the near future.