Lecturer, Sociology Study Program, Universitas Atma Jaya Yogyakarta. M.A. in Development Studies from the International Institute of Social Studies, The Hague. PhD in Anthropology from the University at Albany, State University of New York. Research interests in multilingual communication in various spoken and written media while also engaging with social and cultural theories on issues of ideology, power, identity, social change, and development studies. Supervisors: Professor James Collins (University at Albany, State University of New York). Address: Department of Sociology Jalan Babarsari 6 Yogyakarta 55281, Indonesia
This article shows that a perspective rooted in Bakhtin’s dialogism between the fixed centripetal... more This article shows that a perspective rooted in Bakhtin’s dialogism between the fixed centripetal and fluid centrifugal forces of language and culture is useful in achieving a nuanced understanding of globalization in general and semiotic landscapes in Indonesia in particular. Drawing on data from Indonesia, this article shows dialogic interconnections between fixed and fluid notions of languages and cultures through a multimodal and indexical analysis of governmental and commercial signage in the urban center of Semarang, the provincial capital of Central Java. The analysis highlights the nuanced localizing and globalizing strategies in signage and how dialogicity helps shape the semiotic landscape.
Following the adoption of the Sendai Framework for Disaster Risk Reduction 2015–2030, an increasi... more Following the adoption of the Sendai Framework for Disaster Risk Reduction 2015–2030, an increasing number of disability-inclusive disaster risk reduction (DiDRR) projects have been implemented by disaster risk reduction (DRR) organisations together with organisations of persons with disabilities (OPDs). Yet, as this paper argues, the general approach of DiDRR is still predominantly based on a DRR perspective. Consequently, the OPDs involved in DiDRR often include additional project components to address their broader issues while also implementing DRR. This paper draws on the experiences of two pioneer DiDRR programmes: the Community Resilience Programme in the Philippines from 2015–18; and the Putting Sendai Framework into Action programme in the Asia-Pacific from 2017–20. It outlines the differences between the viewpoints of DRR organisations and OPDs on implementing DiDRR. In conclusion, the paper suggests that DiDRR initiatives should accommodate the broader disability issues raised by OPDs to achieve more meaningful disability inclusion in DRR.
While there is a global consensus that agricultural systems need to be transformed to be more sus... more While there is a global consensus that agricultural systems need to be transformed to be more sustainable, possible pathways and challenges to this process are still debated. We analyse the challenges and opportunities involved in transforming smallholder farming to organic agriculture in Indonesia, where the intense application of Green Revolution technologies came at enormous environmental costs. We adopt a transdisciplinary approach to identify possible pathways towards organic agriculture, based on an analysis of farmers’ knowledge and barriers to adoption, value and belief systems, and institutional structures, including policies and regulations. We present our empirical findings as ‘system knowledge’, ‘target knowledge’ and ‘transformation knowledge’ and incorporate insights from both academics and practitioners. We draw on evidence from large-scale surveys, field experiments, in-depth interviews, participant observation and document analysis. A key insight of our research is that Indonesia does not lack initiatives towards organic farming, but that these various initiatives have different motivations, goals and strategies. This misalignment detracts from the transformational potential of organic agriculture and is responsible for the hitherto limited success of the organic transition. Our findings suggest that policy action at multiple levels is required, guided by an inclusive strategy that is drawn up in a participatory manner.
Organic agriculture has developed in Indonesia since the 1980s due to the work of various pioneer... more Organic agriculture has developed in Indonesia since the 1980s due to the work of various pioneer social movement organizations and as a reaction to the ecological and socioeconomic problems arising from the Green Revolution. In the twenty-first century, organic agriculture has undergone standardization and market expansion, following the dominant agroeconomic trajectory. This article discusses the way three pioneer organic organizations in the Yogyakarta region have reacted to these developments. The findings show two divergent reactions, with one group resistant to market expansion while the others are more open to it, due to their funding needs. However, all share tensions regarding issues of fairness in market relations. These tensions reveal unarticulated socio-structural issues that tend to be overlooked in the current trend towards marketization in organic agriculture. The move away from its social movement foundations leads to laments that 'organic has lost its way.' This article argues that the tensions illustrate issues voiced by the conventionalization debate in organic agriculture and that these issues require articulation to reclaim the transformative potential of organic as a social movement in Indonesia.
Recent approaches to multilingualism, such as translanguaging, emphasize the porous, fluid, and h... more Recent approaches to multilingualism, such as translanguaging, emphasize the porous, fluid, and hybrid nature of language use. This article intends to show, through an example of a local language debating competition in Central Java, that culturally emblematic performances tend to create monolanguaging spaces, due to their monolingual focusing on certain language varieties that are iconic to local ethnolinguistic identity. Monolanguaging spaces are language ideological spaces in which speakers project an idealized performance of their ethnolinguistic identity. Ethnographic observation shows that the performance of monolanguaging spaces involves the erasure of speakers' multilingual repertoires and translanguaging practices, in accordance to the language ideology surrounding the hegemonic prestigious language variety and in accordance to the local norms of status or power-based social interaction. Attending to monolanguaging spaces reveal it as a performance accomplished through discursive work and power relations, involving the misrecognition of its connection and dissonance to multilingual repertoires and practices.
Wacana, Journal of the Humanities of Indonesia, 2018
Contemporary mainstream discourse on youths in Indonesia tends to define it in terms of the popul... more Contemporary mainstream discourse on youths in Indonesia tends to define it in terms of the popular-culture-oriented notion of youth. This article seeks to show that certain state-formed youth groups, particularly in institutional settings, continue to promote the state-oriented pemuda or nationalist youth identity. By looking at an example of a Paskibra group (Pasukan Pengibar Bendera – the Flag-Raising Troop) from a state vocational high school in Semarang, Central Java, the article seeks to highlight the way in which these youths combine language and symbolic behaviours to present this nationalist identity. Concurrently, these youths also appropriate elements of popular culture in order to present a compartmentalized or separate remaja identity that complements their core nationalist identity. While not prominently visible in Indonesian popular culture, nationalist forms of youth identity, such as the Paskibra, continue to have currency in various state and institutional sectors.
Indonesian vocational secondary education reflects the increasingly multilingual demands of globa... more Indonesian vocational secondary education reflects the increasingly multilingual demands of globalized education and labor market. This study focuses on two orders of multiple languages that are present in vocational high schools in Semarang, Central Java. It aims not only to describe the different orders of languages, but also to suggest that each order represents differing strategies of dealing with the demands of globalization. One order represents the state-backed institutional approach, which views multiple languages as distinct entities and demands students to have monolingual competence in English, Indonesian, and Javanese to engage in globalization, cultivate nationalism and preserve tradition. The other order represents the market-oriented way vocational schools meet the demands of globalized industries and labor markets by directly adopting the multilingual industry register into local learning processes.
Culturalistics: Journal of Cultural, Literary and Linguistic Studies, 2018
In Indonesia, we can consider vocational secondary education as being in the front lines of globa... more In Indonesia, we can consider vocational secondary education as being in the front lines of global contact, in which youth as students directly face the demands of globalized industries and labor markets. Within vocational high schools, the use of multiple languages often plays an important yet unrecognized part of vocational training. This paper will discuss, based on ethnographic data collected in 2013 from two vocational schools in Semarang, the way in which students use multiple languages, mainly English, Indonesian, and Javanese, as part of their process of learning vocational skills. The main argument of the paper is that vocational schools teach students a specific technical variety or register of language, which combines parts or sometimes fragments of multiple languages, often for the purpose of technical vocational competence and not necessarily for the development of linguistic competence. This results in a form of " segmented competence " (Blommaert and Omoniyi 2006). However, youth as students can use this technical register to not only localize global forms of technological practice in their learning processes but also to participate, albeit marginally, in the global or transnational technology-based communities of practice of their vocational program.
NUSA: Linguistic studies of languages in and around Indonesia, 2015
Youths' multilingual literacy practices constitute sites in which their language use can be pushe... more Youths' multilingual literacy practices constitute sites in which their language use can be pushed and pulled in different directions. This article will investigate how the way youth groups from two vocational high schools in Semarang, Central Java use Javanese, Indonesian and English across different genres of texts reflect the way they negotiate the push and pull of the various language ideologies associated with these languages. In analyzing these texts, the article will adopt a social practice approach to literacy and will also emphasize that there are orders to the indexical meanings of languages. The youths' language use shows that the range of texts form a continuum, in which the more formal texts tend to highly regulated around Indonesian as the monolingual center whereas less formal texts are more open to the use of Javanese and English, including the playful combination and juxtaposition of languages that enable youth to recontextualize and even subvert the dominant indexical meanings associated with these languages.
Working Papers Laboratorium Sosiologi Universitas Atma Jaya Yogyakarta, 2017
In understanding literacy as a social practice, it is important to explore the social contexts su... more In understanding literacy as a social practice, it is important to explore the social contexts surrounding the enactment and sustainment of literacy activities. One important aspect of the social context of literacy is what Long (1993) calls as the " infrastructure of literacy. " This covers various institutions and actors that support or act as "sponsors of literacy" (Brandt 1999) at the group or community level. In the context of American society, in addition to schools, public libraries have historically taken the mandate of being a key institution that acts as an infrastructure and sponsor of literacy activities within the community (Harris 1975). As an institution that sponsors literacy, the library has a certain vision and mission about the kinds of literacy activities it would like to promote and the kinds of social effects these literacy activities should achieve. Nonetheless, as a space and context for literacy practices, the library also becomes a site for various types of literacy activities, each with their own social or personal purposes.
Part of a larger dissertation research, the paper will investigate preliminary data on the code-s... more Part of a larger dissertation research, the paper will investigate preliminary data on the code-switching and language mixing use of Javanese (a local language), Bahasa Indonesia or BI (the national language) and English by youth, both in conversations as well as in writing, in the city of Semarang in Central Java, Indonesia, a multilingual developing country of the global South. The preliminary findings indicate that youth in Semarang use Javanese, BI and English under a norm of polylingualism, with Javanese and BI being the predominant bilingual medium in spoken conversation. Gaul Indonesian, a sub-dialect of BI, acts as an intermediate scale between local and global scales of language. While BI is predominantly used in writing, the use of Javanese re-emerges in the least regulated and most informal domains of writing. The youth in this study use English more in writing than in spoken conversation, using it as a means of expressing a voice that is locally different and resonates with global popular culture but for the purpose of expressing very local and personal expressions.
Literacy has been an important component of development policy and thinking. However, youth have ... more Literacy has been an important component of development policy and thinking. However, youth have largely been neglected by both theories and policies on literacy. This is surprising, especially in the context of the recent attention paid on youth by large development agencies such as the UN and the World Bank. This study seeks to investigate this lack of attention to youth literacy by analyzing the policies of two organizations prominent in global literacy initiatives: UNESCO and Action Aid’s REFLECT. The study will also look at the new approaches used in youth studies to investigate youth’s literacy activities. By positioning policies and academic study as discourse, the study investigates the way the conceptualization of both youth and literacy in these policy discourses affect the way they deal with youth literacy. The study finds that the way youth and literacy are conceptualized affects how the two organizational approaches deal with youth literacy. UNESCO, by still reverting to the skills-based functional literacy model in their program level policies, limited their perception of youth literacy as primarily economic rather than social or political. Furthermore, the conventional “youth at risk” model emerges in UNESCO’s treatment of literacy and HIV/AIDS, devaluing youth abilities as rational actors. REFLECT, on the other hand, adopted a socially situated and critical literacy perspective but surprisingly downplayed the role of youth in the overall program vision, subsuming them under adult literacy. Both organizational approaches show that the lack of a conscious approach to youth resulted in viewing them as merely being in a transition period to adulthood. Youth studies on literacy, however, utilized an approach combining the youth culture perspective with the socially situated model of literacy. In addition, these studies also advocated that this combined approach be linked to the objectives of critical literacy, thus enabling youth to be critically conscious of the social, institutional and power relations in literacy and society. This combined perspective becomes a possible theoretical framework that future youth literacy policies can use, one which (a) positions youth as social and political actors in their own right, (b) treats literacy not as a neutral set of skills but as a social embedded practice and (c) values youth’s alternative literacy practices as legitimate forms of their voice in being part, engaging with and changing society.
Organic agriculture originally emerged as a social movement reacting to the ecological costs of c... more Organic agriculture originally emerged as a social movement reacting to the ecological costs of conventional agriculture and the perceived socio-political inequities of the global agri-food economic system. However, the growth of organic agriculture and market at the turn of the 21st century meant that it has itself become a global agro-industry. Participants in organic agriculture can vary in their styles, practices and motivations, ranging from those treating it as a social movement to those that treat it as a business and economic endeavor (Vos 2000, Guthman 2004, Alroe and Noe 2008, Reed 2010). Organic agriculture in Indonesia has also followed a similar trajectory, with a contemporary trend towards industrial scale production and trade facilitated by state-backed organic regulations and standards (David and Ardiansyah 2016), leading to similar multiplicity in meanings and motivations around organic agriculture for practitioners (Schreer, forthcoming). In his study of organic rice farming in Bali, McRae (2011) points out that the personal qualities of certain individuals are often the key driver of organic agricultural endeavors. Adopting Gramsci’s notion of ‘organic intellectuals’, who are intellectuals that emerge and are connected to a specific social class or group (Forgacs (ed.) 2000, Kurzman and Owen 2002), this paper seeks to describe case examples of different styles of individuals who act as organizers of organic agriculture activities in Yogyakarta. Data on these individuals were obtained through observation, interviews, and participation in events on organic agriculture in Yogyakarta. The data collection is also a collaborative part of the on-going IndORGANIC research project with the University of Passau. The study aims not only to illustrate the social role these individuals play in organizing organic agriculture endeavors but also to describe their different perspectives on organic agriculture and the strategies (both practical and discursive) that they employ to enact their perspectives. The preliminary findings describe three different styles of organic agriculture intellectuals in Yogyakarta, (1) the activist, (2) the cultural entrepreneur, (3) the organic business entrepreneur. Each style is similar to the three perspectives on organic agriculture protest, logo-poietic, and market outlined by Alroe and Noe (2008). The protest perspective emphasizes organic agriculture as a counter and alternative to conventional agriculture, the logo-poietic perspective focuses on developing a unique meaning of organic agriculture for practitioners, while the market perspectives views organic agriculture as a potential and sustainable niche in the agri-food market. Each style of organic agriculture intellectual in Yogyakarta uses their own respective discursive symbols and organizational methods, ones which are socio-culturally significant to their perspective. The activists reference terms and figures from the activist discourse of the global organic agriculture social movement, the cultural entrepreneurs make use of traditional Javanese philosophy, symbols and agricultural rituals, while the organic business entrepreneurs emphasize increased farmer welfare as well as developing marketing network and techniques.
Pertanian organik di Indonesia awalnya bermula dari berbagai kelompok masyarakat sipil dan geraka... more Pertanian organik di Indonesia awalnya bermula dari berbagai kelompok masyarakat sipil dan gerakan sosial yang mempraktekkan metode pertanian alternatif yang berbeda dari pertanian konvensional. Seiring waktu, pertanian organik di Indonesia terus berkembang hingga menjadi cara bertani yang sekarang didukung pemerintah dan menjadi obyek kebijakan pertanian dengan tujuan industrialisasi skala besar. Dalam perkembangan ini, aspek gerakan sosial dari pertanian organik menjadi surut dibandingkan perkembangan aspek agro-ekonomi. Oleh karena itu, penelitian ini bertujuan untuk melakukan peninjauan kembali ke tiga kelompok perintis gerakan organik di Yogyakarta, yang beberapa di antaranya dulu pernah dikaji oleh salah satu peneliti (Nindito dan Prihandono 2007). Ketiga kelompok itu adalah Sekretariat Nelayan dan Petani Hari Pangan Sedunia (SPTN-HPS) di Ganjuran, kelompok petani aktivis di Keceme, Sleman, serta Koperasi Sahani. Pengumpulan data menggunakan pendekatan kualitatif-eksploratif y...
This article shows that a perspective rooted in Bakhtin’s dialogism between the fixed centripetal... more This article shows that a perspective rooted in Bakhtin’s dialogism between the fixed centripetal and fluid centrifugal forces of language and culture is useful in achieving a nuanced understanding of globalization in general and semiotic landscapes in Indonesia in particular. Drawing on data from Indonesia, this article shows dialogic interconnections between fixed and fluid notions of languages and cultures through a multimodal and indexical analysis of governmental and commercial signage in the urban center of Semarang, the provincial capital of Central Java. The analysis highlights the nuanced localizing and globalizing strategies in signage and how dialogicity helps shape the semiotic landscape.
Following the adoption of the Sendai Framework for Disaster Risk Reduction 2015–2030, an increasi... more Following the adoption of the Sendai Framework for Disaster Risk Reduction 2015–2030, an increasing number of disability-inclusive disaster risk reduction (DiDRR) projects have been implemented by disaster risk reduction (DRR) organisations together with organisations of persons with disabilities (OPDs). Yet, as this paper argues, the general approach of DiDRR is still predominantly based on a DRR perspective. Consequently, the OPDs involved in DiDRR often include additional project components to address their broader issues while also implementing DRR. This paper draws on the experiences of two pioneer DiDRR programmes: the Community Resilience Programme in the Philippines from 2015–18; and the Putting Sendai Framework into Action programme in the Asia-Pacific from 2017–20. It outlines the differences between the viewpoints of DRR organisations and OPDs on implementing DiDRR. In conclusion, the paper suggests that DiDRR initiatives should accommodate the broader disability issues raised by OPDs to achieve more meaningful disability inclusion in DRR.
While there is a global consensus that agricultural systems need to be transformed to be more sus... more While there is a global consensus that agricultural systems need to be transformed to be more sustainable, possible pathways and challenges to this process are still debated. We analyse the challenges and opportunities involved in transforming smallholder farming to organic agriculture in Indonesia, where the intense application of Green Revolution technologies came at enormous environmental costs. We adopt a transdisciplinary approach to identify possible pathways towards organic agriculture, based on an analysis of farmers’ knowledge and barriers to adoption, value and belief systems, and institutional structures, including policies and regulations. We present our empirical findings as ‘system knowledge’, ‘target knowledge’ and ‘transformation knowledge’ and incorporate insights from both academics and practitioners. We draw on evidence from large-scale surveys, field experiments, in-depth interviews, participant observation and document analysis. A key insight of our research is that Indonesia does not lack initiatives towards organic farming, but that these various initiatives have different motivations, goals and strategies. This misalignment detracts from the transformational potential of organic agriculture and is responsible for the hitherto limited success of the organic transition. Our findings suggest that policy action at multiple levels is required, guided by an inclusive strategy that is drawn up in a participatory manner.
Organic agriculture has developed in Indonesia since the 1980s due to the work of various pioneer... more Organic agriculture has developed in Indonesia since the 1980s due to the work of various pioneer social movement organizations and as a reaction to the ecological and socioeconomic problems arising from the Green Revolution. In the twenty-first century, organic agriculture has undergone standardization and market expansion, following the dominant agroeconomic trajectory. This article discusses the way three pioneer organic organizations in the Yogyakarta region have reacted to these developments. The findings show two divergent reactions, with one group resistant to market expansion while the others are more open to it, due to their funding needs. However, all share tensions regarding issues of fairness in market relations. These tensions reveal unarticulated socio-structural issues that tend to be overlooked in the current trend towards marketization in organic agriculture. The move away from its social movement foundations leads to laments that 'organic has lost its way.' This article argues that the tensions illustrate issues voiced by the conventionalization debate in organic agriculture and that these issues require articulation to reclaim the transformative potential of organic as a social movement in Indonesia.
Recent approaches to multilingualism, such as translanguaging, emphasize the porous, fluid, and h... more Recent approaches to multilingualism, such as translanguaging, emphasize the porous, fluid, and hybrid nature of language use. This article intends to show, through an example of a local language debating competition in Central Java, that culturally emblematic performances tend to create monolanguaging spaces, due to their monolingual focusing on certain language varieties that are iconic to local ethnolinguistic identity. Monolanguaging spaces are language ideological spaces in which speakers project an idealized performance of their ethnolinguistic identity. Ethnographic observation shows that the performance of monolanguaging spaces involves the erasure of speakers' multilingual repertoires and translanguaging practices, in accordance to the language ideology surrounding the hegemonic prestigious language variety and in accordance to the local norms of status or power-based social interaction. Attending to monolanguaging spaces reveal it as a performance accomplished through discursive work and power relations, involving the misrecognition of its connection and dissonance to multilingual repertoires and practices.
Wacana, Journal of the Humanities of Indonesia, 2018
Contemporary mainstream discourse on youths in Indonesia tends to define it in terms of the popul... more Contemporary mainstream discourse on youths in Indonesia tends to define it in terms of the popular-culture-oriented notion of youth. This article seeks to show that certain state-formed youth groups, particularly in institutional settings, continue to promote the state-oriented pemuda or nationalist youth identity. By looking at an example of a Paskibra group (Pasukan Pengibar Bendera – the Flag-Raising Troop) from a state vocational high school in Semarang, Central Java, the article seeks to highlight the way in which these youths combine language and symbolic behaviours to present this nationalist identity. Concurrently, these youths also appropriate elements of popular culture in order to present a compartmentalized or separate remaja identity that complements their core nationalist identity. While not prominently visible in Indonesian popular culture, nationalist forms of youth identity, such as the Paskibra, continue to have currency in various state and institutional sectors.
Indonesian vocational secondary education reflects the increasingly multilingual demands of globa... more Indonesian vocational secondary education reflects the increasingly multilingual demands of globalized education and labor market. This study focuses on two orders of multiple languages that are present in vocational high schools in Semarang, Central Java. It aims not only to describe the different orders of languages, but also to suggest that each order represents differing strategies of dealing with the demands of globalization. One order represents the state-backed institutional approach, which views multiple languages as distinct entities and demands students to have monolingual competence in English, Indonesian, and Javanese to engage in globalization, cultivate nationalism and preserve tradition. The other order represents the market-oriented way vocational schools meet the demands of globalized industries and labor markets by directly adopting the multilingual industry register into local learning processes.
Culturalistics: Journal of Cultural, Literary and Linguistic Studies, 2018
In Indonesia, we can consider vocational secondary education as being in the front lines of globa... more In Indonesia, we can consider vocational secondary education as being in the front lines of global contact, in which youth as students directly face the demands of globalized industries and labor markets. Within vocational high schools, the use of multiple languages often plays an important yet unrecognized part of vocational training. This paper will discuss, based on ethnographic data collected in 2013 from two vocational schools in Semarang, the way in which students use multiple languages, mainly English, Indonesian, and Javanese, as part of their process of learning vocational skills. The main argument of the paper is that vocational schools teach students a specific technical variety or register of language, which combines parts or sometimes fragments of multiple languages, often for the purpose of technical vocational competence and not necessarily for the development of linguistic competence. This results in a form of " segmented competence " (Blommaert and Omoniyi 2006). However, youth as students can use this technical register to not only localize global forms of technological practice in their learning processes but also to participate, albeit marginally, in the global or transnational technology-based communities of practice of their vocational program.
NUSA: Linguistic studies of languages in and around Indonesia, 2015
Youths' multilingual literacy practices constitute sites in which their language use can be pushe... more Youths' multilingual literacy practices constitute sites in which their language use can be pushed and pulled in different directions. This article will investigate how the way youth groups from two vocational high schools in Semarang, Central Java use Javanese, Indonesian and English across different genres of texts reflect the way they negotiate the push and pull of the various language ideologies associated with these languages. In analyzing these texts, the article will adopt a social practice approach to literacy and will also emphasize that there are orders to the indexical meanings of languages. The youths' language use shows that the range of texts form a continuum, in which the more formal texts tend to highly regulated around Indonesian as the monolingual center whereas less formal texts are more open to the use of Javanese and English, including the playful combination and juxtaposition of languages that enable youth to recontextualize and even subvert the dominant indexical meanings associated with these languages.
Working Papers Laboratorium Sosiologi Universitas Atma Jaya Yogyakarta, 2017
In understanding literacy as a social practice, it is important to explore the social contexts su... more In understanding literacy as a social practice, it is important to explore the social contexts surrounding the enactment and sustainment of literacy activities. One important aspect of the social context of literacy is what Long (1993) calls as the " infrastructure of literacy. " This covers various institutions and actors that support or act as "sponsors of literacy" (Brandt 1999) at the group or community level. In the context of American society, in addition to schools, public libraries have historically taken the mandate of being a key institution that acts as an infrastructure and sponsor of literacy activities within the community (Harris 1975). As an institution that sponsors literacy, the library has a certain vision and mission about the kinds of literacy activities it would like to promote and the kinds of social effects these literacy activities should achieve. Nonetheless, as a space and context for literacy practices, the library also becomes a site for various types of literacy activities, each with their own social or personal purposes.
Part of a larger dissertation research, the paper will investigate preliminary data on the code-s... more Part of a larger dissertation research, the paper will investigate preliminary data on the code-switching and language mixing use of Javanese (a local language), Bahasa Indonesia or BI (the national language) and English by youth, both in conversations as well as in writing, in the city of Semarang in Central Java, Indonesia, a multilingual developing country of the global South. The preliminary findings indicate that youth in Semarang use Javanese, BI and English under a norm of polylingualism, with Javanese and BI being the predominant bilingual medium in spoken conversation. Gaul Indonesian, a sub-dialect of BI, acts as an intermediate scale between local and global scales of language. While BI is predominantly used in writing, the use of Javanese re-emerges in the least regulated and most informal domains of writing. The youth in this study use English more in writing than in spoken conversation, using it as a means of expressing a voice that is locally different and resonates with global popular culture but for the purpose of expressing very local and personal expressions.
Literacy has been an important component of development policy and thinking. However, youth have ... more Literacy has been an important component of development policy and thinking. However, youth have largely been neglected by both theories and policies on literacy. This is surprising, especially in the context of the recent attention paid on youth by large development agencies such as the UN and the World Bank. This study seeks to investigate this lack of attention to youth literacy by analyzing the policies of two organizations prominent in global literacy initiatives: UNESCO and Action Aid’s REFLECT. The study will also look at the new approaches used in youth studies to investigate youth’s literacy activities. By positioning policies and academic study as discourse, the study investigates the way the conceptualization of both youth and literacy in these policy discourses affect the way they deal with youth literacy. The study finds that the way youth and literacy are conceptualized affects how the two organizational approaches deal with youth literacy. UNESCO, by still reverting to the skills-based functional literacy model in their program level policies, limited their perception of youth literacy as primarily economic rather than social or political. Furthermore, the conventional “youth at risk” model emerges in UNESCO’s treatment of literacy and HIV/AIDS, devaluing youth abilities as rational actors. REFLECT, on the other hand, adopted a socially situated and critical literacy perspective but surprisingly downplayed the role of youth in the overall program vision, subsuming them under adult literacy. Both organizational approaches show that the lack of a conscious approach to youth resulted in viewing them as merely being in a transition period to adulthood. Youth studies on literacy, however, utilized an approach combining the youth culture perspective with the socially situated model of literacy. In addition, these studies also advocated that this combined approach be linked to the objectives of critical literacy, thus enabling youth to be critically conscious of the social, institutional and power relations in literacy and society. This combined perspective becomes a possible theoretical framework that future youth literacy policies can use, one which (a) positions youth as social and political actors in their own right, (b) treats literacy not as a neutral set of skills but as a social embedded practice and (c) values youth’s alternative literacy practices as legitimate forms of their voice in being part, engaging with and changing society.
Organic agriculture originally emerged as a social movement reacting to the ecological costs of c... more Organic agriculture originally emerged as a social movement reacting to the ecological costs of conventional agriculture and the perceived socio-political inequities of the global agri-food economic system. However, the growth of organic agriculture and market at the turn of the 21st century meant that it has itself become a global agro-industry. Participants in organic agriculture can vary in their styles, practices and motivations, ranging from those treating it as a social movement to those that treat it as a business and economic endeavor (Vos 2000, Guthman 2004, Alroe and Noe 2008, Reed 2010). Organic agriculture in Indonesia has also followed a similar trajectory, with a contemporary trend towards industrial scale production and trade facilitated by state-backed organic regulations and standards (David and Ardiansyah 2016), leading to similar multiplicity in meanings and motivations around organic agriculture for practitioners (Schreer, forthcoming). In his study of organic rice farming in Bali, McRae (2011) points out that the personal qualities of certain individuals are often the key driver of organic agricultural endeavors. Adopting Gramsci’s notion of ‘organic intellectuals’, who are intellectuals that emerge and are connected to a specific social class or group (Forgacs (ed.) 2000, Kurzman and Owen 2002), this paper seeks to describe case examples of different styles of individuals who act as organizers of organic agriculture activities in Yogyakarta. Data on these individuals were obtained through observation, interviews, and participation in events on organic agriculture in Yogyakarta. The data collection is also a collaborative part of the on-going IndORGANIC research project with the University of Passau. The study aims not only to illustrate the social role these individuals play in organizing organic agriculture endeavors but also to describe their different perspectives on organic agriculture and the strategies (both practical and discursive) that they employ to enact their perspectives. The preliminary findings describe three different styles of organic agriculture intellectuals in Yogyakarta, (1) the activist, (2) the cultural entrepreneur, (3) the organic business entrepreneur. Each style is similar to the three perspectives on organic agriculture protest, logo-poietic, and market outlined by Alroe and Noe (2008). The protest perspective emphasizes organic agriculture as a counter and alternative to conventional agriculture, the logo-poietic perspective focuses on developing a unique meaning of organic agriculture for practitioners, while the market perspectives views organic agriculture as a potential and sustainable niche in the agri-food market. Each style of organic agriculture intellectual in Yogyakarta uses their own respective discursive symbols and organizational methods, ones which are socio-culturally significant to their perspective. The activists reference terms and figures from the activist discourse of the global organic agriculture social movement, the cultural entrepreneurs make use of traditional Javanese philosophy, symbols and agricultural rituals, while the organic business entrepreneurs emphasize increased farmer welfare as well as developing marketing network and techniques.
Pertanian organik di Indonesia awalnya bermula dari berbagai kelompok masyarakat sipil dan geraka... more Pertanian organik di Indonesia awalnya bermula dari berbagai kelompok masyarakat sipil dan gerakan sosial yang mempraktekkan metode pertanian alternatif yang berbeda dari pertanian konvensional. Seiring waktu, pertanian organik di Indonesia terus berkembang hingga menjadi cara bertani yang sekarang didukung pemerintah dan menjadi obyek kebijakan pertanian dengan tujuan industrialisasi skala besar. Dalam perkembangan ini, aspek gerakan sosial dari pertanian organik menjadi surut dibandingkan perkembangan aspek agro-ekonomi. Oleh karena itu, penelitian ini bertujuan untuk melakukan peninjauan kembali ke tiga kelompok perintis gerakan organik di Yogyakarta, yang beberapa di antaranya dulu pernah dikaji oleh salah satu peneliti (Nindito dan Prihandono 2007). Ketiga kelompok itu adalah Sekretariat Nelayan dan Petani Hari Pangan Sedunia (SPTN-HPS) di Ganjuran, kelompok petani aktivis di Keceme, Sleman, serta Koperasi Sahani. Pengumpulan data menggunakan pendekatan kualitatif-eksploratif y...
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The study finds that the way youth and literacy are conceptualized affects how the two organizational approaches deal with youth literacy. UNESCO, by still reverting to the skills-based functional literacy model in their program level policies, limited their perception of youth literacy as primarily economic rather than social or political. Furthermore, the conventional “youth at risk” model emerges in UNESCO’s treatment of literacy and HIV/AIDS, devaluing youth abilities as rational actors. REFLECT, on the other hand, adopted a socially situated and critical literacy perspective but surprisingly downplayed the role of youth in the overall program vision, subsuming them under adult literacy. Both organizational approaches show that the lack of a conscious approach to youth resulted in viewing them as merely being in a transition period to adulthood.
Youth studies on literacy, however, utilized an approach combining the youth culture perspective with the socially situated model of literacy. In addition, these studies also advocated that this combined approach be linked to the objectives of critical literacy, thus enabling youth to be critically conscious of the social, institutional and power relations in literacy and society. This combined perspective becomes a possible theoretical framework that future youth literacy policies can use, one which (a) positions youth as social and political actors in their own right, (b) treats literacy not as a neutral set of skills but as a social embedded practice and (c) values youth’s alternative literacy practices as legitimate forms of their voice in being part, engaging with and changing society.
In his study of organic rice farming in Bali, McRae (2011) points out that the personal qualities of certain individuals are often the key driver of organic agricultural endeavors. Adopting Gramsci’s notion of ‘organic intellectuals’, who are intellectuals that emerge and are connected to a specific social class or group (Forgacs (ed.) 2000, Kurzman and Owen 2002), this paper seeks to describe case examples of different styles of individuals who act as organizers of organic agriculture activities in Yogyakarta. Data on these individuals were obtained through observation, interviews, and participation in events on organic agriculture in Yogyakarta. The data collection is also a collaborative part of the on-going IndORGANIC research project with the University of Passau. The study aims not only to illustrate the social role these individuals play in organizing organic agriculture endeavors but also to describe their different perspectives on organic agriculture and the strategies (both practical and discursive) that they employ to enact their perspectives.
The preliminary findings describe three different styles of organic agriculture intellectuals in Yogyakarta, (1) the activist, (2) the cultural entrepreneur, (3) the organic business entrepreneur. Each style is similar to the three perspectives on organic agriculture protest, logo-poietic, and market outlined by Alroe and Noe (2008). The protest perspective emphasizes organic agriculture as a counter and alternative to conventional agriculture, the logo-poietic perspective focuses on developing a unique meaning of organic agriculture for practitioners, while the market perspectives views organic agriculture as a potential and sustainable niche in the agri-food market.
Each style of organic agriculture intellectual in Yogyakarta uses their own respective discursive symbols and organizational methods, ones which are socio-culturally significant to their perspective. The activists reference terms and figures from the activist discourse of the global organic agriculture social movement, the cultural entrepreneurs make use of traditional Javanese philosophy, symbols and agricultural rituals, while the organic business entrepreneurs emphasize increased farmer welfare as well as developing marketing network and techniques.
The study finds that the way youth and literacy are conceptualized affects how the two organizational approaches deal with youth literacy. UNESCO, by still reverting to the skills-based functional literacy model in their program level policies, limited their perception of youth literacy as primarily economic rather than social or political. Furthermore, the conventional “youth at risk” model emerges in UNESCO’s treatment of literacy and HIV/AIDS, devaluing youth abilities as rational actors. REFLECT, on the other hand, adopted a socially situated and critical literacy perspective but surprisingly downplayed the role of youth in the overall program vision, subsuming them under adult literacy. Both organizational approaches show that the lack of a conscious approach to youth resulted in viewing them as merely being in a transition period to adulthood.
Youth studies on literacy, however, utilized an approach combining the youth culture perspective with the socially situated model of literacy. In addition, these studies also advocated that this combined approach be linked to the objectives of critical literacy, thus enabling youth to be critically conscious of the social, institutional and power relations in literacy and society. This combined perspective becomes a possible theoretical framework that future youth literacy policies can use, one which (a) positions youth as social and political actors in their own right, (b) treats literacy not as a neutral set of skills but as a social embedded practice and (c) values youth’s alternative literacy practices as legitimate forms of their voice in being part, engaging with and changing society.
In his study of organic rice farming in Bali, McRae (2011) points out that the personal qualities of certain individuals are often the key driver of organic agricultural endeavors. Adopting Gramsci’s notion of ‘organic intellectuals’, who are intellectuals that emerge and are connected to a specific social class or group (Forgacs (ed.) 2000, Kurzman and Owen 2002), this paper seeks to describe case examples of different styles of individuals who act as organizers of organic agriculture activities in Yogyakarta. Data on these individuals were obtained through observation, interviews, and participation in events on organic agriculture in Yogyakarta. The data collection is also a collaborative part of the on-going IndORGANIC research project with the University of Passau. The study aims not only to illustrate the social role these individuals play in organizing organic agriculture endeavors but also to describe their different perspectives on organic agriculture and the strategies (both practical and discursive) that they employ to enact their perspectives.
The preliminary findings describe three different styles of organic agriculture intellectuals in Yogyakarta, (1) the activist, (2) the cultural entrepreneur, (3) the organic business entrepreneur. Each style is similar to the three perspectives on organic agriculture protest, logo-poietic, and market outlined by Alroe and Noe (2008). The protest perspective emphasizes organic agriculture as a counter and alternative to conventional agriculture, the logo-poietic perspective focuses on developing a unique meaning of organic agriculture for practitioners, while the market perspectives views organic agriculture as a potential and sustainable niche in the agri-food market.
Each style of organic agriculture intellectual in Yogyakarta uses their own respective discursive symbols and organizational methods, ones which are socio-culturally significant to their perspective. The activists reference terms and figures from the activist discourse of the global organic agriculture social movement, the cultural entrepreneurs make use of traditional Javanese philosophy, symbols and agricultural rituals, while the organic business entrepreneurs emphasize increased farmer welfare as well as developing marketing network and techniques.