Abstrack:
The ongoing study aims to obtain a better comprehension of how young people (age 17-26) in Jakarta, Kupang and Banda Aceh construct the idea of Indonesia and how they experience ?being Indonesian?. Indonesia?s unity despite its vastness and diversity has puzzled scholars (i.e. Brown, 2003; Emmerson, 2005; Elson, 2008) and numerous studies have shown how its trajectory is shaped by scores of contestations regarding what ?Indonesia? is and how it should be. During the New Order the imagination of ?Indonesia? was indoctrinated through a rigid top-down approach, but after its end a little over a decade ago many of the identities and narratives of Indonesia that had been previously suppressed came to the surface. What is of interest is how amidst this plethora of narratives and possible identities, young people understand, experience and give meaning to ?Indonesia?. What does ?Indonesia? mean to them? What are the other narratives that inform their narrative of the nation? To take into account the diverse and different imaginations of Indonesia, three cities (Jakarta, Kupang and Banda Aceh) have been chosen as research sites, each with their own particular historical and socio-cultural structure. To obtain imaginations that are not merely drawn from official discourses while at the same time facilitating talks about an issue as abstract as the nation, interviews were conducted by asking informants to comment on or tell stories about a set of photos, a method also known as ?photo-elicitation?. By doing so, there is a tangible centre of attention, whereas the polysemic nature of pictures avoids questions with value-laden words such as ?nation? or ?nationalism? and so somewhat decreases the chance of interviewer bias. Pictures chosen are those depicting scenes that potentially elicit commentaries related to the nation (for example; a komodo dragon, advertisement for a football match where Manchester United?s players are portrayed wearing batik, Timor Leste?s flag, a classic ?classroom photograph? of Suharto etc). Some photos that depict specific scenes found in one site were shown to the interviewees in that respective city only. Using this method, at least 25 young people in each city have been interviewed. Aside from a description of the background and methodology of the research, tentative conclusions will be presented. Comparing the narratives obtained in the three cities, it is relatively safe to infer that the nation is imagined differently in different ?communities?, spatially as well as in terms of its history. In Jakarta, unsurprisingly, the idea of Indonesia as a cohesive nation is stronger and more uncontested than elsewhere. The international world is often used as the point of reference to define what ?Indonesia? is. In Kupang, ?Indonesia? is viewed as consisting of a center on which the peripheries depend, with Kupang perceived as positioned in the latter. Youngsters in Kupang as well as in Jakarta have similar constructions of Indonesia?s recent history. It is among young people in Aceh that ?Indonesia? as a historically and culturally justifiable entity, is most problematic.
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