Idea Transcript
Growing Up and Being Young in an Indonesian Provincial Town
Wenty Marina Minza
Acknowledgements
Copyright © 2014 Wenty Marina Minza. All rights reserved. No part of this publication may be reproduced, stored in a retrieval system, or transmitted, in any form or by any means, electronics, mechanical, photocopying, recording, or otherwise, without the prior permission in writing from the proprietor.
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GROWING UP AND BEING YOUNG IN AN INDONESIAN PROVINCIAL TOWN
ACADEMISCH PROEFSCHRIFT
ter verkrijging van de graad van doctor aan de Universiteit van Amsterdam op gezag van de Rector Magnificus prof. dr. D.C. van den Boom ten overstaan van een door het college voor promoties ingestelde commissie, in het openbaar te verdedigen in de Agnietenkapel op woensdag 14 mei 2014, te 10:00 uur
door
Wenty Marina Minza geboren te Yogyakarta, Indonesië iii
Acknowledgements
Promotiecommissie
Promotoren
: prof. dr. M.A.F. Rutten prof. dr. B.N.F. White
Overige Leden
: prof. dr. G.A. van Klinken prof. dr. R. Reis prof. dr P.E. Spyer prof.dr. Faturochman dr. G. Nooteboom
Faculteit der Maatschappij- en Gedragswetenschappen
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Acknowledgements
Acknowledgements
The course of finalising this dissertation has been both exciting and challenging. I am thankful to all the people who have kept me on track until the finish line. Nuffic, through the Netherlands Fellowship Programme (NFP), has provided me the opportunity and the financial resources to pursue my studies in the Netherlands. Nuffic Neso Indonesia has assisted me through the administrative process of obtaining this scholarship. My promoters, Mario Rutten and Ben White, have been an incredible source of encouragement from the start of this project and throughout. Their support was not only confined to the business of producing a dissertation, but extended to the emotional and social support needed to actually get there. Mario Rutten has provided invaluable guidance in exploring different intellectual pathways and helping me find my way. Critical insights from Ben White have been a basis for self-reflection, especially of my own taken-for-granted assumptions. I would also like to thank the members of my doctoral committee: Ria Reis, Patricia Spyer, Faturochman, Gerry van Klinken, and Gerben Nooteboom for their comments and inputs. My affiliation with the KNAW (Konkinklijke Nederlandse Academie van Wetenschappen) funded project, In Search of Middle Indonesia, was possible with the support of Henk S. Nordholt and Gerry van Klinken. This project has introduced me to a circle of scholars who have given constructive inputs during the process of writing this dissertation: Tamrin A. Tomagola, Pratikno, Mochtar Mas’oed, Pujo Semedi, Bambang Purwanto, Cornelis Lay, Erwan Purwanto, Nico v
Acknowledgements Warouw, Noorhaidi Hasan, Ratna Saptari, Patricia Spyer, Linda Herrera, Chris Brown, and Joe Errington. This project has allowed me to be part of a PhD group with Amalinda Savirani, Suzanne Naafs, Sylvia Tidey, and Basri Amin, with whom I have been able to have lively discussions, catharsis sessions, and some of my most enjoyable moments. The International Institute of Social Studies has been generous to have allowed me to participate in classes at the Children, Youth, and Development programme. I also appreciate the support provided by Bridget O’Laughlin during my application process, the critical discussions with Linda Herrera and the administrative assistance of Sharmini Bissessar. My seniors at the Center for Population and Policy Studies, Universitas Gadjah Mada encouraged me to further my studies on behalf of this institution. As director, Sukamdi has given me permission to study abroad. Irwan Abdullah has always believed in me, and made me believe, that following his footsteps to Dutch academic life would be a fruitful experience. My thanks also extend to Agus Dwiyanto, Anna Marie Wattie, and Made Pande Kutanegara. In 2008, Faturochman, the dean of the Faculty of Psychology, Universitas Gadjah Mada, allowed me to pursue my studies, despite my position as a new staff at the faculty. His understanding and advice has been invaluable. The current dean, Supra Wimbarti, and vice deans, especially Rahmat Hidayat, and Head of the Social Psychology department, Koentjoro, have continued to allow me the time and space to finish my dissertation after my return to Indonesia. PhD life is not only an intellectual journey, but a journey of friendship. I would like to thank my PhD fellows at the Amsterdam Institute for Social Science Research (AISSR) for their friendship, especially during the early lonely months of the programme: Michiel Baas, Martin Boekelo, Anick Vollebergh, Frank van As, Tran Quan Anh, Ana M. Kajevska, Marieke van Eijk, Marcel van den Haak, Eline van Haastrecht, Roanne van Voorst, and Tjerk Jan Schuitmaker. Also many thanks to my office mates Sanneke Kloppenburg, Chip Huisman, and Daphne van der Pas, and members of the ‘youth group’, Lidewyde and Jonna Both. Jose Komen, Anneke Dammers, Miriam May, Philip Romer, Hermance Mettrop, Janus Oomen, Yomi van der Veen, Roos de Jager, vi
Acknowledgements
Joanne Oakes, Danny van der Poel, and Emilie van Tol also provided patience, persistence, and warmth, in assisting me through various administrative processes in the Netherlands. I appreciate the friendship offered by my Indonesian friends in the Netherlands. First, the Indonesian families, Dedi Sjamsuddin, Agrar Sudrajat, Bambang and Ida, Bob, Rini Goenarto, Ria Tobing, were a source of comfort during my stay there. Furthermore, the Amsteller’s and the Koestraat gang’s great sense humour were unforgettable: Debby Tobing, Nuraini Juliastuti, Alpha Amirrachman, Dara Rosmailina, Hana Pawestri, Bernadetta, Rahma Rohadiat, Grace L. Nababan and Herman Boro, Enade Istyastono, Aufa Doarest, Deasy Simanjuntak, Najib Azca, and Lia Aulia. Life in the Netherlands has also been lively with the various gatherings of fellow alumni of the Faculty of Psychology, Universitas Gadjah Mada in the Netherlands: Yayuk Talens, Nur Rokhmah Hidayati, Winda Widyastuti, Agustina Sulastri, Chiefy Adi and Anastasia. I enjoyed the times spent with Taufik Kasturi, Meta Aurelia, Tyas, Kusumorestu MW, and Ali Mashuri. My Indonesian fellow students from the 2007-2008 and 2009-2010 batches at the International Institute for Social Studies, notably Grace Leksana, Julia, Renvi Liasari, Sri Utami, and Shintong Febby provided many pleasurable moments. I am especially grateful to Helmy Fuady and Amalinda Savirani who were always there during my ups and downs. Un Leang’s cooking, walks with Athi Sivan, were also something I looked forward to. My longtime friendship with Roy Huijsmans and Marieke Postma has only grown stronger over the years of my stay in the Netherlands. Evita Hanie P. and Deden D. Iskandar have shown incredible hospitality at their home in Germany during rough times. My colleagues and friends at Universitas Gadjah Mada have been very understanding of my absence throughout my study leave. I am indebted to those at the Social Psychology Department, especially Budi Purwanto, Hadi Sutarmanto, Avin F. Helmi, M. As’ad, Helly P. Soetjipto and Yopina G. Pertiwi. My appreciation also goes to my colleagues at the Center for Indigenous and Cultural Psychology, particularly to Kwartarini Yuniarti and Banyu Wicaksono. The friendship offered by the junior lecturers at the Faculty of Psychology: Arum Febriani, Ariana Marastuti, Edilburga W.S., Tri H. Tyas, Fuad Chamsyah, vii
Acknowledgements Galang Lufityanto, Indrayanti, Novi Candra, Ammik Kisryani, Wahyu Widhiarso, Idei, Lu’lu’, Bhina Patria and Ridwan Saptoto is much appreciated. Many thanks to Novi Widyaningrum, Basilica D. Putranti, Edy Kiswanto, Jevri Ardiansyah, Wini Tamtiari, Umi Listyaningsih, Tryastuti S., Setiadi, Mita Sari A, Anik Yuliwati, Budi Riyanto, Hartiningsih, Ika, Haryono, Udi, Untoro, and Ismulyono at the Center for Population and Policy Studies. My students, Regisda Machdy, Wahyu Jati Anggoro, Banyu Wicaksono, and Imron have also given their time and assistance in the technicalities of the dissertation. During my first year of study, my colleagues at the Faculty of Psychology, Ahmad Dahlan University, generously took on my responsibilities. In particular I thank Herlina Siwi Widiana, Sri Kushartati, and Alfi Purnamasari. Towards the end of my PhD journey, Ruth MacKenzie has assisted in editing my manuscript, Suzanne Naafs in translating the summary to Dutch, the Risman Marah team for the lay out, Sanneke Kloppenburg and Shohib Sifatar in being my paranymphs, and Roanne van Voorst in being my ‘shadow paranymph’. Pontianak has been an inspiring learning site. For this, I am thankful to everyone there who assisted me in that learning process. I would especially like to thank my two wonderful assistants, Ika and Ferry. They have consistently assisted me throughout the years Agus Hartanto at the West Kalimantan Statistics Bureau, Syarif Ibrahim Alqadrie and Hardie Sudjaie from the Faculty of Social Sciences at Tanjungpura University willingly provided the materials I needed and the time to engage in stimulating discussions. Zaenuddin from STAIN Pontianak and Hartono, the director of STMIK Widya Dharma Pontianak also provided much assistance during my fieldwork. Julia, Pay Jarot Sujarwo, and Rizal Palipi shared their stories and knowledge about young people’s lives in Pontianak. Nevertheless, I have mostly learned from my informants, and to them I am grateful. My extended family in Pontianak and Yogyakarta have been remarkably supportive. I would like to thank the families of Sa’edah, Hanapi, Amin, Pak Ngah, Uteh, Encik, Fauzie Siswanto, and Soebardi. I express my gratitude for the endless support from my parents-in-law, Abdul Muthalib and Rabe’ah, and my sisters-in-law, Rini Setyawati and Rina Sari. viii
Acknowledgements
I am deeply indebted to my parents, Sjafri Sairin and Siti Fatimah, who have given me their unconditional love. Along with my sisters, Tiessa A. Minza and Felma A. Minza, they have ensured the wellbeing of my daughter who I left behind – including providing trustworthy nannies, Ery and Atul, to whom I am also thankful to have had. This PhD journey would have never started if it were not for my husband, Rosehan Ansyari. Coming close to cancelling my studies a week before my departure to Amsterdam, his insistence that I continue my studies prevented me from doing so. His trust and understanding throughout the years has been remarkable. Last but not least, I will always remember the sacrifice of my little PhD heroine, Ezriana Daisha Ansyari, who was left ‘motherless’ at the very young age of three and a half months. I am grateful to have them both in my life.
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Contents
Contents
Acknowledgements
v
Contents
x
List of Tables
xiii
List of Figures
xiv
Acronyms
xv
Introduction
1
Growing up and Being Young: Two Contrasting Perspectives in Youth Studies
3
Research Question and Organisation of Thesis
6
1 Growing up and Being Young: Theoretical Perspectives
10
Growing Up
11
Being Young
23
Growing Up and Being Young
39
Methodology
52
Conclusion
64
2 Contextualising Pontianak, Conceptualising Youth and Adulthood
66
On the Margins: Locating West Kalimantan within the National Context
66
Ethnicity and Decentralisation in West Kalimantan
71
x
Contents
Pontianak: Modernity in a Provincial City
84
Conceptualisations of Youth and Adulthood in Pontianak
93
Conclusion
115
3 Family Expectations and Cultures of Educated Youth
117
The Sarjana Degree as a Means of Growing Up
117
The Mahasiswa and Cultures of Educated Youth
131
The Arisan Nilai System and Hanging Out
146
Conclusion
156
4 Meaningful Work and Youth Cultures of Waiting
159
The PNS : Defining Meaningful Work
160
Playful Work
181
Youth Cultures of Waiting: Making Work Meaningful and Finding Meaningful Work
188
Conclusion
202
5 Pacaran: Courtship, Explorations, and Long-Term Relationships
205
Pacaran as Romantic Relationship
206
Courtship: Romantic Relationships as a Prelude to Marriage
208
Finding a Pacar not a Calon: Romantic Relationships as Explorations
215
Long-Term Relationships
227
Conclusion
242
6 Conclusions
244
Being Young While Growing Up: Hanging out for the Future
246 xi
Contents Growing up While Being Young: Transition to Somewhere
250
Theoretical Reflections
257
References
266
Summary
297
Samenvatting
305
xii
List of Tables
List of Tables
Table 1 Informants by ethnicity
58
Table 2 Informants by gender
59
Table 3 Summary details of the survey sample
62
Table 4 Social and economic indicators of provinces in Kalimantan
70
Table 5 Primary reason for participating in tertiary education
127
Table 6 Primary work aspiration by gender
162
Table 7 Primary work aspiration by ethnicity
164
Table 8 Source of recognition of aspired PNS jobs by priority
169
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List of Figures
List of Figures
Figure 1 Map of West Kalimantan
68
Figure 2 Announcement of the clean recruitment process into the police force
82
Figure 3 Map of Pontianak
85
Figure 4 Mahasiswa hanging out in campus secretariats
139
Figure 5 Young men hanging out on campus
152
Figure 6 Working and looking pretty at the mall
191
xiv
Acronyms
Acronyms
ABG (Anak Baru Gede)
Early adolescence
D1 (Diploma Satu)
One-year non-degree diploma programme in applied sciences
D2 (Diploma Dua)
Two-year non-degree diploma programme in applied sciences
D3 (Diploma Tiga)
Three-year non-degree diploma programme in applied sciences
D4 (Diploma Empat)
Four-year degree programme in applied sciences
GOR (Gedung Olah Raga)
Sports hall
KNPI (Komite Nasional Pemuda Indonesia)
Indonesian Youth National Committee
MBA (Married by Accident)
Premarital pregnancy
MLM (Multi Level Marketing)
Multi level marketing
PDKT (Pendekatan)
Flirting
PNS (Pegawai Negeri Sipil)
Civil servant
PMDK (Penelusuran Minat dan Kemampuan)
Entry to university without test
xv
Acronyms
S1 (Sarjana Strata Satu)
Full four-year university degree programme
STAIN (Sekolah Tinggi Agama Islam Negeri)
State Islamic Higher Education Institute
STMIK (Sekolah Tinggi Manajemen Informatika dan Komputer)
Higher Education Institute for Information Management and Computer Science
STKIP (Sekolah Tinggi Keguruan dan Ilmu Pendidikan)
Higher Education Institute for Pedagogy
SMTA (Sekolah Menengah Tingkat Atas)
Senior high school
TTM (Teman Tapi Mesra)
Casual sexual relationship
UNTAN (Universitas Tanjungpura)
Tanjungpura University
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Introduction
Introduction
Idham is a 24-year-old Malay man who has been studying at the Faculty of Law at a state university in Pontianak for six years. His father is a retired civil servant, and his mother is currently serving as one in a nearby district. Idham also works as a singer at cafés, wedding ceremonies, and office gatherings. For him, education is ‘important for the future and for adding to the development of the mind and soul’. However, he admits that he dedicates more time to performing at cafés, where he is paid 70,000 rupiahs for two hours’ work. He keeps the money he earns as pocket money. He plans to open a restaurant business in the distant future, which he feels will go well with his passion for music. At the moment, he does not have enough capital and experience to open this business. He is uncertain when he will finish his education, and even seems reluctant to. His parents expect him to finish university soon and enter the civil service, but he is still considering which career choice he will make. For Idham, job success means that he is ‘not deprived, meaning having a source of money…a job that produces (enough) money and a job that one likes.’ Idham is involved with a young woman from the same university, and they have both been introduced to each other’s parents. This shows that the relationship is quite serious, but Idham is still uncertain whether he will marry her. He admits that ‘…at certain occasions, for example, 1
Introduction
(when) my friends bring their girlfriends to gatherings, and I don’t bring (mine), there is an ‘awkward feeling (insecure)’. Yet he still holds on to the idea that marriage is important, stating ‘…it is my intention to take this current relationship further (which is to marry), but for now, I will just go with the flow…though (I still think) marriage is important’. (Interview with Idham, 26 December 2008). Idham’s case illustrates that young people are active in three life domains: education, work, and romantic relationships1. Like Idham, most young people are often ambivalent about dealing with issues they face in these domains. Succeeding in these three life domains is important for them, because it conforms to societal norms of success. Yet, they do not necessarily behave in ways that seem to further the achievement of the normative success story. Idham seems to see education as important for his future, but does not dedicate much of his time to his studies. He prefers using his time doing the work he enjoys, yet also expects to settle into a stable job. He wants to get married someday, but he is also quite practical and present-oriented about his relationship with his girlfriend. Idham’s case shows that he is actually living the present as a young person: he engages with the youth culture of hanging out (on campus, in malls, and cafés), while also making money through his music. His work is income generating, yet still within a leisurely context. He also has a girlfriend who secures his status at peer gatherings, which he feels partially confirms the image of being a 1
2
The term romantic relationship here refers to a relationship between a young man and a young woman that involves sexual attraction, but not necessarily involving sexual intercourse. In Indonesian, it is commonly called pacaran. In Chapter 5 there will be a more complete description of pacaran, which will show that not all patterns of pacaran are actually romantic.
Introduction
successful youth. However, at the same time he is concerned about his future. He has ideas of graduating, starting a business, and marrying one day. He does not believe that he is jeopardizing his future just because he is trying to enjoy being young. How do we explain the gap between society’s ideal notions of transition to adulthood that young people tend to follow and their actual practices that seem to be in contradiction to this ideal? This study is about how young people deal with opportunities and constraints in the process of growing up and being young in a provincial town, located in one of the so-called outer islands of Indonesia. The research was done in Pontianak, the provincial capital of West Kalimantan during the years 2008-2009. Pontianak has a relatively large university student population, but does not offer enough promising jobs for these educated youth. This research focuses on educated youth in university and those who have graduated from university, but have not yet attained their ideal job. Three life domains that young people often engage in are explored: education, work, and romantic relationships. The objective is to understand the continuities and tensions between young people’s future expectations and present experience within these life domains.
Growing up and Being Young: Two Contrasting Perspectives in Youth Studies In this thesis, I use two main perspectives in youth studies which will help understand young people’s experiences and behaviour. These perspectives will be explored in greater detail later in Chapter 1, but it is
3
Introduction
useful to summarise them here. The first is the ‘growing up’ perspective which positions young people as in the process of becoming an adult (Wyn and White, 1997: 8-14; Lesko, 2001: 31-33). Transitions in three core life domains (education, work, and marriage) are often used to indicate a successful transition to adulthood (Furstenberg, 2000: 898). Education is assumed to open opportunities for formal jobs in the urban economy. Formal jobs in turn, are expected to generate enough income to achieve financial independence and form a new family through marriage. From a generational perspective, successful transition in these life domains becomes a basis for social reproduction and upward mobility. This normative line of thinking shows only one dimension of youth’s life story: it helps explain what is expected from youth in the process of growing up, but it does not help understand why they sometimes behave in the way they do. Young men and women do not always seem to take education seriously, many educated youth are working in dead-end jobs, and those who are involved in a romantic relationship do not necessarily see it ending in marriage. From this perspective, Idham would be said to have a problem growing up, as he is lacking the commitment to perform in school, obtain a secure job, and seriously consider his girlfriend as his future wife. He would be considered problematic either because he does not want to progress towards adulthood or because he is incapable of doing so. The second main perspective in youth studies focuses on young people’s experience of youth itself or of ‘being young’. In this perspective, youth are seen as individuals and a social group in their own right. This means that we need to understand how young people think about themselves, how they relate to other youth (not just to adults), and how their social identities as youth structure their ideas and 4
Introduction
behaviour. Young people’s subjective experiences are often emphasised in this approach, thus providing a lens with which to look at the reality of young people’s lives (Wyn and White, 1997: 118-119). From this perspective, we can expect that education might have many other objectives than merely obtaining a job, work is not necessarily for the sake of making money per se, and involving oneself in a romantic relationship may be for purposes other than marriage. In this respect, Idham is seen as enjoying his youth and simply living the present. This perspective seems to suggest that present identity formation is young people’s primary focus in life – as if to say that they do not put much thought into their future as adults. It emphasises young people’s present identities and subjective experiences, but tends to ignore the fact that they are also aware that they will sooner or later become adults. Therefore, it is a partial reflection of reality. As such, the growing up and being young perspectives are each partially useful in understanding youth; together, they reflect two key dimensions of the experience and construction of youth, that coexist in tension in the lives of young people. Understanding young people’s lives and identities therefore requires an approach that considers both perspectives. This study will take an approach that combines both perspectives in order to better understand young people’s life experiences. The combination of the two approaches will enable us to see youth as in the process of transition (growing up) and being young (living in the present) together, and through it we will be able to acknowledge the tensions and continuities between these coexisting dimensions of young people’s lives. This perspective has been used elsewhere, as in Naafs (2012b), which illustrates how young people navigate the structural constraints of growing up by engaging in 5
Introduction
consumer culture, based on a gender and class division in a provincial town in Java. This study adds another dimension by taking into account the role of ethnicity in the process of growing up and being young. The two main patterns of relations between being young and growing young are identified: ‘being young while growing up’ and ‘growing up while being young’. The former emphasises young people’s state of being young, while the latter shows young people’s focus on the future and growing up.
Research Question and Organisation of Thesis The above theoretical approach brings me to my main research question: how do young men and women experience growing up and being young in a provincial town such as Pontianak, West Kalimantan? The sub questions that I intend to answer are: Which patterns of relations between growing up and being young are predominant, and at what points in young people’s lives is one pattern more predominant than the other? How do social relations work within the identified patterns of being young and growing up? Is the same pattern observed in all life domains, and do social relations work in the same way across the life domains? How do they differ based on young people’s social position? In Chapter one, I will discuss literature related to the process of growing up and being young in greater detail, and how I position my study within these two main theoretical strands. At the end of this chapter, I elaborate the methodology used in this research and how the choice of methods facilitated the acquisition of the data.
6
Introduction
Chapter two will provide an overview of the research setting, focusing mainly on Pontianak and West Kalimantan’s structure in relation to their history and the economic, social and political changes that have occurred. At the end of this chapter, I will provide a short review of how young people perceive concepts of youth and adulthood within this specific context. How young people in Pontianak understand what it means to be young and what it means to become an adult will provide a frame explaining the empirical findings in Chapters 3 to 5. In the third chapter, I focus on how young people give meaning to education. The question that I try to answer in this chapter is: do young men and women believe – and if so in what ways do they believe – that education is a means for ‘proper’ future transition? On the one hand, they often state that education is important, but why does the leisure youth culture seemingly outweigh the importance of learning? To explain this ambiguity, I argue in this chapter that being in education is a strategy that youth employ to prolong being young while preparing for their future in the best way they know how (which is not only through learning). Youth leisure cultures, especially on campus, provide a means for the young to find the resources that are perceived to better prepare them for the future. In chapter four, my main focus is on young people who are about to graduate from university and those who have recently graduated. In this chapter, I question: how do these young people relate to the labour market? Why do they often see the state in a negative light, yet dream of getting a job as a civil servant? I argue that jobs that ensure stability of income, accumulation of wealth, future social security for parents, and status are considered important indicators of a successful transition. However, most find it difficult to attain such dream 7
Introduction
jobs, and they often engage in a ‘youth culture of waiting’. I will show in this chapter how waiting denotes active agency, rather than passivity on the part of youth. Chapter five elaborates how young people view romantic relationships. What meaning is attached to being involved in these relationships? Why do young people seem to embrace the importance of marriage, yet often find themselves uncertain about the direction their relationship is going? I find that various meanings are given to romantic relationships. Long-term relationships, for instance, are conceptualised against a backdrop of structural constraints in continuing the relationship towards marriage. Parents play a more influential role in determining rules and standards in these relationships. For ‘youth in waiting’, involvement in romantic relationships compensates for the feeling of being stuck in the world of work. It provides a sense that, at least in a certain domain of life, they are moving on. In the concluding chapter six, I argue that tensions and continuity exist between growing up and being young. This results in ambiguity in young people’s thoughts and behaviour. For instance, some want to grow up, but are ‘stuck’ in their youth, some just want to enjoy their youth as long as possible and stall growing up, while others try to grow up by engaging in youthful activities. Ambiguity becomes a strategy in which young people deal with insecure futures. This includes seeing themselves as making progress in their transition to adulthood, despite not necessarily following the normative timelines of growing up. The manifestations of these ambiguities are contextual. In a place where there is a scarcity of promising jobs to enter and no state to fall back on, future uncertainties are multiplied. As a result, the ambiguity also 8
Introduction
becomes more intense and prolonged. This has made the role of social relationships more apparent in dealing with this situation.
9
1 Growing up and Being Young: Theoretical Perspectives
1 Growing up and Being Young: Theoretical Perspectives
This chapter provides a general discussion about how youth is positioned within social theories, which I have briefly described in the Introduction. The first section of the chapter will focus on theories that deal with the issue of growing up. The theories in this approach mostly draw upon the idea that humans progress through life, from conception to death, along particular life stages. Youth is considered a life stage beginning after childhood and ending in adulthood. The next section of the chapter will discuss the concepts of being young. The concept of being young is based on the idea that young people should be seen in their own right as youth. One of the ways to do this is by understanding the process of the construction of youth identity rather than seeing them as merely adults in the making. It focuses on the relations between individual identity and social processes within groups in the present. I then describe how I will use this debate to establish my perspective in this study. This chapter will end with an elaboration of the chosen methodology for this study.
10
1 Growing up and Being Young: Theoretical Perspectives
Growing Up This section will discuss the growing up perspective, which is mostly derived from the assumptions of the life span perspective of developmental psychology. I will first explain the main premises of the life span perspective, and then briefly explain other perspectives of growing up: emerging adulthood and youth transition. Life Span Perspective: Human Developmental Stages The main idea of the life span perspective as suggested by developmental psychologists is that human life is divided into stages based on age. This approach emphasises individual development throughout one’s life, linked to biological, psychological, and social maturity (Rice and Dolgin, 2002: 30-33). The life span perspective proposes that humans go through life stages that are universal, applicable to all human beings, irrespective of class and culture. In each life stage, there are certain characteristics that show continuities and changes happening within a life stage or between life stages. Continuities usually refer to personality traits, assumed as relatively stable, despite the changes that go on throughout one’s development (Sugarman, 2000: 72-74).
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1 Growing up and Being Young: Theoretical Perspectives
In the life span perspective, humans are considered to progress towards adulthood through the life stages in a linear manner.2 Linear developmental stages mean that a person will progress from one stage to the next in the following order: infancy, childhood, adolescence, and adulthood. This linearity of the development process is based on the notion that each stage is linked to the progression of biological maturity (age, physical and hormonal changes), which supposedly goes hand in hand with particular psychological and social developments. The life span perspective is also future oriented, focusing on young people as being in a process of ‘becoming’ rather than ‘being’ in the here-andnow. By focusing on the future, this perspective tends to dwell upon issues that inhibit a ‘proper’ progress to adulthood. The discipline of psychology, especially developmental psychology sees youth as a life stage between childhood and adulthood (usually termed adolescence). In the adolescent life stage, youth are considered in transition to an end point, adulthood. Change in the adolescent stage is seen in how adolescents shift from a biological individual to a more social one through processes of identity exploration before entering adulthood. Adolescence is generally divided into three sub-stages that show the evolving nature of the adolescent life stage, often with overlapping age ranges: early adolescence (12-16 years old), mid adolescence (15-18 years old), and late adolescence (18-
2
12
Some psychologists refer to the life span as parallel to life course perspective. However, the life course perspective suggested by Elder (a sociologist) has some assumptions that are different from those of the life span perspective. For example, it places importance on history and the multiplicity of transitions in shaping one’s life (Elder, 1998: 1-2).
1 Growing up and Being Young: Theoretical Perspectives
22 years old).3 Physical changes, the onset of puberty and its psychological effects (such as taking on risky behaviour) are considered the main characteristics of early adolescence. Stanley Hall, the founding father of psychological studies on adolescence in the early 1900s, claimed that adolescence is a period of storm and stress (Hall, 1904: 79). This period, he argued, is experienced by all youth, resulting in confrontation with authority figures, mood instabilities, and risky behaviour. The period of storm and stress will disappear once a person reaches adulthood, but is most prominent during the early adolescence stages (Arnett, 1999: 318). This assumption was later brought into question by Mead. She argued that adolescence and the storm and stress during this period, was culturally determined and was not a universal phenomenon (Mead, 1939: 197-199). Mead’s attack on Hall’s assumption started the debate between universalist and ‘cultural’ psychology of human development, but the universalist stance remains dominant in the field of psychology. In mid adolescence, most young people have completed puberty. They have started negotiating family and peer relationships, and thinking of future work trajectories (Kroger, 2007: 60). In late adolescence, physical appearance becomes less important and longer term relationships start to develop. These relationships, however,
3
For research on early adolescence see, for example, Wigfield et al. (1991: 554), Berndt (1982: 1447), Pellegrini, Bartini and Brooks (1999: 218). For mid adolescence, see for instance Wekerle and Wolfe (1999: 439). Research on late adolescence includes that by Subkoviak et al. (1995: 643), Reinhersz et al. (1993: 1156), and Okagaki and Frensch (1994: 39). Manning (2002: 75) mentions during the time Havighurst (Havighurst, 1948) constructed his theory, there was no division of adolescence. Adolescence was merely seen as a life stage between 12 and 18 years old and the tasks apply to adolescence within this age range with a relatively fixed age boundary in setting the start and end of adolescence.
13
1 Growing up and Being Young: Theoretical Perspectives
involve less commitment and mutuality in comparison to relationships that are formed during adulthood. Late adolescents also have clearer ideas of their career aspirations and possibilities in comparison to those in the mid adolescence phase (Kroger, 2007: 155). The life span approach considers that a problem of development arises if an individual progresses in age, but does not show the relevant psychological development of that particular age and stage. Freud, who is often considered to be the founding father of psychology, proposed the notion of fixation and regression. Fixation is a condition where an individual is stuck in a particular stage of development, when age-wise he/she is supposed to have moved on to the next stage. Regression occurs when an individual shows psychological symptoms that are supposed to characterise the earlier life stage (Mowrer, 1940: 58-59).4 Thus, young people are supposed to progress to adulthood without performing ‘risky behaviour’ that might jeopardise this process. Such views are adopted in research extending to other fields such as sociology that focuses on, for example: academic failure (Tinto, 1975), youth unemployment (Smyth, 2008; MalmbergHeimonen and Julkunen, 2006), juvenile delinquency (Hagan and Foster, 2003; Noszlopy, 2005, Beazley, 2000), and teenage pregnancies (Jones, 1985; Widom, 1996) or unwanted pregnancies (Major, et al., 1990). The
4
14
This strict sense of development is often referred to as a ‘strong model of development’. A strong development model implies that each stage has separate development characteristics. Current works on life span development have acknowledged the complexities of human development, suggesting an alteration of the concept of development to include multi-linear processes. This means that, for example, some cognitive skills and behaviour are acquired at a certain stage, but they may be maintained, transformed or even diminish at later stages (Baltes et al., 1980: 7273). However, it still builds upon the notion that human life is separated by age and stage within rather fixed boundaries.
1 Growing up and Being Young: Theoretical Perspectives
life span perspective would tend to see these ‘failures’ as reflections of the individual’s inability to develop. This description of the life span perspective reveals that it is oriented towards the individual without taking much account of the social aspect in understanding the process of growing up. This means that there is an assumption of the universality of life stages in all humans. This denies the fact that youth and childhood are social, cultural, and political constructions that vary across culture, class, and ethnic groups, and that change over time. It also places fault on individual young people/children when they do not progress through the stages at the ‘normal’ age by seeing them as deviant or defective. Another approach in the growing up perspective is the emerging adulthood approach, which builds upon the premises of the life span approach, but adds a social dimension to an individualistic approach. Emerging Adulthood The emerging adulthood perspective originates from Arnett (2004), who argues – mainly on the basis of research in Western society – that current social change is the main driving force behind the life phase that he calls ‘emerging adulthood’. These social changes include changes in the labour market that require young people to stay in education longer. Arnett also mention changes in societal attitudes towards women and sexuality that have enabled young people to delay marriage and parenthood. Being a single woman is no longer socially sanctioned, and young people are able to be sexually active outside the confinement of marriage. The introduction of easily available birth control has also provided space for young people to delay having children (Arnett, 2004: 44-5). These factors mean that young 15
1 Growing up and Being Young: Theoretical Perspectives
people are experiencing a delayed entrance to adulthood. In other words, they are experiencing an extended state of adolescence or the prolongation of youth (Tyyska, 2005) – typically until at least the mid 20s (Schwartz et al., 2005: 201), or even until the late 20s (Arnett, 2000: 267).5 These social changes and the extended period of adolescence as described above have resulted in the need to conceptualise a new a life stage that falls between adolescence and adulthood, which is termed ‘emerging adulthood’. The
main
development
in
emerging
adulthood
that
distinguishes it from adolescence and adulthood, according to Arnett, is the intensity of explorations. Arnett suggests that emerging adulthood is a period of high exploration (higher than during adolescence), especially in education, work, and love (Arnett, 2004: 5-7). In comparison to explorations during adolescence, explorations in the emerging adulthood stage are more intense and oriented to the future rather than to the present. Thus, explorations in personal identity, constant change in future planning, increased decision-making opportunities, feelings of ambiguity between being young and being an adult, and having an optimistic outlook on the future (because they have yet to face the realities of life), characterise the emerging adult life stage (Arnett, 2004: 8-9). For instance, in the domain of work, young people explore different types of jobs before settling into a career. The difference between the frequent job changes that adolescents go through and job changes experienced by those in the emerging adulthood phase is that the job changes among emerging adults are more structured and have a clearer direction towards a particular career path (Arnett, 2010: 328-329).
5
16
Arnett also distinguishes emerging adulthood from youth. He argues that youth is defined by characteristics derived from societal perceptions and expectations while the characteristics of emerging adulthood are young people’s subjective constructions.
1 Growing up and Being Young: Theoretical Perspectives
Though the emerging adulthood perspective has added a social dimension to the growing up perspective by emphasising the role of social change in determining the course of human development, it remains focused on the individual. Thus, another approach that uses a social lens in understanding youth is needed. The last approach in the growing up perspective that I will elaborate is the youth transition perspective. This perspective focuses less on the individual and tries to understand young people in their social context. It tries to explain how young people are socially positioned (either as youth or adults), based on their participation in certain social institutions rather than on their individual development. Youth Transition While the emerging adulthood perspective emphasises the influence of social change on young people as individuals, and how they manage these changes in the course of making it to adulthood, the youth transition perspective shows how social institutions shape and are shaped by the process of growing up.6 Instead of focusing on the psychological dynamics of individual young people, this perspective 6
As previously mentioned, the life course perspective also focuses on institutional processes, because it views human development as affected by both personal history and social-historical forces (Elder Jr., 1994: 5). It originally emphasised the transitions young people experience, even though recent work on life course theories have been used to explain ageing (Hareven, 1982 ; Hockey and James, 1993). I will not elaborate on this approach, as it shares many similarities with the youth transition approach, including the idea of cyclical and multidimensionality of growing up, and the importance of historical and economic change in the process of growing up (Elder, 1998: 3-5). The life course approach, however, pays little attention to issues of power relations and social locations of young people that influences their pathways in growing up, which the youth transition perspective discusses more intensively (Wyn and White, 1997: 100).
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1 Growing up and Being Young: Theoretical Perspectives
focuses on young people as a collective. It also views young people’s progress in the life stage as related to wider social, economic, political, and cultural processes. Life domains such as education, work, and marriage, are seen as social institutions that signify a person’s social positioning within the life phase. In this perspective, in order to make the transition to adulthood, young people are expected to progress from one life domain to the next (from education to work to marriage). This perspective also implicitly shares the same assumptions as the life span perspective which emphasises ‘normal’ timing of human progress. Young people who leave education, work or marry at a younger age than the normative standard are often considered social problems (Tyyska, 2005: 5). The stigma of being a social problem also applies in conditions where young people fail to progress to the next life domain at the ‘right’ age. The mass media are quite influential in portraying young people as a social problem, as ‘dangerous, deficient, and vulnerable’ (Muncie, 2004: 3-14), when they do not make the normative transition. The shifts from one domain to the next are often termed ‘life events’, which indicates how humans progress from youth to adulthood. This progress is marked not only by the attainment of psychological maturity, but also by changes in social relations, especially with adults. As such, inter-generational and intra-generational relationships are discussed, but with inter-generational relations receiving more attention. These life events include the start of work, marriage and parenthood, which often denotes a transition from a state of dependence to a state of independence, especially in relation to adults (Wyn and White, 1997: 12). Those who are still in education are considered part of the youth category because they are often partly or 18
1 Growing up and Being Young: Theoretical Perspectives
wholly dependent upon their family. On the contrary, those who have started work or have entered marriage are often considered independent from their family financially, psychologically and socially.7 Hockey and James (1993: 13), for example, describe how both childhood and old age are often socially portrayed as times of dependence as opposed to the independence found in adults. The normative timing of life events, associated with a transition from a state of dependence to an independent one, constitutes an important part of the youth transition perspective. It focuses on how notions of growing up, especially in relation to concepts of independence and autonomy, often denote the transition to adulthood. In the Global North, the concepts of independence8 and autonomy are usually related to employment and home leaving. In Europe, issues of youth un/underemployment are also often related to the functioning of the welfare state. This includes issues such as provision of unemployment benefits (Jacob, 2008) and the failure of the welfare state to integrate youth to society via the labour market (Malmberg-Heimonen and Julkunen, 2006: 575). The welfare state failure has supposedly increased 7
8
the role of interdependent
Another term often used to refer to life events in traditional societies is rites of passage, where certain ceremonial rituals are performed to mark the transition between life stages. An example of these rituals include the practice of circumcision among young men in Eastern Uganda (Barker, 2005: 17) or in Eastern Indonesia (Hungu, 2005), as an initiation to enter manhood. Van Gennep refers to rites of passage as happening among ‘semi-civilized peoples’, though they are also common in modern societies (such as circumcision among Muslims). Instead of mainly focusing on the domains of life that are related to relations of dependence/ independence, rites of passage are often linked to ceremonies that are bound to religion or supra natural powers (Van Gennep, 2004: 3) This does not mean that families are no longer important when one grows up, as many young people in the United States continue to maintain their emotional attachment with their families even after they are (financially) independent (Arnett, 2002: 311-312).
19
1 Growing up and Being Young: Theoretical Perspectives
relationships in families, peers, or charity organisations, especially among poor youth (Jones, 1997: 98). Family assistance is seen as inhibiting proper integration to the labour market, as the function of the family as a safety net encourages young people to quit their job voluntarily rather than to stay employed (Jacob, 2008: 157). Studies on youth transition also describe the ‘problem’ of young people leaving home at a later age, continuing to move in and out of their family’s house, or co-residing with their parents (Kins et al., 2009: 1425-1427, White, 1994: 92-93, Guerrero, 2001: 3-5, Seiffge-Krenke, 2009: 239, Celik, 2008: 433-435). In these studies, late and circular patterns of home leaving are again linked to a failing state welfare system (Cote and Bynner, 2008: 258-259; Miller and Gangl, 2003: 10-17; Plug et al., 2003: 128, Mendes et al., 2006: 110, Mizen, 2004: 67-68). The ‘Global North’ in this context refers not only to Western contexts (the US, Western Europe, and Australia), but may also include those of the higher social strata in non-Western developing countries. Seiter’s (2009: 60-62) study, which focused on university students in India, suggests that independence is also one of the important indicators of adulthood. In Recife, Brazil, Dalsgaard et al. (2008: 58) found that independence and autonomy are also mentioned as indicators of adulthood among middle class youth in Brazil. Young people who are considered independent are thus assigned to the adult category (Modell, et al., 1976; Furstenberg, 2000). As illustrated by Meth (2008: 49-54), even poor young men in South Africa want to be financially independent from their parents and are delaying marriage to be ‘independent’ from the restrictions of having a wife. However, studies carried out in the Global South highlight the importance of interdependence, especially within the family context 20
1 Growing up and Being Young: Theoretical Perspectives
(Punch, 2002: 124; Magazine and Sanchez, 2007: 59, Hoffman, 2009: 126). The issue of un/underemployment, in the Global South, is seen as a consequence of failed state policy in education, training or labour market policies (Manning and Junankar, 1998: 49-51; United Nations Department of Economic and Social Affairs, 2007: 13-15). The issue of the welfare state in the context of under/unemployment (and homeleaving as a consequence of it), is not central. This is because many of these countries do not even have a recognisable welfare state system, and even if they do, it applies to a minority of the population. Thus, the role of families in providing a safety net in times of crisis becomes quite central (Gough, 2008: 139; Kiem, 1988: 34), because there is no state to fall back on. Dependence on the family as a social security net or in facilitating one’s social mobility through the labour market is not seen as inhibiting the transition to adulthood. The ‘Global South’ in this context includes not only non-Western developing countries, but also relatively marginalised minority groups or the poor in the Western world. Thus, the transition to adulthood is not indicated merely by a transition from a dependent to an independent state. Instead, interdependence, (a state of mutual dependence between people (Laursen and Williams, 1997: 4)), is a central issue among young people in Central and Eastern Europe. Guererro (2001), for example, argues that leaving home at a later age is still acceptable in certain Western countries such as Italy. Tseng (2004: 979-983) shows that young people from immigrant families in the United States (of Asia Pacific, Latino, and Afro Caribbean/Afro American descent) place more significance on values of interdependence and spend more time fulfilling family demands. However, this study seems to focus on how young people facilitate the needs of their parents as a family obligation, without 21
1 Growing up and Being Young: Theoretical Perspectives
placing much emphasis on how young people are mutually dependent upon their family. In another study several decades ago, Johnson (1977: 352-353) used the concept of family solidarity, which revolves around the concepts of reciprocity, indebtedness, and dependence as kinship mechanisms that better explain how interdependence is played out among Japanese Americans in Honolulu (Hawaii). Mutual dependence was reflected in young people staying with their families until marriage and seeking advice from their parents, while ageing parents relied on their children to care for them rather than on nursing homes. Thus, leaving home was less of an issue in these contexts, as living in the natal home until marriage was a more accepted condition among families in these places. In some cases, married couples are even encouraged to stay in the natal home (Megawangi, et al., 1995: 102-104), where the parents still provide financial support (Lestari et al., 2010: 143). This means that young people in different societies and different contexts face different challenges and issues in growing up. To sum up, despite the differences, the life span, emerging adulthood, and youth transition perspectives share similarities. They all focus on an idealised concept of growing up, framed within the assumption of progress through idealised linear life stages and life domains. Age is a seen as a prominent factor in progressing through the life stages, whether as a biological factor affecting progress towards psychological/social maturity or as an indicator of appropriate timing and ways to participate in (adult) social institutions. Independence is often assumed to characterise the progress towards adulthood in studies carried out in the Global North, while interdependence is highlighted in studies in the Global South. Other paths, which do not 22
1 Growing up and Being Young: Theoretical Perspectives
progress through the life stages in linear manner, at the ‘normal’ age and according to societal norms, are often assumed to be the mark of a young person’s failure to adapt to society. The growing up perspective thus tends to emphasise the ‘normality’ versus ‘deviance’ dimensions of the process of a young person becoming an adult.
Being Young In the section above, I have explained how the growing up perspective sees youth as a stage of transition to adulthood. In this section, I will show how the being young perspective sees youth as a social category in their own right, and not as half-complete humans in transition to adulthood. Here, I will use the social identity theory and youth subculture perspective. Social identity theory basically assumes that identity is derived from membership in a certain social group while the youth subculture perspective focuses on how youth identity is formed through the production and consumption of culture (Wyn and White, 1997: 73). Social Identity Social identity theory stems from psychology, but was formulated based on sociological ideas (Hogg and Ridgeway, 2003: 97). The social identity approach assumes that a person’s identity is constructed in relation to social groups (Hogg et al., 1995: 259-260) and social roles (Stryker and Burke, 2000: 285) through group membership. Individuals attach different meanings to various social categories. Individuals seek to be identified with social categories that elevate their status, and try to 23
1 Growing up and Being Young: Theoretical Perspectives
distinguish themselves from social groups (roles) that they perceive as lower in status (Tajfel, 1974: 65). In an effort to elevate their status, individuals evaluate the in-group more positively than the out-group (Sussman et al., 2000: 192-196). This process often leads to prejudice and stereotyping (Brown, 2010: 4; Verkuyten, 2002: 558). Social identity theories emphasise individual efforts at identity construction, but also recognise that sometimes the individual’s process of identification is denied by the group that he or she identifies with (Verkuyten, 2005: 6466). People constantly behave in a particular way to affirm their place in the group they identify with. The strength of this theory is that it explains the effect of group membership on the individual’s sense of self (in the cognitive, emotional, and behavioural dimensions). This perspective manages to explain the formation of attachment to the group(s) one identifies with, as well as the negative biases and effect that individuals have on members of the out-group, including – or perhaps especially – in the context of youth. This perspective has informed various studies focusing on racial, ethnic, or national social identities among young people (among others, see Verkuyten and Lay, 1998; Reicher et al., 2006). Verkuyten and Lay argue that the influence of group status on the psychological well-being of Chinese youth in the Netherlands is greater than that of the cultural values socialised by their parents. Reicher et al. (2006) focus on the role of the national identity of being Scottish in the decision to take up work in England. They find that in contexts of longterm migration, the more Scottish a person feels he/she is, the more likely they are to stay in Scotland. The decision to stay is based on concerns of whether they will be able to fit in with English society. In other words, Verkuyten and Lay’s study re-emphasises the importance 24
1 Growing up and Being Young: Theoretical Perspectives
of group status to one’s sense of self, while Reicher et al. highlights the significance of in-group membership for one’s sense of belongingness. This theory is helpful to understanding young people by viewing youth identity as a part of social identity in itself. This means that young people are assumed to claim age-based group membership, and make efforts to construct a youth identity because they see the youth category as a high status group. Thus, being a member of the youth group supports a positive evaluation of the self, encouraging young people to behave in ways that signify their identity as youth. It explains why some young people become members of ‘deviant’ youth groups or other peer-related groups that adults have a negative view of, as these groups provide a sense of self-worth (Pickles, 2006). While age is important to claim membership of a youth identity, it is not the sole determinant. Those who are young by age, but have married or have established a successful career, may reject the youth identity, because marriage and work symbolise success or the achievement of a ‘good life’ in adulthood (Nilan et al., 2011b: 714). This perspective, however, fails to capture the importance of the generational aspect in the lives of young people. The concept of generation recognises the existence of asymmetrical power relations between youth and adults, where youth are often positioned as subordinate, powerless, and marginal in relation to adults. In this case, the concept of social identity fails to explain why young people, often marginalised in relation to adults, continue to express their youth identity (for instance, through fashion, youth gangs, language, etc.). Why do young people (who are unmarried, out of school and out of work) continue to affirm their youth identity when being young also means being subordinated by adult society? If a positive evaluation of 25
1 Growing up and Being Young: Theoretical Perspectives
the group is the main basis for the construction of social identity, how does being a part of a subordinated group in relation to adults, support this as a basis for increasing self-esteem? To answer the above questions, another approach to being young needs to be taken into account: the youth subculture theory. Youth Subculture The youth subculture approach, which is derived from sociological literature, demonstrates that youth identity is culturally and socially constructed in relation to the dominant, adult culture. It posits that young people’s identification with the adult culture is often denied by the adult world. This discourages young people from finding belonging in the adult identity and encourages them to enhance their status through other channels, such as seeking attachments with groups of their own generation as a way to construct a more meaningful identity (Cote and Allahar, 1996: 20-21). It thus assumes that young people construct their identity as a form of resistance against the domination of adult cultures. Youth subcultures enable a shift from social identity assigned by adult society to an identity that young people perceive as empowering (Widdicombe and Wooffitt, 1995: 24-25).9 This approach explains how present needs of social existence are accomplished by experiencing an alternative form of social reality, for
9
26
Based on Brake’s approach to youth subculture, the authors elaborate that youth subcultures provide a means by which young people are able to fill in the gap between an individual’s low status position and a position he/she aspires to. They show how subcultures provide symbolic solutions to marginalised youth (such as those who are disadvantaged in education or unemployed).
1 Growing up and Being Young: Theoretical Perspectives
example through leisure cultures.10 Youth subcultures are not confined to leisure cultures, but also extend to cultures of violence (Kadir, 2012: 352-365; Willis, 1977; McDowell, 2004: 49), criminality (Muncie, 2004), religion (AlRasheed, 2007; Nisa, 2012: 366-381), and the ‘politics of waiting’ (Jeffrey, 2010), which are often intertwined. This means that youth subcultures offer an opportunity outside adult-made domains (such as education or work) where young people are able to express themselves with their peers without adult scrutiny (Widdicombe and Wooffit, 1995: 24-25).11 Youth subculture scholars suggest that particular spaces or places (such as streets or pubs) are often used as boundaries that facilitate identity construction (Hollands, 2002: 160). Postmodern approaches to subculture (post-subculturalism) see subcultures as fluid. Bennet (1999) gives an example of the club culture, in which membership is not fixed and young people move from one club to another without any attachment to a particular group as such. Thus, the issue emphasised here is the forming of strong relations of interdependence among people of the same generation as an act of resistance towards adult culture, as a denial of the superiority of adult culture (through ignorance), and as a way young people form their identity (vis-à-vis the adult identity) in the midst of modernisation and globalisation (Bucholtz, 2002). For example, Masquelier (2010: 226-229), argues that Muslim youth in Nigeria negotiate their identity as Muslim youth by adopting particular styles or practices that the elderly find irreligious. Believing that Islam is transcendental rather than mere religious 10
11
Studies of leisure culture include those in relation to music (Johnstone and Katz, 1957), fashion, drugs, consumption, sexual relations, and, recently, the internet (Liu, 2009). Subculture studies often focus on working class young men (Bennet and Kahn-Harris, 2004: 7), but have also paid particular attention to young women’s ‘bedroom culture’ (Lincoln, 2004).
27
1 Growing up and Being Young: Theoretical Perspectives
performance of daily prayers (as their parents’ generation suggests), hip hop music (along with its style of clothing and accessories) has become a media through which they demonstrate their stance towards constructing their Muslim youth identity vis-à-vis that of the older generation. Studies focusing on the experiences of ‘being young’ conducted in the Global North and the Global South share similarities in focus, being largely dominated by issues of lifestyle and identity. Lifestyle is generally seen as a part of the formation of youth identity. Johnstone and Katz (1957: 565-566) and Bennet (1999: 609-611), for example, discuss how youth identity is constructed through music and style preferences. Johnstone and Katz argue that music preference among young people in the US is related to where young women live, their popularity among peers, and their personal relationships. Young women from higher social class backgrounds, who are popular with young men, and who do not date frequently, tended to prefer happy and popular songs. In contrast, young women from lower social economic neighbourhoods, who are not popular, and who date frequently, preferred blues music. Four decades on from Johnstone and Katz’s study, Bennet conducted a similar study of dance music in Newcastle, United Kingdom, which focuses on the formation of youth culture12 as an attempt to construct youth identity per se. However,
12
28
Youth culture refers to a social and cultural positioning in which age becomes the main marker that binds people together. The use of youth culture often implies that there is a single youth culture that applies among all young people – mostly in relation to global (Western in particular) life styles. On the other hand, youth subculture is more specific, emphasising the differences within youth culture related to class or family background (Pilkington et al., 2002: 14; Wyn and White, 1997: 75). Youth culture is used here instead of youth subculture because being young is not only about youth cultural practices in relation to class or family background (as in youth subculture approach), but also about how it represents a global culture.
1 Growing up and Being Young: Theoretical Perspectives
instead of looking at structural determinants in the shaping of young people’s identity, Bennet underlines the prominence of agency and fluidity in the construction of youth identity in modern times, rather than identity being determined by structural categorisations such as class. For instance, Bennet explains how young people are agents who participate in the construction of dance music that suits their own preferences, rather than being passive recipients of what dance music is available to them. This process is not necessarily related to one’s social class. Many youth studies focus on issues of lifestyle and youth identity in the Global South, illustrating the dynamics of local and global forces in the formation of youth identity, such as in Indonesia (which I will describe in greater detail in the section ‘Main Trends in Studies on Indonesian Youth’), China (Liu, 2009; Salmen, 2010; De Kloet, 2008; O’Connor, 2010), Korea (Yoon, 2003), and South Africa (Salo, 2003). Salmen (2010: 4) suggests that despite the growing wealth in China that has enabled wealthy Chinese to access global consumer goods, most Chinese youth who aspire to global citizenship are unable to purchase global brands. The same applies to young people with low incomes in Western countries, who may be even less likely to be able to afford global brands than their rich counterparts in non-Western countries. Thus, young peoples’ efforts to claim global citizenship in the Global South are often sought through lifestyling (Gerke, 2000), such as buying affordable local products that resemble global branded ones. This also means that in non-Western countries, the influence of Western culture among young people does not necessarily lead to cultural homogenisation. Rather, identity is formed within local contexts where
29
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the adoption of Western culture is modified or ‘re-traditionalised’ (Yoon, 2003). As found in studies on young people in the Global North (Reyes, 2005; Bucholtz, 2001; Miller, 2004) that suggest language is an important aspect to the formation of youth identity, similar conclusions are found in the Global South. However, based on a study in Indonesia, Smith-Hefner (2007b) asserts that youth language is not always meant to counter adult domination. Along the same lines, Englert (2008) found that youth language used in popular music in Tanzania is aimed at forming a youth identity that generates respect across generations, rather than countering adult cultures or trying to gain respect from the older generation per se. Other studies in these contexts focus on the experience of being young in relation to present livelihood opportunities in the informal economy. Scheld (2007: 235) and Weiss (2009) describe how youth lifestyles in Africa are not only a way in which young people try to take part in globalisation through their youth identity, but also a way in which they fulfil their present economic needs. In Dakar, Senegal, youth cultures are linked to the informal economy of producing and distributing clothing. Scheld argues that youth cosmopolitanism offers the feeling of being part of the global fashion trend, while also boosting the local economy and supporting the current livelihood of young people there. Sharing a common perspective, Weiss (2009) in his study on young people in Tanzania also shows how global-local cultures are expressed through the setting up of barbershops with a ‘Western’ touch. Barbershops are not only a way that young men earn money, but also portray an effort to take part in the globalisation process. Along the same lines, Amin (2012: 36) shows how the informal economy of ojeg 30
1 Growing up and Being Young: Theoretical Perspectives
(motorcycle taxis) provides space for young men to assert their identity through the youth cultures of hanging out and sports in Ternate, Eastern Indonesia. To conclude, the ‘being young’ perspective focuses on issues of identity and how youth identity is constructed. Youth identity is constructed in two, possibly related, ways. First, youth identity is formed mainly through membership (or aspirations to membership) in a youth group. Here, age is an important (though not necessarily a determining) factor motivating young people to claim membership of a youth group that forms youth identity. Other factors, such as being married or having stable work, on the contrary, may make a young-in-age person less likely to claim youth identity. Second, youth identity is also formed through cultures practiced by young people – either as members of a group or as a process of identification to a more general youth culture (without necessarily being part of a particular youth group). This includes the use of ‘youth language’ as a basis for the formation of a youth identity. Here, being young is often construed as being opposed to being an adult, and being in a particular relationship with adults, thus, denying any ‘superiority/dominance’ of adult culture. Youth identity as explained by the youth culture perspective dwells on processes that distinguish youth identity from adult identity. Youth cultures help explain why young people, regardless of their subordinate position to adults, continue to affirm their youth identity. Youth identity is also about seeing young people as living in and for the present, rather than seeing them as in progress towards adulthood and having to be prepared for their future social roles. This includes instances where young people make a living from practices of youth cultures, rather than fulfilling the normative ideal of moving from education to work to become an adult. 31
1 Growing up and Being Young: Theoretical Perspectives
Main Trends in Studies on Indonesian Youth The previous section dealt with the theoretical perspectives of growing up and being young. This section will elaborate some of the main trends in studies on Indonesian youth. Studies on young people in Indonesia stem from various academic disciplines (especially psychology and family/health studies), and do not necessarily frame their analysis on key concepts within the discipline of youth studies. Aside from the interdisciplinary nature of youth studies, what sets youth studies apart from other disciplines is that it studies young people in their own right, rather than seeing young people as an extension of the family, as often the case in family and health studies. Thus, the concept of age-based relations constitutes an important part of youth studies, including critical
discussions
about
youth
participation,
empowerment,
subordination and marginalisation. Only a few studies, most carried out by Western academics such as Nilan (2006) and Smith-Hefner (2007a), frame their work within a youth studies perspective. The mainstream ideas of growing up, the link between the timing of human progress, life domains, and the structural conditions that constrain or support ‘progress’ have made education-to-work transitions a major focus of studies on young people in Indonesia. Most literature on growing up among Indonesian youth discusses the disruptions in making a smooth transition. Young people are often viewed in the context of risky behaviour or juvenile delinquency (commonly called kenakalan remaja), such as sexual behaviour leading to unwanted pregnancy/abortion (Khisbiyah, 1994; Faturochman, 1992; Bennet, 2007; Lubis, 2006; Supriati and Fikawati, 2009; Harding, 2008), smoking/drugs (Ng et al., 2007), and involvement in illegal migration
32
1 Growing up and Being Young: Theoretical Perspectives
(Liow, 2003). Otherwise, they position youth as a social problem in cases of underachievement and un/underemployment (Manning and Junankar, 1998). Thus, this literature basically discusses young people’s experiences of ruptured transition from education to work, referring for the most part to the shortcomings of the education system encouraging ‘risky behaviour’, such as smoking (Ng et al., 2007: 797). Others point to the weak link between the educational system and the labour market as inhibiting
the
‘proper’
transition
to
adulthood.
Youth
un/underemployment (as one of the consequences of the disruption of the education-to-work transition) is seen as a consequence of the gap between demographic factors (the youth bulge) and education/labour market opportunities (Hugo, 2005: 64-67), the mismatch between education institutions and the labour market (Sziraczki and Reerink, 2004: 28), or expanding capitalism and neoliberalism (Naafs, 2012a: 52-61). Eilenberg’s (2005: 178) study of borderland Iban in West Kalimantan, for instance, describes the failure of the education system to provide opportunities for social mobility, especially among the minority, such as those living in borderlands. Another study highlights how a large foreign owned mining company in Sangatta, East Kalimantan, has offered better access to education, but in which not all young people are equally included in the economic opportunities it has to offer. Those from lower social and economic backgrounds continue to be excluded from working in the company, due to their low educational credentials (Lahiri-Dutt and Mahy, 2011: 43-44). Thus, education also seems to maintain the social reproduction of an elite circle (Nilan, 2005: 165), allowing certain segments of society to become independent adults while restricting the opportunity for others. 33
1 Growing up and Being Young: Theoretical Perspectives
As well as looking at the structural shortcomings in education and the labour market, other studies on young people in Indonesia also focus on their agency in pursuit of better education-to-work transitions, either through migration or joining religious groups (Azca, 2011: 177184; Noorhaidi, 2005: vi). This includes cyclical rural-to-urban migratory experiences to pursue education or work (Kiem, 1993: 73-76, Koning, 1997: 221-222; Speare and Harris, 1986: 241-242; Liow, 2003: 45). Koning, for instance, looks into how social change in rural Java has affected the patterns of migration among the younger generation. Circular migration to Jakarta becomes more common, as sources of livelihood in the village decline, paralleled by the need to pursue the cultural ideal of being modern by obtaining urban experiences. The topic of sexuality dominates most studies of the growing up process among Indonesian youth. Limited knowledge about sex and reproduction (Faturochman, 1992: 77, Lubis, 2006) accompanied by exposure to pornography (Supriati and Fikawati, 2009: 50-56, Harding, 2008) is viewed as the main cause of illicit sexual activities (Sikwan and Triastuti, 2004) or seks bebas (free sex)13, unplanned pregnancies (Butt and Munro, 2007), unwanted pregnancies (Khisbiyah, 1994), sometimes leading to induced abortion and the stigmatisation and marginalisation of the young women involved (Hull et al., 1993; Bennet, 2001).14 Aside from that, spread of sexually transmitted diseases has been on the rise, 13
14
34
Among young people in Indonesia, seks bebas usually refers to pre-marital sex with one or multiple partners. Bennet (2007: 373) explains that seks bebas also refers to extramarital sex, prostitution, and homosexual relationships. While Khisbiyah’s work does not specifically include discussion of Islam, how gender works within religious norms is discussed by Bennet (2001: 37) and Butt and Munro (2007). Bennet argues that how young people react to unwanted pregnancies is influenced by the morality of society – in this case Islam. Butt and Munro discuss sexual behaviour within a Christian community in Papua.
1 Growing up and Being Young: Theoretical Perspectives
especially among marginalised populations such as street youth (Situmorang, 2006). Promotion of sexual and reproductive health education, especially if in keeping with the cultural and religious background of Indonesian society (Bennet, 2007: 372), is often believed to lower the incidence of unintended consequences of sexual practice (Rani, 2009: 101-109) that could disrupt future education, work, and marriage trajectories. In these studies, the role of the family and school as young people’s moral guardians and a security net to ensure a smooth transition to the future is often highlighted (Afandi et al., 2009: 5-8; Manning and Junankar, 1998: 90).15 As in the studies on Indonesian youth that employ the growing up perspective, only a limited number of studies, mostly carried out by foreign academics, look into young people’s lives through the lens of youth identity (being young). In the context of being young in Indonesia, lifestyles and identity in a modernising world remain the main topics discussed in the literature. Some of the studies emphasise youth identity as a form of rebellion against the adult world (as youth culture), and some (though to a lesser extent) look into youth identity as a strategy to fit within the peer group (as social identity). Some of the studies that touch upon the issue of social identity, including those written by Pickles (2006), Guinness (2009), Nilan et al. (2011a), and Leksana (2009), show the value of membership of the youth group for young people. Pickles’ (2006) study shows how youth identity is built in to the relation to the peer group. He describes how heroin use among young people in Jakarta provides a means to form 15
An exception here is Bennet (2007: 374-375) who finds that peers play a more significant role in delivering sex education. Holzner et al. (2004: 47) also shows how young people actively seek information on sexuality from media, outside the confinements of the family, state or religious institutions.
35
1 Growing up and Being Young: Theoretical Perspectives
the ‘junkie character’, which raises one’s status in that group. Because heroin is costly, only those with the junkie character (assumed to be confident, intelligent, deceitful, stingy and arrogant) will manage to obtain, distribute, and use heroin. The other studies describe how youth groups or gangs, mostly consisting of young men, often function as a media for young men to construct their masculine identity. For instance, in Jakarta, ethnic-based youth groups are often involved in violent clashes. These groups provide a sense of belonging for marginalised young men to form a masculine identity. Through activities that are sometimes illegal and violent, the group provides access to temporary work, which gives young men a sense of ‘being young and being male’ (Leksana, 2009: 3). Young men in the ojeg (motorcycle taxi) business express their identities by constructing and redefining space through pangkalan ojeg (space occupied by a group of ojeg drivers) in urban Ternate, Eastern Indonesia (Amin, 2012: 37-42). Various arenas of youth culture – music (Barendregt and Van Zanten, 2002; Barendregt, 2008: 24), fashion (Uttu, 2006; Nilan, 2006: 91110; Nisa, 2012: 366-381 and Jones, 2007), movies (Sulistyani, 2006), language (Smith-Hefner, 2007a, 2007b), and drugs (Nasir and Rosenthal, 2009) - cutting across gender, class, religion and ethnicity are also discussed. These youth cultures are often seen as a form of youth agency to counter the adult culture. Martin-Iverson (2012: 386) and Barendregt and Van Zanten (2002: 81-82), for instance, describe the emergence of underground and indie music16 among young people in Indonesia. The producers of underground and indie music reinforce the ‘do it yourself’ attitude by preferring to establish their own independent 16
36
Indie music is a combination of alternative and underground music (Barendregt and Van Zanten, 2002: 81-82).
1 Growing up and Being Young: Theoretical Perspectives
labels.17 This ‘do it yourself’ attitude is also apparent in distro fashion. Uttu (2006) describes how young people in Indonesia creatively seek existence through fashion and style by establishing independent fashion outlets called distro.18 Distro is short for distribution and in Indonesia, is a word derived from bahasa gaul19(youth language). It now refers mainly to youth fashion outlets, selling clothes, accessories and merchandise. The idea of being independent through indie productions or through distro was initially politically inspired – a reaction to the repression of the New Order regime. However, since 2003, it has become a mainstream fashion that has expanded to other cities in Indonesia outside of its city of origin, Bandung, West Java. It has lost its political roots and has instead become a lifestyle choice.20 Youth language (bahasa gaul), a language variation derived from the national language, Indonesian (Smith-Hefner, 2007b: 184), is a well-studied dimension of Indonesian youth culture, which is often used to separate youth identity from adult identity. However, it has also been found that youth language is used to strengthen solidarity and interpersonal relationships among young people and differentiate the identities of groups of young people. For instance, youth language reinforces the identity of being part of the young modern middle class (Smith-Hefner, 2007b; Oetomo, 1990), and of being transgender (Fazly, 2012), and functions as a symbol of intimate friendship (Wijana, 2012). 17
18
19
20
The indie movement has extended outside the realm of music to include other forms of youth culture that form an image of rebelliousness (such as the punk subculture). Distro has close connections to underground music bands selling their merchandise. The merchandise is made by and for young people. Gaul literally means socialising or sociable, of being able to communicate in the right way by creating and playing with new words considered ‘cool’ by the young (Barendregt, 2008: 166) The author notes that in Bandung, there are currently more than 200 distro.
37
1 Growing up and Being Young: Theoretical Perspectives
Youth language is also used in text messages and emails, and on chat forums (Barendregt, 2008: 166). These studies confirm Smith-Hefner’s (2007b) finding that youth language is significant in the formation of a youth identity, and is not always intended to counter adult culture. The culture of youth sexuality is also an important part of studies on being young (Webster, 2010; Saxby, 2006). Instead of emphasising how sexual behaviour is potentially harmful in making a ‘proper’ transition to adulthood, sexuality is viewed as part of youth culture. Drawing on youth events (such as music concerts) in Yogyakarta, Webster (2010) argues that these events provide space that encourages active pursuit of love and sex among young people, away from adult scrutiny. She explains how certain sexual terms are used by the hosts of these events to promote a more open attitude towards sex. These events often encourage the idea of sexual freedom and rebellion against religious norms. The studies about youth in Indonesia reviewed above largely focus on the structural constraints of growing up in the context of education to work transitions. They discuss the flaws in the education system and the labour market, which fail to facilitate a smooth transition for young people. In the domain of sexuality, the focus shifts to young people’s own sexual behaviour and how their sexual behaviour has negative effects on growing up, especially on how it defies society’s moral norms. Rarely do the studies touch upon the issues of independence or interdependence in relation to these ruptured transitions. On being young, only a few studies focus on youth identity from the social identity perspective. Most emphasise various forms of youth culture in the shaping of youth identity, in which language, art performances, fashion, violence, and lifestyle set youth identity apart 38
1 Growing up and Being Young: Theoretical Perspectives
from the dominant adult culture. Most of the studies about youth identity therefore seem to portray youth as always busy within their own youth world, oblivious of how to become adults. Aside from that, although the studies above focus on diverse contexts, they rarely mention how youth culture develops in the contexts of education and work. The studies seem to suggest that growing up and being young are contradictory processes in young people’s lives, and that ‘being young’ only matters when it becomes a media to challenge adult norms, or that impediments to growing up (either due to structural constraints or wanting to ‘be young’) result in imperfections in one’s adult life.
Growing Up and Being Young In the previous sections, I have described the basic premises of the growing up perspective and the being young perspective. Both perspectives see growing up and being young as two separate processes. Though the youth subculture perspective assumes that a connection exists between youth identity and the adult identity, it is used to state that young people construct their identity as a way of building their own world in resistance to adult culture. Thus, adults and youth remain separate (and so do growing up and being young). In this section, I will discuss the need to combine both perspectives, and describe two patterns of relationship between growing up and being young. The first pattern I refer to as ‘being young while growing up’, which places greater emphasis on the ‘being young’. The second pattern, the ‘growing up while being young’, places more emphasis on the process of growing up. At the end, I will show that
39
1 Growing up and Being Young: Theoretical Perspectives
young people can move in and out of these categories, rather than remaining in one category throughout their life time. Combining the Perspectives Naafs and White (2012) identify three perspectives on youth, based on studies conducted in Indonesia: youth as generation, youth as transition, and youth as makers and consumers of culture. The growing up perspective is similar to the ‘youth as transition’ perspective, while the being young perspective is similar to the ‘youth as makers and consumers’ perspective proposed by the authors. I view the ‘youth as generation’ perspective – understanding youth as a demographic cohort, seen in relation to generations and as a group consciousness – as a perspective that combines the two main perspectives of ‘growing up’ and ‘being young’. Thus, this will be an approach that is central to this study. For instance, I see intergenerational relations as constituting relationships
that
construct
the
growing
up
process,
while
intragenerational relations facilitate the construction of a youth identity or of being young. The relation between growing up and being young is not new, as described by Mathews and White (2004: 4): …young people largely create their own world as they have been molded to create it, unwittingly reproducing the world of their elders because they know no other. However, it seems that aside from this, there is also always a degree of volition at work. After all, every generation of youth in the contemporary world has a choice of whether to reproduce, reject, or reshape the world of its elders. 40
1 Growing up and Being Young: Theoretical Perspectives
This quote contains concepts of generation and social reproduction. Mannheim (1952: 288-290) differentiates the concept of generation into: 1) generation as concrete social groups and 2) generation as mere collective facts. As social groups, individuals are bound by ‘ties of proximity’ (such as the family) or by a conscious common goal (such as associations). However, Mannheim takes a more critical view of the term generation that goes beyond these concrete social groups. Unlike concrete social groups such as the family (in which physical contact and knowledge of its members are the basis of its formation) or associations (where conscious aims or goals bind the members together), what ties a generation together involves another aspect – the consciousness of social location. This is what he refers to as ‘generation as mere collective fact’. Consciousness of social location can be defined as participation in a similar historical-social experience and having consciousness of the events which produce knowledge structures transferred to the next generation. Aside from defining the concept of generation, another of Mannheim’s important contributions is how generation is linked to the concept of social and cultural reproduction through intergenerational relations (Mannheim, 1952: 292-294). In intergenerational relations, the process of cultural transmission that facilitates the occurrence of social reproduction is often accompanied by a process of adaptation and negotiation by the younger generation (Mannheim, 1952: 292-294). Adaptation and negotiation in cultural transmission includes looking at how each generation conceptualises the meaning of and experience of being young and growing up, within the changing political, social and economic conditions they face (Wyn and Woodman, 2006: 499).
41
1 Growing up and Being Young: Theoretical Perspectives
Growing up is about the process of reproduction of adult cultures. No matter how much social change young people face, they are socialised by the values and practices of the older generation. However, which values and practices are reproduced, how, and to what extent, is largely a matter of agency on the part of young people, often realised through the formation of youth cultures. Thus, intra and intergenerational relations are significant in the transmission of cultural values and practice, and ensure the flow of social reproduction. Interdependence, Social Reproduction and Generational Relations I will now describe how the relation between growing up and being young works by distinguishing it into the two main patterns introduced at the beginning of this section: ‘being young while growing up’ and ‘growing up while being young’. Within these patterns, the concepts of generation, social reproduction and interdependence will facilitate an explanation of the dynamics at work. Literature on youth frequently discusses two forms of inter and intragenerational relations: relations of independence and dependence. The growing up perspective assumes that independence makes adulthood, while dependence denotes youth. However, interdependence seems to reflect the reality of inter and intragenerational relations in every day practices rather than relations of independence or dependence. Interdependence can be defined as a state of mutual dependence that contributes to the well-being of those involved in the relationship, as in a symbiotic relationship (Scanzoni, 2001: 703). Raeff (2006: 56-57) suggests the need to see independence and interdependence as a continuum. Raeff argues that human functioning is based on independence and interdependence as ‘humans 42
1 Growing up and Being Young: Theoretical Perspectives
are physically and mentally separate and are also socially connected’. However, I see independence as relational rather than an individual state. Independence as a state totally free from dependence upon others seems like an obscure notion, since humans are after all, social beings. On the other hand, total dependence upon others in social relations is also rare. Even elderly people who live with their children may try to keep their autonomy by expressing their need for privacy and freedom to do what their children think they should not do (Wenger, 1987: 369). This shows that social relations, including generational ones, are based on interdependence rather than on independence or dependence. The family plays a critical role in the process of cultural and social reproduction, especially through interdependent relations of caring, familial obligation, and bonds of reciprocity (Johnson, 1977: 351).21 Magazine
and
Sanchez
(2007:
52-53)
show
how
interdependence within the family constitutes the accepted form of social reproduction and cultural transmission. They describe how lower class families in Tlalcuapan, Mexico continue to involve children in the world of work to contribute to the family’s economy, despite improving economic conditions and pressures of schooling. Instead of viewing this practice as exploitation or as a way of training to become future adults, the people of Tlalcuapan in the study view this as a way in which relations of interdependence in the family are played out.
21
Wyn and White (1997: 149) state that interdependencies involve not only mutual dependence between persons, but also adult-based institutions (such as education, educational institutions and what is expected from young people in the educational domain).
43
1 Growing up and Being Young: Theoretical Perspectives
Children do not work primarily out of necessity or for educational reasons, but rather because familial relations and the process of social reproduction are conceived of in terms of interdependence (Magazine and Sanchez, 2007: 53) Magazine and Sanchez seem to suggest that interdependence comes more naturally in developing countries such as Mexico. However, they also recognise that socio-economic circumstances often influence the dynamic of interdependent relations. Like Magazine and Sanchez’s study, Punch (2002: 124) argues that interdependence between parents and their children and between siblings in rural Bolivia is quite high as children contribute to the maintenance of the household economy. Rutten (2003: 169) also shows that the dominant mode of relations in the operation of iron casting factories in Batur, Central Java, is an interdependent family relationship that runs across generations. Family cooperation supports the existence and development of family factories through time. This suggests that intra and intergenerational interdependent relations in the family are more intense when economic insecurity reinforces the need for it, when life transitions are less predictable, and when state welfare systems do not cater fully to the needs of young people (Mendes and Moslehuddin, 2006: 123). Being Young While Growing Up This part will explore the pattern of relations between being young and growing up, here, placing more emphasis on processes of being young. The main focus here is to identify the continuities that exist between being young and growing up through youth cultures. Instead of merely 44
1 Growing up and Being Young: Theoretical Perspectives
seeing youth culture and adult culture as in tension or opposition to one another, it also recognises how certain aspects of youth culture are adopted from the adult world. Youth identity has connections to the adult world, even though it remains separate from it (Blackman, 2005: 12).22 The pattern of ‘being young while growing up’ is seen, for instance, in the freeters phenomenon explored in Masahiro’s work on Japan (Masahiro, 2001). Freeters are basically young people who refuse to take up long-term employment in companies.23 A generational analysis helps to see how the freeter youth, while rejecting social reproduction, hold on to the old norms of adult society. Referring to Mannheim, Kiem (1993: 27) explains how generation is an intersection of age and a historical dimension of the social process that binds people together. This is apparent in how the freeter culture came to being. The youth culture of freeters somehow contradicts the predictable life course of Japanese society during the post-war period, shaped by ‘company society’ (Ronald, 2009), in which people’s life worlds were ascribed to men’s long-term employment in companies. The emergence of the freeters in the 80s was a form of resistance against company society. Though meeting with disapproval from the older generation (Mathews
22
23
This is evident in how youth subcultures have connections to the parent culture (class), while also being different from them through use of certain symbols, dress codes, and life style available to them. For example, the hippie subculture has connections with middle class culture, but remains separate from it due to its engagement with a hedonistic lifestyle (Brake, 1985: 7). Masahiro categorizes freeters into three groups: the ‘on hold’ group, who are ambivalent about their choice of life; the ‘no choice’ group, who are working in temporary jobs while finding the opportunity to settle into a stable job; and the ‘dream-pursuing’ group, who are pursuing their dream job in the professional world rather than working for companies. The freeters I am referring to here are those in the third category.
45
1 Growing up and Being Young: Theoretical Perspectives
and White, 2004: 1-2), a group of young people expressed their desire to be free to pursue their own dream jobs by exploring their options in various temporary jobs that would someday lead the way to the job of their dreams (Iwakami, 2007: 7), which for most was in the professions (Masahiro, 2001). As the generational gap widens between the Japanese youngsters and the older generation, interdependence is evident in the fact that young people seek (and often ask for) peer advice (McVeigh, 2004: 110). Thus, interdependence is not limited to relationships between the parent and child or between siblings within the family. Interdependence among peers is equally important for young people (Adams and Plaut, 2003: 346),24 especially as Japan’s older generation is considered by young people to be ill-equipped to provide advice to them about facing the severities of the contemporary labour market (Honda, 2005: 14). However,
social
reproduction
is
never
completely
discontinuous. In this case, the freeters also hold on to the idea that they will someday be settling into a real job in the professional world at some point of their lives. This indicates that the adult culture that values stable jobs is still engrained in the minds of these young people, even though they are living the freeters youth culture. Growing up while Being Young The previous section has elaborated a perspective that emphasises how being young facilitates the process of growing up through young 24
46
In the article, the authors refer to the participants in the study as adults. However, they included many university students that I would categorise as youth.
1 Growing up and Being Young: Theoretical Perspectives
people’s agency in constructing their youth identity. This approach looks at the other side of the coin. In this section, the emphasis is mainly on how growing up is a structured process, and how young people give meaning to it (Wyn and White, 1997: 4). In this case, youngsters tend to accept the values of the older generation that ensure the process of social reproduction, but the process is constrained in various ways. This includes cases where growing up often forces young people to grow up too fast or too slow, become an adult earlier or stay young longer than the normative timing of transition. For example, Robson and Ansell (2000: 176-191) show how young people in Zimbabwe are growing up on the fast track because they have to juggle being secondary school students and caring for their elders. The authors criticise the taken for granted assumption that caring for elders is part of the social reproduction process in the South, where cultural values of caring for the older generation are considered normal and expected. Despite having a positive attitude towards caring as part of Christian morality, young people report that they feel they are carrying out adult responsibilities at a younger age than they should. They feel that there are constraints to caring because of their status as minors. This expresses the construction of a youth identity in the lives of young carers that is inseparable from everyday practices of caring. While Robson and Ansell provide a valuable insight into how the older generation are dependent upon the young (instead of the other way around), their study lacks information on two important issues in the relation between growing up and being young. First, there is very little elaboration on the mechanisms by which young people may also depend on the elderly they care for, at least, emotionally. Second, it does not describe how intragenerational relations play out and how 47
1 Growing up and Being Young: Theoretical Perspectives
young people actually try to negotiate the social obligations of caring with play or other dimensions of youth culture. In contrast, literature on the ‘slow track’ to adulthood provides more discussion on inter and intragenerational interdependent relationships, and how young people negotiate the tensions between growing up and being young. One of the conditions in which young people experience a slow track to adulthood is the ‘transition to nowhere’ (Herrera, 2010: 131). Transition to nowhere implies that the constraints to growing up are structural rather than a matter of choice, which is also evident in the case of ‘fast track’ to adulthood. It refers to a situation where disrupted transitions to adulthood result in young people feeling that they are stuck to their youth when they are actually ready to grow up. Herrera in Egypt (2010: 131-133) and Jeffrey et al. in the town of Meerut, India (2008) show how young men are often stalled in their process of growing up – jobless and without prospects for future marriage. They illustrate cases of unemployed young people who are frustrated because they feel they are going nowhere on their journey to adulthood. In India, young men have referred to their situation as engaging in ‘timepass’ or ‘purposeless waiting’, which is defined as passing time without any certainty of their direction for the future. Some of these educated Indian young men have even formed a group called ‘Generation Nowhere’, where they express their frustration over the decreasing value of their educational qualifications in the labour market (Jeffrey, et al., 2008: 739). Though timepassers are financially dependent upon their parents, parents are equally dependent upon them to secure the status of the family. This especially applies in cases of youngsters who continue to postgraduate courses as a way to ‘pass time’, since higher education 48
1 Growing up and Being Young: Theoretical Perspectives
also often means a higher status will be attributed to the family as a whole. At the same time, the timepassers often seek their social identity through engagement with young people who are in the same situation. They form a leisure culture of hanging out (Schielke, 2009), searching for entertainment through the internet (Herrera, 2010), or involvement in political or religious movements (Jeffrey, 2010). Political and religious movements provide a medium where young people can challenge the status quo, or dominant adult cultures. Thus, inter and intragenerational relations are equally important for young people experiencing this pattern of growing up and being young, though they tend to idealise the normative adult-made timetable of transition. Moving In and Out Though I have categorized the pattern of relations between growing up and being young in two separate processes, in reality an individual may engage in both patterns at different points in their life time. This, for instance, is illustrated by how young women deal with sexuality in Asia. For many Asian young women, social norms often confine the expression of sexuality. However, many young women are resisting these norms by secretly engaging in sexual activity without the knowledge of their parents or other adults. At first glance, it seems as if these women are focused on being young, developing a culture that defies the cultural, social, and religious values of the older generation. However, this resistance to ‘morality’ is also often accompanied by feelings of guilt (as argued for Indonesia by Sastramidjaja, 2001; Bennet, 2002). This shows that while some Asian women engage in premarital sex, they also internalise the cultural values of virginity. This suggests 49
1 Growing up and Being Young: Theoretical Perspectives
that these young women are engaged in the first pattern, ‘being young while growing up’. Asian youth’s access to knowledge about sexuality is limited, and young people tend to find knowledge about sexuality from sources outside adult institutions (Holzner and Oetomo, 2004). A gap between knowledge and practice of sexuality is often believed to contribute to unhealthy sexual relationships, including the practice of unprotected sex, often leading to sexually transmitted diseases or to unwanted pregnancies. Since premarital sex is considered a taboo, there is a tendency for pregnancies outside of wedlock to be socially sanctioned. As such, peers are usually the first place where young women seek advice and protection from the scrutiny of the adult world, especially when unwanted pregnancies occur. Those who choose to terminate their pregnancies by abortion are often supported by their peers. In contrast, young unmarried pregnant women who choose to keep the baby have to grow up on the fast track. They have to make decisions that may affect them in the long-term, such as choosing to be a single mother or getting married at a young age. In Indonesia, for instance, this cannot be done without the knowledge of parents and other family members. Since it is common for these young women to be dependent upon their family, both financially and emotionally, most young women in this situation in Indonesia choose the second option, sometimes due to family pressure. Families, though often embarrassed by this incident, are also dependent upon their daughter to protect the family’s reputation. On the one hand, the young women start prioritising their new role as a parent. Yet, many young mothers also try to make time for their peers, and often remain involved in practices of
50
1 Growing up and Being Young: Theoretical Perspectives
youth cultures.25 At this time in their life, young women have moved from ‘being young while growing up’ (prioritising youth identity) to ‘growing up while being young’ (prioritising growing up). To summarise, this section has focused on two patterns of relations between growing up and being young. The first elaborates on the continuities between growing up and being young, with more focus on the experience of being young through youth cultures. These youth cultures often reflect adult cultural values rather than being in total separation from them. Intragenerational relations are considered more important than intergenerational ones. The second pattern emphasises the growing up process in terms of the structured experience of growing up. As such, it discusses the tensions between growing up and being young. These tensions are evident from how prolonging being young is constrained by the need to grow up (fast track to adulthood) and how growing up is inhibited by being young (transition to nowhere). In this pattern, both intra and intergenerational relations are significant in young people’s lives, though young people tend to feel the need to fulfil adult expectations of a ‘proper’ transition. Youth culture in this case is formed as a strategy for coping with not being able to grow up, rather than a conscious act of resistance. Young people are not isolated or trapped in one particular pattern, but may move in and out of each pattern in their life time.
25
In the US, many young mothers still regard their relations with peers as significant (Higginson, 1998), some still engaging in the youth culture of drugs (McDonald and Armstrong, 2001: 219-220).
51
1 Growing up and Being Young: Theoretical Perspectives
Methodology Doing the Research The main research site of this study is Pontianak, West Kalimantan. In the Indonesian context, Pontianak is a provincial city which is ‘peripheral’ in relation to other bigger cities in Java. This means that power differentials in relation to the ‘core’ (the national or global) contextualise the lives of young people who live in these peripheral locations (Pilkington and Johnson: 2003; and Kjelgaard and Askegaard: 2006). However, as a provincial city (Koninklijk Instituut voor Taal-, Land- en Volkenkunde, 2012), its position as the capital city of the province also means that it is a core within the periphery. Education facilities, especially higher education, and work opportunities for young people in West Kalimantan are centred in Pontianak. West Kalimantan is a multiethnic society, with a history of ethnic segregation and ethnic conflict. Several ethnic conflicts have occurred in the region since the 1800s, mostly involving competition over resources (including access to natural resources such as gold, and until recently, competition for political positions). This core-peripheral position and the ethnic dynamics in this city are assumed to have implications for the strategies adopted by young people and their families in the processes of social reproduction, especially in the domains of education, work, and marriage. I started my research about Pontianak with one month of preliminary fieldwork in January 2008, intended to capture the current dynamics of the city and to identify the concerns of young people there. At this stage, I used only qualitative methods, especially focused group discussions. The discussions mainly involved young Malay men from 52
1 Growing up and Being Young: Theoretical Perspectives
West Kalimantan who were studying in Yogyakarta. Yogyakarta, the city where I live, was chosen because it is one of the cities in Java (aside from Jakarta and Bandung) that attracts many young people from Pontianak to study. Through the focus group discussions, I obtained new information about young people’s education and work aspirations. After the focus group discussion sessions in Yogyakarta, I spent the next two weeks of the preliminary study in Pontianak. Questions for my interview guideline in Pontianak were generated from the focus group discussions carried out in Yogyakarta. The interviews provided data on young people’s education and work aspirations and other aspects of young people’s life worlds (such as their boy/girlfriend or their relationship with their parents). The majority of informants at this stage were ethnic Malay, only two were Dayak and one was Chinese Indonesian26. The main fieldwork was carried out from August 2008 to July 2009. At this stage, a qualitative approach was used. This approach allowed room to understand the subjective experiences of young people within the context they live in. Qualitative data were generated using a number of methods: in-depth interviews, casual conversations, focused group discussions (held mainly to attain contacts), and secondary local sources. The qualitative data were supported by quantitative data generated from a small survey, which provided a general profile of young people in Pontianak and their future aspirations. One of the first steps that I took in starting this research was to find local research assistants (one female Malay and one male DayakMalay) who were in more or less the same situation as the informants I 26
Chinese Indonesian refers to Indonesian citizens who are of Chinese descent. From here onwards, they will be referred to as ‘Chinese’.
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1 Growing up and Being Young: Theoretical Perspectives
intended to interview: university educated youth, in their twenties, either still at university or un/underemployed. Together with my two assistants, I set up an ‘office’ near Tanjungpura University where we would meet to discuss the research process. One of my research assistants said that the office was important for her, because it gave her a sense of really ‘working’. Both assistants contributed office supplies as a way of demonstrating their ownership of the whole research process. But most importantly, they gave suggestions about and insight on young people’s life in Pontianak. Their stories and suggestions were invaluable for this research. The male Dayak-Malay assistant was very helpful in approaching non-Malay informants. His gender also made him more flexible when it came to securing and conducting interviews, especially with young men, who often felt more relaxed being interviewed in (male dominated) areas, such as coffee shops during late hours. My female assistant had many contacts and networks among Pontianak youth. Having studied in Pontianak during her university years, she was more familiar with young university educated people’s lives in Pontianak than the male assistant, who had studied in Yogyakarta. She often invited me to her home or to hang out, and to various reunions with her friends. A set of local publications were used to capture prominent local discourses relevant to young people and the three life domains that I focus on in this study. My main reference was a government published media, Berita Khatulistiwa (Berkat), which provided information on local political and labour market dynamics (especially concerning civil service recruitment), government projects, and government policy in general. The content was insightful, helping me understand how the state views local dynamics. I also referred to other local media (Tribun Pontianak and 54
1 Growing up and Being Young: Theoretical Perspectives
Pontianak Post), as well as novels and writings by local youth, to generate a picture of how young people see themselves, and their present and future social relationships at present within the local context. As mentioned, Pontianak is a multi-ethnic society which has experienced various ethnic conflicts in the past. This had implications for the way the research was conducted there, especially how to approach informants. The conflict has had quite an influence on how people here view ‘others’. In Pontianak, putting trust in a stranger (an Indonesian ‘stranger’, that is) is quite difficult, even among young people. West Kalimantan’s society is ethnically segregated into four main ethnic groups: Malay, Dayak, Madurese, and Chinese. The Malay and Madurese are associated with Islam, while the Dayak and Chinese are assumed to be non-Muslims. My identity as a Muslim is apparent from the headscarf that I wear. I had to be careful using my identity and choosing the right people to help me approach the informants. My Muslim headscarf, in combination with having a Malay husband, placed me in the circle of the Malays. Thus, it was relatively easy to obtain interviews with Malay youth. My Muslim identity also connected me to the Madurese youth. Yet, this identity was a drawback when it came to interviewing the Dayak and the Chinese, and this is where the male Dayak-Malay assistant proved helpful. To gain the trust of the Dayak, the Dayak-Malay assistant was placed in the front line. Though he actually identified himself more as a Malay27, his dual identity was quite useful in gaining the trust of Dayak youth. He introduced himself as a Dayak, but was 27
Aside from being Muslim and having a Minang mother from West Sumatera, he has lived most of his life among Malays.
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1 Growing up and Being Young: Theoretical Perspectives
honest enough to say that he was a Muslim. To gain trust among my Chinese informants, the head of the tertiary education institution, STMIK Widhya Dharma was approached. He was very open and helpful about providing me the opportunity to interview his students, most of whom are Chinese. Again, the Dayak assistant was better able to obtain information from Chinese youth, as they were more relaxed communicating with a Dayak than they were with a ‘Malay’ like me. A lot of time and energy was invested in approaching Dayak informants because the people in my Malay networks had few close friends of Dayak ethnic origin. In later interviews, the Dayak students revealed that they considered me too young to be a PhD candidate, and that this engendered a feeling of incompetence on their part.28 The arrival of my supervisor from the University of Amsterdam brought about some changes in their attitude. A focus group discussion session with students at the Faculty of Social and Political Sciences at Tanjungpura University was arranged with my supervisor. The topic of the discussion touched upon young people’s work aspirations and their experiences combining education and work. It also represented another attempt to open more doors to gain access to informants. Introducing a more authoritative figure than me (white, male, and senior), made them see me as less threatening. The student identity also somehow connected us as they started to express their curiosity about studying in Amsterdam.
28
56
Through informal conversations and interviews with Dayak youth in the later stages of my research, I found out that most of the Dayak students are from the rural areas. In these interviews, the Dayak youth expressed their concerns about lacking the confidence to speak out, especially in discussion forums. This is often due to language barrier; they feel that they are unable to speak proper Malay or Indonesian, especially in public and in front of non-Dayak people.
1 Growing up and Being Young: Theoretical Perspectives
Informants In-depth interviews were carried out with young people and parents. Young people as informants were acquired through a snowballing technique, keeping in mind a balance between genders and a variation in ethnic background. In total, 106 young people were interviewed, resulting in 136 interviews (some informants were interviewed more than once). The mean age of the informants was 24, most of them still at university (36 per cent) or university graduates (51 per cent). A small portion (13 per cent) of the informants were high school graduates. High school graduates were interviewed in order to better understand how those with a university education (compared to those with high school education) shape their future aspirations and ways of being young. Most of the informants were enrolled in or graduates of fouryear undergraduate courses (S1), while a few in other programmes of tertiary education (for instance, in diploma and postgraduate programmes) were included. This means that this study provides only a partial picture of how educated young people live their lives. However, I believe that the decision to focus on young people studying in or graduates of S1 programmes better reflects the gap between expectations of social mobility through long-term investment in higher education and the reality of under/unemployment among S1 graduates. Postgraduate programmes are even longer term investments in education, but most postgraduate students in Pontianak are working adults who are furthering their education for the purpose of career advancement, and not the educated young people this study targets.
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1 Growing up and Being Young: Theoretical Perspectives
Most of the young people in this study come from lower middle class families, in which the parents are either in the civil service (lower echelons of the bureaucracy or teachers), retired civil servants, small scale traders, or land-owning farmers. I started with the Malay youth and those who are considered part of the Malay group (mostly the Javanese Muslims and the Bugis). But in order to understand the social position of the Malay in relation to other ethnic groups, I then gradually started interviewing young people from the other main ethnic groups. The majority of the informants are non-migrants (60 per cent), meaning that most of them have been raised and lived in Pontianak almost all their lives. The gender and ethnic composition of the informants is shown in Table 1. Table 1 Informants by ethnicity
29
30
58
Frequency
Per cent
Malay
48
45
Chinese
17
16
Dayak
16
15
Others29
13
12
Madurese
12
11
Total
106
(100) 30
These were young people who were assumed to be Malay, but in fact did not identify themselves as Malay. They gave insights into how members of the other ethnic groups in West Kalimantan viewed their social position as a minority living in a social and cultural context dominated by members of the Malay, Dayak, Madurese, and Chinese communities. Column totals may not add to exactly 100 due to rounding of decimals.
1 Growing up and Being Young: Theoretical Perspectives
The majority of informants (45 per cent) were Malays. Table 1 also shows that interviews were conducted with thirteen members of ethnic groups other than the dominant ethnic groups in West Kalimantan (12 per cent). They consisted of young people from the Javanese, Bugis, Banjar, and Minangkabau ethnic groups. Table 2 shows that more young men (59 per cent) were interviewed than young women (41 per cent). The in-depth interviews provided valuable insights into how young people perceive their life experiences and their future aspirations. They largely remained focused on the individual young people’s accounts, rather than on how their social relations are actually played out. On several occasions, I was able to join them in their activities (such as participating in reunions, hanging out, class sessions, and during times when they were working). Thus, despite the tendency of this study to reflect young people’s subjective state of mind and feelings rather than ‘objective’ facts in their life experiences, it does not disregard the importance of these ‘objective facts’ in young people’s subjective life experiences. The decision to approach non-Chinese youth and the relatively easy access I had to the Malays in particular, means that the study tends to represent the narratives of non-Chinese young people. Table 2 Informants by gender Frequency
Per cent
Male
63
59
Female
43
41
Total
106
100
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1 Growing up and Being Young: Theoretical Perspectives
Additional interviews were carried out with parents to understand their values and how these did (or did not) shape young people’s lives. The questions posed were related to how they view the meaning of education, work, and marriage, and what expectations they had for their children in those three domains. A total of 12 parents were interviewed (seven mothers and five fathers). Interviews with bureaucrats (the mayor of Pontianak, the Regional Staff Bureau, and the Pontianak Education Office) and three senior academics were also carried out. These interviews provided a better understanding of the overall local context in terms of education and the labour market in Pontianak. Some informants did not mind having their identities disclosed; others were extremely cautious and repeatedly reminded me not to reveal their identities. To protect the identities of my informants, I have used pseudonyms and changed the names of subdistricts where the informants came from in the cases elaborated in the empirical chapters. An exception to this policy is the bureaucrats, such as the mayor of Pontianak, whose identities are public knowledge. Informants were aware that their photos were taken and might be used in published material.
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1 Growing up and Being Young: Theoretical Perspectives
Small Survey After carrying out interviews with young people for the first four months, I decided to carry out a small survey to obtain a general profile of young people in Pontianak (especially of those outside the Malay circle). The questionnaires were distributed at four different universities, and covered the topics of education, work, and family life aspirations and transitions. Pontianak society categorises universities in ethnic terms based on the perceived ethnic background of its students. I chose four universities that mirrored this categorisation, as seen in Table 3. The majority of the respondents were from the ‘Dayak’ university of STKIP, and the fewest from the Widya Dharma ‘Chinese’ university. Faculties and departments within these universities were chosen based on considerations of practicality, easier access, and assumed social economic background of students studying in those faculties and departments. The main focus of the first part of the questionnaire was why and how the respondents ended up studying at their university, and what they expected to attain from their studies (especially in relation to work opportunities). The questions in this part of the questionnaire allowed only one response, which in hindsight was not the best option; it meant that respondents had to choose one answer from the available choices of response, although in reality, other answers might also apply. For instance, a respondent might answer that he or she studied at Tanjungpura University because of his/her parents’ wishes. In fact, he/she might have also chosen Tanjungpura University because of other factors, such as the higher expectation of work opportunities if he/she
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1 Growing up and Being Young: Theoretical Perspectives
graduated from a state university. Hence, caution needs to be exercised when reading the conclusions of this survey.
Table 3 Summary details of the survey sample
University
Status
Perceived ethnic background of students
Faculty/ Department
N sample
%
UNTAN (Universitas Tanjungpura)
State
Malay (and Dayak)
Social Science (Sociology)
95
26
STAIN (SekolahTinggi Agama Islam Negeri)
State
Madurese
Tarbiyah (Islamic Education)
20
24
Syariah (Islamic Law)
67
STKIP (Sekolah Tinggi Keguruan Ilmu Pendidikan)
Private
History
32
Mathematics
47
Physical Education
35
Information Systems
47
Information Technology
24
Information Management31
2
STMIK (Sekolah Tinggi Manajemen Informatika dan Komputer) Widya Dharma
TOTAL SAMPLE
31
32
62
Private
Dayak
Chinese
369
31
20
(100)32
Only two students from the Department of Information Management, STMIK Widya Dharma filled in the questionnaire, because they were in a class that was held in the Information Systems department. Column totals may not add to exactly 100 due to rounding of decimals.
1 Growing up and Being Young: Theoretical Perspectives
In the second part of the survey, the respondents were asked to rank various items according to the respondent’s preference. For example, to understand young people’s work aspiration, respondents were asked to rank their work aspirations based on a number of job alternatives (civil service, business, worker in private company, politician, military, police, NGO worker, and other). Ranking or prioritising gave the respondents more room to express a range of choices. The implication of using the above sampling method is that there remains a possibility that different responses may have been given,
had
the
questionnaire
been
distributed
in
other
faculties/departments/higher education institutions. For instance, preferred faculties or departments (fakultas/jurusan favorit), such as the Faculty of Economics or Engineering at UNTAN, were not included in the survey. Preferred faculties are those where competition to enter is quite high and those that are considered to provide better future job prospects. Most students who enter these faculties or departments were high academic achievers during their high school years, and tend to come from higher (elite) social classes. Since this study intended to capture the experience of young people from the lower middle class, I focused
on
other
(non-preferred)
faculties/departments/higher
education institutions. This means that the answers given by respondents of this study may be different to those that would have been given by students from the preferred faculties (even at the same education institution) or higher education institutions. For instance, perhaps more agency in choosing faculties/departments would be observed among students from preferred faculties/departments in comparison to those studying in non-preferred faculties/departments. 63
1 Growing up and Being Young: Theoretical Perspectives
Due to the choice of sampling methods and the differing sizes of the samples for each university, the results of the small survey cannot be generalised to describe the whole of the university-educated youth population. However, the survey does provide useful conclusions about differences between universities, ethnic groups, gender, and class. In this section, I have discussed the methodology used in this study. Relying mainly on in-depth interviews has allowed a better understanding of the subjective life experiences of educated lower middle class youth in Pontianak. The small survey was useful in providing a general profile of young people in Pontianak, especially in relation to their education and work aspirations, and the differences in these aspirations between groups of young people. The focus group discussions were effective ways of networking and obtaining informants. The local secondary sources provided information about the contextual dynamics of the city, from the perspective of the state, and (to a lesser extent), from the perspective of young people. The choice to recruit young assistants was made not simply for reasons of practicality (such as accessing young informants); it was also intended to provide more room for participation in the research process by young people, whose contributions were invaluable for the research as a whole.
Conclusion This chapter has dealt with various theories on growing up and being young that frame this study. I have argued for the need to combine the two perspectives rather than seeing the two processes separately. This theoretical stance has influenced the choice of methodology used in
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this study. Using a largely qualitative approach that focuses on the results of in-depth interviews has facilitated the understanding of the contradictions, tensions and continuities between growing up and being young from young people’s point of view. Before presenting my main findings, the next chapter will provide an overview of the location of the study.
65
2 Contextualising Pontianak, Conceptualising Youth and Adulthood
2 Contextualising Pontianak, Conceptualising Youth and Adulthood
This chapter is divided into two sections. The first section will describe the research site of this study, Pontianak, West Kalimantan. It will focus on the historical, social and economic contexts of the city. It will also bring into perspective the position of Pontianak and West Kalimantan in relation to Indonesia as a whole. The second part of this chapter discusses how young people in Pontianak construct the meaning of youth and adulthood. The ways in which young people construct what it means to be young or an adult are influenced by the social context in which they live – in this case, a provincial town.
On the Margins: Locating West Kalimantan within the National Context After three decades of relatively steady but unevenly distributed economic growth, in 1997, Indonesia was one of the Asian countries that was most severely hit by the economic crisis - leading to the downfall of President Soeharto in 1998, ending a 32-year centralistic and authoritarian regime. Centralisation was seen to fail in developing regions outside of Java, therefore, decentralisation was introduced in 1999. The main idea of decentralisation was the handover of power 66
2 Contextualising Pontianak, Conceptualising Youth and Adulthood
from central government to regional governments to bring public services closer to the people, in hope that it would bring better development processes, especially in the outer islands such as West Kalimantan. The term ‘outer island’ is related to the geographical location of the province, and refers to islands outside of the Java mainland. Dutch rule in Indonesia placed Java as the centre of development in the country. The focus on Java (in particular, Jakarta), continued throughout the process of nation building and has resulted in a relatively wide gap between development in Java and that of the outer islands (Jacobsen, 2002: 2-4). Though the gap between Java and the outer islands has diminished and inequality between urban and rural areas is now more prevalent (Cameron, 2003: 6), the gap between Java and the outer islands remains. For instance, the ten poorest provinces in 2009 are located in the outer islands (Central Bureau of Statistics, 2010).
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2 Contextualising Pontianak, Conceptualising Youth and Adulthood
Figure 1 Map of West Kalimantan
West Kalimantan’s capital is Pontianak, which is located on the west coast of the province. To the north, this province shares borders with Malaysia, specifically the state of Sarawak. West Kalimantan is bordered by Central Kalimantan to the east, and by East Kalimantan to the northeast, while the Kalimantan Strait and the South China Sea form its western border. Many big rivers run through the province, the Kapuas River being the main one. This river is the longest in Indonesia, extending from the Mueller Mountains in the north east, to Pontianak in the west. It remains an important mode of transportation, especially for the movement of people and goods between the districts. West Kalimantan is inhabited by around four million people, most of whom reside in the coastal areas of the province, running from 68
2 Contextualising Pontianak, Conceptualising Youth and Adulthood
north to south. The interior part of West Kalimantan has fewer inhabitants, the fewest being in Kapuas Hulu district, where the population density is only six people per square kilometre. This is very low in comparison to the coastal areas where the average population density is 38 people per square kilometre (West Kalimantan Statistics Bureau, 2010). A majority of its land consists of forests and shrubbery. Its major income is from the agriculture, trade, and service sectors. In the agricultural sector, this province is known for its (limited) fruit production (such as oranges), forests (and rapid deforestation), rubber, and expanding palm oil plantations, which now dominate the agricultural sector and much of the rural landscape. It has lower rice production than Java does, as there is usually only one harvest every eight months in one year (West Kalimantan Statistics Bureau, 2010). Its historical experience of detrimental engagement in development has left West Kalimantan behind on some social indicators of development in comparison to other regions of Kalimantan and the national average, despite the implementation of decentralisation policy (see Table 4). In comparison to other provinces within Kalimantan, West Kalimantan’s poverty rate is the highest. Its HDI (Human Development Index) is also below that of other provinces in Kalimantan. The average number of years schooling is only six, fewer than in other provinces on the island, and in particularly stark contrast to East Kalimantan where eight years of schooling is the average. West Kalimantan has a lower poverty rate than Indonesia as a whole, yet West Kalimantan’s HDI, and years of schooling all fall below the national figure. This means that lower poverty rates do not necessarily reflect well-being, including having better access to education.
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2 Contextualising Pontianak, Conceptualising Youth and Adulthood
Table 4 Social and economic indicators of provinces in Kalimantan Percentage of Population Below Poverty Line33 (2008)
Human Development Index (HDI) (2007)
Years of Schooling (2007)
West Kalimantan
11.07
67.5
6.0
Central Kalimantan
8.71
73.5
7.3
South Kalimantan
6.48
68.0
6.9
East Kalimantan
9.51
73.8
8.1
Indonesia
15.42
70.6
7.0
Source: Central Bureau of Statistics (2009)
There is also a large gap in social development between urban and rural areas within West Kalimantan, illustrated, for example, by school participation rates. In 2009, two of its new rural districts (Kayong Utara and Kubu Raya) were recorded to have very low school participation rates, even among 7-12 year olds. In Kayong Utara, only 55 percent of children in that age group are in school; while in Kubu Raya, which shares borders with Pontianak, only 68 per cent of 7-12 year olds are in school. This is in stark contrast to Pontianak where the school participation rate for that age category is 97 per cent (Ministry of Education, 2012).
33
70
The poverty line is based on average household consumption per capita per month in each province.
2 Contextualising Pontianak, Conceptualising Youth and Adulthood
Ethnicity and Decentralisation in West Kalimantan As mentioned above, the change from centralistic to decentralised power in Indonesia is assumed to accelerate regional development processes through improved local governance, especially at the district (kabupaten) level. Though this assumption remains contested, the handover of some powers from central government to local government has shaped the belief that the state is now capable of accommodating local interests. However, local interests are also diverse, and struggles at the local level concerning who takes on these new powers have been a major issue in many regions (Van Klinken, 2002; 2003). The end of a long period of what the people of the outer islands perceive to be Javanese domination, has created a perception that ‘local people’ have the freedom to take hold of these newly acquired powers. This also holds true for West Kalimantan, where ethnicity has become an important factor for social inclusion in positions of power. The meaning of ‘local people’ is often associated with a particular ethnicity or ethnicities within the area. How ethnicity matters in this province is also demonstrated by the official slogan or motto of West Kalimantan, ‘Harmonis dalam Etnis’, which basically means ‘harmony in ethnic diversity’. To understand the dynamics of ethnicity within the context of decentralisation in West Kalimantan, a brief historical background of the province will be elaborated. Tirtosudarmo (2002: 4) states that West Kalimantan’s history is a ‘history of migration, or in other words, a history of interaction between migrants and the local people (or those who had arrived earlier) in this area.’ The Dayak inhabited the province before the arrival of the Malay, who arrived around the 1700s. When Arab immigrants came, they 71
2 Contextualising Pontianak, Conceptualising Youth and Adulthood
established what would then be known as Malay Sultanates and introduced Islamic influence (Government of Pontianak, 2009c). Though different Malay sultanates existed in West Kalimantan, the Kadariah Sultanate, established in Pontianak in 1771, was among the most prominent. During this time, some Dayak embraced Islam and were considered a part of the Malay ethnic group.34 A territorial divide within the province between the Malay and the Dayak came into existence, with the Malay inhabiting the coastal areas, and some Dayak moving further into the interior (Adri, 2007). The Dutch arrived seven years after the establishment of the Kadariah Sultanate, introducing Christianity to the Dayak. Since the Christian Dayak maintained their ethnic identity (unlike the Dayak Muslims), it facilitated the construction of an ethno-religious identity that paralleled the Dayak with Christianity (Rosdiawan, et al., 2007: 2223). The arrival of the Dutch changed the pattern of relations between the Malay and the Dayak. The Malay Sultanate cooperated with the Dutch and provided access to resources (including land) that served the interests of the Dutch (Government of Pontianak, 2009c). This DutchMalay partnership strengthened the political and social standing of the Malays. Through the Malays, the Dutch practiced a form of indirect rule, which also facilitated the colonisation of the area (Siahaan, 1974: 32). The partnership further marginalised the Dayak, who were already under the political and economic influence of the Malay Sultanates, and were the ulun or slaves of the Malay Sultans (Tangkilisan, 2005). After Indonesia won its independence in 1945, the system created by the colonial government continued and helped the Malay 34
72
Muslims from other ethnic groups are also considered Malay, with the exception of the Madurese.
2 Contextualising Pontianak, Conceptualising Youth and Adulthood
maintain respected positions (including access to civil servant positions) in the community, and excluded the Dayak from political and economic benefits (Peluso and Harwell, 2001: 84). The New Order regime exacerbated the Dayak’s low position in society by restricting the practice of some of the main customs that bind the Dayak community together. For example, the New Order government (1966-1998) banned the Dewan Adat which is an important neo-traditional institution for the functioning of the Dayak community. Through Law 5/1979, which merged traditional villages and restricted the building of Dayak longhouses, the role of the community leader (tumenggung) was removed, along with other Dayak customs (SMERU, 2001). The Chinese came to West Kalimantan between the 18th and 19th centuries (Heidhues, 2003: 27; Siahaan, 1974: 20), arriving in the northern part of West Kalimantan, around the same time as the Malays, and settled down as farmers. The discovery of gold in the area encouraged further Chinese migration to the region. To protect their economic interests, the Chinese established their own organisations called kongsi which facilitated the accumulation of capital and Chinese cultural practices. These strategic moves facilitated Chinese domination of the trade sector in West Kalimantan, though some remained in the agricultural sector (Siahaan, 1974: 23-25). Most of the Chinese in West Kalimantan are either Buddhist or Confucian. The Madurese came last to West Kalimantan. They migrated voluntarily from the island of Madura, East Java. The first Madurese migrants arrived around the early 20th century as low skilled workers for the Malays (Sudagung, 2001: 93). Some Madurese further migrated to the province (including to Pontianak) in the 1920s and 1930s due to the areas opened up by the Dutch (De Jonge and Nooteboom, 2006: 258). 73
2 Contextualising Pontianak, Conceptualising Youth and Adulthood
The Madurese are Muslims, like the Malays. While Muslims from other ethnic groups are considered Malay, Madurese religious and cultural practices created a Madurese identity separate from Malay. The main ethnic groups in West Kalimantan, therefore, are Malay, Dayak, Chinese and Madurese. This history has shaped the political construction of the Dayak and Malay as the ‘original’ ethnic groups in the region, while the Chinese and Madurese are seen as ‘migrant’ ethnic groups.35 However, as the political position of the Chinese has become stronger, they are now also recognised as ‘original’ inhabitants of West Kalimantan. As previously mentioned, Malays are often associated with Islam and Dayaks with Christianity. The Malay are also assumed to be more educated, urbanised, and of higher social status than the Dayak. Conversely, the Dayak are assumed to come from rural areas, and to be of lower status than the Malay. The large gap in development between rural and urban areas of the province reinforces the perception that the Dayak (most of whom live in the interior of the province) are of lower status than the Malays. The Chinese are associated with exclusivity36 and economic wealth, while the Madurese are assumed to be from poor economic backgrounds, uneducated, violent, and strongly attached to religious leaders from Madura. However, this common discourse in the region does not necessarily
35
36
74
The ‘migrant’ category attributed to the Chinese does not reflect the realities of Chinese migration to West Kalimantan, especially in relation to the Malay. As previously mentioned, the Chinese arrived in West Kalimantan around the same time as the Malays. The practice of ‘exclusivity’ is actually not confined to the Chinese. The Madurese are also ‘exclusive’ in the sense that they often have their own settlement (kampong) with their own mosque, and practice a particular stream of Islam that differs from the mainstream. The Malay and Dayak are relatively more open, but also tend to interact within their own groups.
2 Contextualising Pontianak, Conceptualising Youth and Adulthood
portray the real circumstances. For example, not all Chinese are wealthy (Sikwan and Triastuti, 2004). Currently, many Dayak Muslims are rejecting the Malay identity and promoting the existence of Muslim Dayak identity (Alqadrie, 2002: 6) Ethnic conflict has recurred throughout the history of West Kalimantan since the 1800s, including conflict between the Chinese and the Malay Sultanates in Sambas District over gold mines. Since the Dayak were hired to protect the gold mines in the interest of the Malay Sultanates, the Chinese’s war against the Malay Sultanates resulted in the killing of many Dayak workers. This then escalated to a DayakChinese ethnic conflict. No major ethnic conflicts involving the Dayak and Malay were recorded, though political competition between the two ethnic groups heightened after decentralisation, as will be discussed later. In the district of Sambas, a major conflict between the Malay and the Madurese occurred in 1999, resulting in the massacre of Madurese in Sambas. The Madurese survivors were forced to migrate out of Sambas (Surata, 2001: 74-78). Most ethnic conflicts in West Kalimantan have involved the Madurese and the Dayak. Twelve ethnic conflicts between the two groups have been formally recorded in the years 1952-1999 (Wawa, 2000). The earlier conflicts, from 1952 to the early 1980s, were triggered by Madurese crimes against Dayak. Most involved the murder of a Dayak by a Madurese; the only exception is one that was triggered by a theft by a Madurese. Starting in the early 1990s, while killing of a Dayak by a Madurese remained one of the triggers of ethnic conflicts, youth fights also began to light sparks of ethnic conflict. For instance, in 1996, in one of the interior parts of the province (Sanggau Ledo), an assault on two Dayak youth by Madurese youth escalated into ethnic conflict. A year 75
2 Contextualising Pontianak, Conceptualising Youth and Adulthood
later, a major Dayak-Madurese ethnic conflict started in Sanggau Ledo, which spread to other areas such as Pontianak. This conflict was again triggered by the murder of a Dayak (Surata, 2001: 78-81). This historical sketch of West Kalimantan shows that its society was segregated by ethnic divisions even before decentralisation. However, the division of regions through the realignment of administrative boundaries as a way of sharing power between Malays and Dayak in political arenas has sharpened this fragmentation. Known as pemekaran, this process involves the establishment of new districts by dividing existing districts into smaller areas. Its intention is actually to bring public services closer to the people by making smaller geographical government units. But in West Kalimantan, it also serves another purpose – power sharing. For example, the district of Sanggau is a majority Dayak district. However, in part of the district (the Sekadau area), the majority of the population is Malay. To share power, Sanggau was divided into two districts, Sanggau and Sekadau. The latest new district to be established, in 2008, was Kubu Raya, previously part of Pontianak district. Through these territorial splits, the coastal areas are ‘officially’ claimed by Malays and the interior of West Kalimantan up to the Mueller highlands is claimed by the Dayak. This official territorial divide is based on the existing historical territorial division between the two groups. As a consequence, the heads of the districts in the Malay districts are expected to be Malays, and the heads of the districts in the Dayak districts are expected to be Dayak. At the root of this struggle for power is competition over resources, land, access to education and employment, and to political and bureaucratic positions. All of this has led to a strengthening of primordial ties. As such, while decentralisation 76
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has brought more opportunities to certain local people to take part in the development of the region, it has also heightened ethnic fragmentation there. In West Kalimantan, occupational segmentation based on ethnicity is quite common. However, ethnic (and familial) social networks have recently become even more important as a resource for employment opportunities and occupational positions in Kalimantan (Van Klinken, 2003: 22-23). At the provincial level, generally Malays occupy the civil service positions; Dayak occupy the agricultural sector; Madurese work in informal sectors; and Chinese in trade. Opportunity for social mobility is structured within ethnic-based domains. Together with a strong patronage system, decentralisation has intensified competition for entrance to the bureaucracy. It has also enhanced the opportunity for elites to provide access to government jobs to family members or to people within their ethnic circle (Berkat, 18 December 2008). Family networks are often considered the most important capital for accessing jobs in the civil service. Family members of local elites are usually also members of the same ethnic circle. This is why many people in West Kalimantan see ethnic and family networks as inter-changeable concepts, as mentioned by Pak37 Is (57), a Malay retired civil servant who was once a member of a recruitment team. He explained how these elites would have a special paper (katabelece) shown to the recruitment team in order to guarantee that their family members were recruited. He mentioned that aside from family members, elites prioritise members of their own ethnic group.
37
Pak is short for Bapak (meaning father), commonly used to address an adult male; similar to the use of ‘Sir’ or Mister.
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In general a katabelece is used by those in power, because otherwise nobody will help them (the job applicant). My own experience of selecting elementary school teachers proves this. For example if the quota for teachers was 100, and 200 or 300 applied, we couldn’t announce which of the 100 were recruited based solely on merit. Why? Because there would be a written note, a katabelece, from an assistant to the Regional Secretary, head of office, and other influential persons. If A (an applicant who is related to the influential person), is recruited solely on merit, no problem. But if not, it would be a major headache for the team. We would have to sacrifice an applicant who was accepted based solely on merit. But who? Sometimes these influential people would send a katabelece for another person, from their own ethnic group. They would claim that this person was their nephew or niece, when they may actually only be a distant relative or a neighbour. (Pak Is, 57, a Malay man) The Malays have dominated the bureaucracy, but the appointment of a Dayak governor in 2008 brought new hopes of accessing civil service jobs for Dayak youth. This change has made some Malay youth anxious. Such anxiety was expressed by my Malay assistant who was also trying to find a secure job in the civil service while she was helping me with the research. One morning, she exclaimed to me, Look, the governor just announced the heads of the provincial offices…all of the second echelon staff. Look, they’re Dayak! Now that the governor is Dayak, all of the important posts are held by Dayaks…next
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thing, all the civil servants at the provincial level will all be Dayaks.38 (Lia, 24, a Malay woman) I was puzzled because I did not understand why this was so important. It turned out that this announcement was a big issue, because people want to know the ethnic map of the provincial government. My assistant explained that there were several posts that were considered lucrative (basah), especially the head of the West Kalimantan regional staff bureau. It is common knowledge, that in addition to his/her main salary, a civil servant, known as a PNS (Pegawai Negeri Sipil), also receives money (often more than their main salary) from other sources. This money is usually known as uang sampingan (literally, money on the side, which may - but not necessarily – include income from bribes). Certain offices, such as the regional staff bureau, public works, education, and health offices, are considered to bring in more of this extra cash than other offices. A position at the regional staff office, for instance, is considered lucrative because of the role it plays in the recruitment, transfer, and career advancement of individual civil servants. This opens gates to acquiring side money in various stages of those processes. The public works office is also lucrative, as companies competing for infrastructure projects often bribe officials at the public works office to win tenders for infrastructure projects.39 Of course my assistant’s statement is an assumption and perhaps a bit of an exaggeration. Other factors such as commonality, closeness, and group membership may better explain how people
38
39
Second echelons in this quote refer to civil servants that are promoted to head of provincial offices. This is also noted for Kupang by Tidey (2012).
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obtain these positions rather than pinpointing ethnicity (Tidey, 2012: 119). However, this ‘ethnic map’ means a lot to young people because they know that ethnicity is a form of capital (Borjas, 1992) in seeing what kind of opportunities they perceive are available for them in the future and how they would have to strategise now if they wanted to enter the bureaucracy. Because of this commotion, the governor had to state in the local newspapers that he had tried to balance the composition of his cabinet and claimed that ethnicity did not matter in the recruitment (Berkat, 15 January 2008). My assistant did not believe it, since it was obvious that more Dayak were appointed. Since the Dayak have recently obtained various important political positions in ‘Dayak’ districts, many Dayak youth are optimistic about getting into the bureaucracy in those districts. The same applies to the Malays in the ‘Malay’ districts. The optimistic view among Dayak youth was obvious in a statement expressed by Oren, who was only months away from graduating from the Faculty of Law in Pontianak. The governor is now Dayak, the head of district (in the interior) happens to be Dayak, so there is a kind of policy to recruit Dayak people. Those that found it difficult to get in (to the civil service job in the past), now easily get in... there still needs to be effort (in getting them in), even if they do not fulfil the requirement, there should be effort in getting them certain positions... why not? Because before it was very difficult. (Oren, 23, a Dayak man) Oren’s statement seems to suggest the need for affirmative action for the Dayak. He expresses that the difficulty the Dayak have had in 80
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accessing opportunities for upward social mobility in the past should be compensated in the present. Opening more posts for Dayak people is a must, even when they do not necessarily fulfil all the requirements. While my Dayak respondents were quite optimistic about their chances of getting into the civil service, the Madurese were pessimistic. They believe that seeking state jobs requires an ethnic social network. In the case of the Madurese, such a network is basically non-existent within the state bureaucracy. Aziz explained that the newly appointed deputy mayor of Pontianak (at the time this research was conducted) is a Madurese. I asked whether this would mean that there would be more opportunities for the Madurese to join the bureaucracy. He was uncertain that this would be the case, because the deputy mayor would be unable to run a one man show providing Madurese youth access to civil service jobs. There are only around five Madurese who have a master’s degree, and now a deputy mayor. But I am not sure he will be able to help that much, not because he doesn’t want to. The Madurese are just not strong enough. (Aziz, 24, a Madurese man) With few of their own working in state institutions, the Madurese are aware that it will not be easy for them to enter the civil service. Despite their pessimistic view with regard to job opportunities in the civil service, this does not inhibit them from aspiring to work as civil servants. This is perhaps because opportunities for decent jobs outside the civil service are not as widely available to the Madurese, as they are for the Chinese. As I have noted elsewhere, the major players in the economic sector, from trading to service provision, are Chinese. Therefore, there 81
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are more opportunities for Chinese youth to find work in these sectors. On the other hand, the Madurese are mainly confined to small scale trade or informal sectors. Thus, they still feel that having a civil service job is their only ticket to upward mobility. Figure 2 Announcement of the clean recruitment process into the police force
Though some Dayak youth are optimistic about their chances of becoming a civil servant, not all of them are. Merely being a Dayak is not enough. Readying money for bribes, or ‘smoothing money’ (Tidey, 2012: 14) is also crucial if one wants to enter the civil service. When a person does not have a family member within the system, he or she has to
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know someone (orang dalam, literally, an insider) who is willing to take the bribe. When this research was conducted, one of the newly formed districts in West Kalimantan started recruiting civil servants. There was enormous controversy over practices of bribery. In this case, there were several calo or middlemen. First were the wife of a regional legislative board member and her sister. They asked another person (outside the civil service), to find information on people interested in applying for the job. This middleman was occasionally paid between 100,000 and 200,000 rupiahs, depending on how generous the two sisters were feeling. This middleman worked together with ‘insiders’ working in the office (most likely a high rank officer and lower rank administrative staff) to ensure that the applicants who bribed them pass the recruitment tests. The middleman admitted to the police that he had given 750 million rupiahs to the two sisters (Berkat, 17 November 2008). In my conversations with local people, the police force was cited as one of the state institutions in which, to secure a job, both networks and bribery are a must. This idea is so engrained in people’s minds, that the local police explicitly made an announcement outside the provincial police office that entrance to the police force is ‘open’ (meaning that there is no need for an ‘insider’) and free (see Figure 2). Even so, some Dayak youth such as Bernadus, are pessimistic about this clean recruitment as announced by the police office. Bernadus applied to enter the police force when he graduated from high school, but he was not accepted. He strongly believes that it was because his farmer parents did not possess the networks and money to bribe an insider.
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Most of my friends got into the police force using money, I hate that, I hate those kinds of policemen...but I really, really want to be a police officer…when I applied after high school, I did not use any connections (insiders). Connections…who? I don’t have any. Even if I had one, I would need to have a lot of money. 40 million, 50 million, 60 million, (do you think) I am capable (of providing that money)? (Bernadus, 20, a Dayak man)
Pontianak: Modernity in a Provincial City In the previous sections, I have described the dynamics of West Kalimantan, especially in relation to ethnicity. Here I will introduce Pontianak, the changes it has experienced, and how they relate to young people’s identity in a provincial city. Introducing Pontianak Pontianak is located on the intersection of the Kapuas River, Landak River, and Lesser Kapuas River. As mentioned previously, Sultan Abdurrahman Alkadrie (an immigrant of Arab descent), founded the city in 1771. This is also commonly regarded as the date of the first migration of the Malays to the area. Pontianak grew to become a city of trade, which historically has been the base of its growth since it was founded. The role of the Chinese in the city’s development is very strong. Currently, the trade and service sector in Pontianak absorbs the majority of working people in Pontianak (Pontianak Statistics Bureau, 2008a).
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Figure 3 Map of Pontianak
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At the moment, Pontianak is divided into six subdistricts, but due to population growth there are plans to further divide the existing subdistricts into smaller subdistricts. From the ‘heart of the city’ or the city centre (mainly consisting of Pontianak Barat, Pontianak Kota, Pontianak Selatan), Pontianak Utara and Pontianak Timur are located across the Kapuas River. These are the two poorest districts in Pontianak, Pontianak Timur having the lowest population figures, but having the highest population density compared to the other subdistricts (Pontianak Statistics Bureau, 2008a) and the highest youth crime rate.40 A psychological boundary associating those two subdistricts as being remote and backwards exists, as education, work, and recreational activities for young people are quite limited in these two areas in comparison to those in other subdistricts within the city. This negative perception of the two subdistricts has encouraged many young people from Pontianak Timur and Pontianak Utara to seek education opportunities and recreational activities in the other subdistricts across the river. Thus, there is frequent youth movement from ‘across the river’ to the city centre. In 2010, the total population of Pontianak was 550,297, including about 53,454 15-19 year olds, 57,707 20-24 year olds, and 53,045 25-29 year olds (Pontianak Regional Planning Development Agency, 2012). This means that around 30 per cent of Pontianak’s population is made up of young people aged between 15 and 29. This percentage is slightly higher than the all-Indonesia per centage of youth in the population, which was around 26 per cent in 2010 (Central Bureau 40
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Pontianak Timur, especially Kampung Beting, is well-known as the center for drug dealing in Pontianak, which targets young people. This information was given by one of the staff at Pontianak Statistics Bureau when I visited the office in February 2008, but no statistical data were available.
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of Statistics, 2013). However, the number of university students has risen within the last 30 years, alongside the rapid increase in the number of higher education facilities in recent years, from seven in 1998 (Pontianak Statistics Bureau, 1988) to 25 in 2008 (Pontianak Statistics Bureau, 2008a). Education institutions have become more accessible to young people in West Kalimantan, though they are mainly centred in Pontianak. As in West Kalimantan as a whole, Pontianak society is socially divided along ethnic and religious lines. The Chinese are the largest single group in the population (31 per cent), many of them living in a relatively isolated ethnic world, going to Chinese schools41 and working in Chinese-dominated economic domains.42 Pontianak’s population by ethnicity reveals that it is actually a majority Chinese city with Malays making up 26 per cent; these ethnic groups together account for more than half of Pontianak society. Next are the Bugis (13 per cent), Javanese (11 per cent), and Madurese (6 per cent) ethnic groups. In the statistics, Dayak were included in the ‘other’ category along with other minority ethnic groups, including Minangkabau, Batak, and Sundanese, which in total came to 13 per cent (Government of Pontianak, 2009d). As opposed to the large proportion of Dayak in the province, only a small
41
42
The first Chinese school in West Kalimantan was established in Singkawang in 1892. It was a Catholic school built by Dutch missionaries specifically for Chinese students. In Pontianak, the first Chinese elementary school was built in 1938 by the Christian Church of West Kalimantan (Gereja Kristen Kalimantan Barat). The school, named Lak Kue, used Chinese (most probably the Mandarin dialect) as a media of communication. However, after independence, Chinese schools started to use Indonesian instead (Ahok et al., 1986: 41-49). Even though the Chinese is the largest single ethnic group in Pontianak, I have chosen to focus this study on non-Chinese (especially Malays) for the reason explained in the methodology section: I had better access to non-Chinese (especially Malays) than I did to Chinese (see page 39).
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number of Dayak live in Pontianak (Rosdiawan et al., 2007). Even though the largest ethnic group in Pontianak is the Chinese, Islam is the majority religion (70 per cent), because it is not only the religion of the Malays. Most Bugis, Javanese, and Madurese are also Muslims (Andaya, 2003; Koentjaraningrat, 1984: 310-311; Achwan et al., 2005: 12). Buddhists are the second largest group (18 per cent), while Christians, including Protestants and Catholics make up seven per cent of the population (Government of Pontianak, 2009a). In Pontianak, there is a slightly different dynamic in ethnic occupational position than West Kalimantan as a whole. As well as being the dominant ethnicity in the civil service, Malays work in large numbers in the urban informal sector (competing with the Madurese)43, while a few Dayak occupy mid-level civil servant positions (Achwan et al., 2005). Jobs in the bureaucracy are a crucial resource, as the state has power to accommodate interests of certain ethnic groups. Many people believe that the more positions held in state politics and bureaucracy, the more power a group has over policy and local state budget allocations. For example, at a graduation ceremony at Widya Dharma University, I sat next to a Dayak mother whose son graduated that day. She told me how the current governor, Cornelis, who happens to be a Dayak, had managed to prioritise the needs of the Dayak in the implementation of government programmes. She talked of the new roads that have been built in the interior, and how that has facilitated young Dayak to acquire an education in the city. Her presence at the ceremony, she says, is also due to infrastructure development in her village.
43
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The Madurese work in various domains in the informal sector, such as in the transport system (taxi, pedicabs, small boats) and small-scale trade (fruit and vegetables).
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Hah, you know that the Governor is now Dayak? He made sure that roads are built in the interior. (If it weren’t for the governor), my son would not be going to university. I wouldn’t be here (to attend my child’s graduation ceremony). (Ibu44 Ita, 40, a Dayak woman) Pontianak, Change, and Identity I previously mentioned that in comparison to metropolitan cities at the national level, Pontianak can be seen as a provincial town. What is meant by this, and how is it relevant to a study of young people? Pilkington and Johnson (2003) and Kjelgaard and Askegaard (2006) illustrate the importance of seeing young people’s lives as embedded within spatial power inequalities. By using the term ‘periphery’ instead of locality, they emphasise the concept of power differentials in relation to the ‘core’ (the national or global) when contextualising young people’s lives. Basing their study on the same assumption, Kjelgaard and Askegaard (2006: 239-240) investigate youth culture in Denmark. They state that peripheral youth (in small towns) tend to have more global aspirations than young people in the capital (Copenhagen), because on the one hand, these youth understand the limits of being on the periphery, yet access to global information facilitates the formation of out-of-reach aspirations that the authors refer to as ‘a dream world rather than a local liveable reality’. Kiem’s (1993: 20) research on young people in Ternate (the capital city of North Maluku, in Eastern Indonesia) shows how a study in provincial cities helps to illustrate that elements of global culture are not exclusively a metropolitan phenomenon, but have spread to what he 44
Ibu, literally mother, is commonly used to address an adult female (as in Mrs or Ma’am).
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calls, the ‘periphery of the periphery’ (that is, the periphery of the larger periphery of the Global South). Despite being on the periphery of the periphery, Ternate functions as the core for places that are even more peripheral (the surrounding islands of North Maluku). He argues the importance of studying these types of towns, as it is in these towns that accelerated social change has been happening in the 1970s. Integration of Ternate to a unified Indonesian economic and political sphere in the early years of the New Order regime facilitated a boom in infrastructure, transportation, education, and communication, providing a different way of living for young people compared to that of the previous generation. Young people in Ternate have become more connected to global forces, but are also becoming more connected to other smaller localities. A similar process of increasing connectedness to global forces and smaller local localities has taken place in Pontianak. However, instead of accelerated change being caused by the integration into the national economic and political sphere as in Kiem’s study, the recent change in Pontianak is due largely to the dissolution of national power brought about by the 1999 decentralisation policy. I have mentioned the effects of decentralisation at the provincial level, especially in the political domain. Here, I will elaborate how decentralisation has affected economic life in the city, and how it intersects with issues of social mobility and ethnicity among young people. In Pontianak, decentralisation has accelerated development of local infrastructure, communication, and transportation facilities, and has made Pontianak better connected with other district towns and bigger cities. These improved connections have allowed Pontianak to display its attractive urbanity to people living in smaller towns and make 90
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its standing as the core in the periphery stronger (Maryuni, 2007: 141). At the same time, being better connected to bigger cities also means that people in Pontianak have become more aware of their limitations. For example, they are better exposed to the material wealth, modern facilities and lifestyles of Jakarta and Bandung. As such, while Pontianak has strengthened its position as a core in relation to its surrounding periphery, its position as peripheral to bigger cities in Indonesia and to Java has also become more obvious. Another effect of decentralisation on the local economy is the greater access to investment opportunities. With decentralisation, local governments are able to rearrange or revitalise the local government system (Setiadi, 2010) and negotiate investment opportunities with other parties. A local writer noted Pontianak’s growing urbanity, describing how modernisation in Pontianak was evident at the beginning of 2000 when he came back after studying in Yogyakarta. ‘Various symbols of modernity can be seen in every corner of the city. Communication towers for mobile phones, internet cafés, the Mega Mall, luxurious cars, play stations, cafés, bistros, etc.’ (Sujarwo, 2008: 1617). In general, national companies have started to make investments in Pontianak. However, these investments often rely on poorly educated and low skilled (female) workers rather than on an educated work force (Tribun Pontianak, 18 October 2008). This means that the increase in education opportunities in Pontianak has resulted in a relatively high supply of educated labour, for which there is not sufficient demand. Thus, it is no surprise that the majority of the un/underemployed in Pontianak are those who have a high school education or university
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education, the majority (64 per cent) of whom are between the ages of 15-24 years (Pontianak Statistics Bureau, 2008a; 2008b).45 Investments in large shopping malls have also expanded a consumer economy that was previously dominated by smaller scale recreation and retail sales facilities. Access to malls and other recreation facilities in the city has become easier with the construction of new roads, the most influential being the extension of the Jalan Ahmad Yani main road which crosses through Kubu Raya district. The A Yani Mega Mall is now the trendy place to date and hang out, replacing the other smaller malls and older hang out places (such as the Korem square near the Kapuas River, coffee shops, and small cafés). Having a lifestyle associated with the mall is seen as one of the important aspects of being urbanised among young people in Pontianak. Pontianak’s position as the ‘student city’ in West Kalimantan has made the role of these recreation facilities even more important in the creation of an urban youth identity. This study is an effort to shift from the urban and Java-centric focus that characterises most youth studies in Indonesia (as indicated in Chapter 1) to life on the periphery. One of the aspects that make provincial town youth different is the ambivalent position they assign themselves in relation to urban centres and district towns, which structures the process of growing up. They often feel inferior to youth from ‘core’, metropolitan cities; yet they feel superior to youth in the smaller district towns. In the case of Pontianak, this self positioning has made young people (and their families) reluctant to try their chances for
45
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There are 5783 high school graduates and 2935 university graduates aged 15 and above, who are recorded in census data as looking for work (Pontianak Statistics Bureau, 2008a).
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social mobility outside the province. However, they are confident enough to seek opportunities in the districts within the province. Thus, young people’s efforts for upward mobility remain limited within the social and economic structure of West Kalimantan society. In terms of youth identity, youth in provincial towns tend to be influenced by global youth culture from larger urban centres. At the same time, they also become significant social actors in negotiating the acquired youth culture and transferring it to smaller district towns. That said, we can see that youth transition to adulthood in provincial cities is challenging, and far from linear and definite. This also needs to be seen in relation to how youth negotiate their identity within this specific context.
Conceptualisations of Youth and Adulthood in Pontianak This section will explain how young people in Pontianak construct the meaning of these terms within their local contexts. Young people in Pontianak tend to construct the meaning of youth and adulthood based on various dimensions, but they all relate to how social relations are developed. Social relations within the family are particularly emphasised, and adulthood is characterised by maintaining positive relationships with the family rather than trying to be independent from it. General Conceptions of Youth and Adulthood In the Indonesian language, different terms are used to refer to youth: remaja (adolescence) and anak muda/pemuda (youth). Remaja is usually an indicator of age, often within the age range of 13-18 years old. Within 93
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the remaja category, there is a subcategory commonly called anak baru gede (ABG), which in most instances refers to those in early to midadolescence (13-15 year olds). A rather wide age range applies to the terms anak muda and pemuda, ranging from early teens to the late twenties or even early thirties, though in other instances these terms are used to refer to a period between remaja and adulthood. Anak muda is used to refer to young people involved in youth cultures and leisure activities, though it can also be used as a synonym for the term pemuda, which is a state and politically constructed term. In the latest Law on Youth46, the age range for pemuda is set at 16-30 years, whereas the first draft of the laws stated that pemuda are those aged 18-35 years47 (Vivanews, 15 September 2009). Age is not the only aspect used in defining pemuda. The term pemuda also implies a sense of the revolutionary (Vivanews, 15 September 2009), of having the spirit to challenge the status quo (Asmara, 2009).48 While age and state constructions are influential in indicating who young people are, the term dewasa (adult) in Indonesian has more to do with maturity rather than age. Marital status is often used to indicate maturity and the transition to adulthood in Indonesia (Nilan et al., 2011b: 710). When a person is married, he/she is considered mature 46
47
48
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Official definitions of youth, including that in the Law on Youth 40/2009, are based on political considerations. This is evident from the fact that the definition of youth proposed in the ‘academic draft’ of this law was changed by the parliament to the current definition for no clear reason (Naafs and White, 2012: 5). Even though the official law on youth states that the age range of pemuda is up to 30 years, the National Youth Organization (KNPI) has a maximum age of 40 years (Komite Nasional Pemuda Indonesia, 2005), again, underlying that official definitions of ‘youth’ are based on political considerations. The term pemuda is often linked to youth movements in Indonesia’s history, starting from 1928 when the Sumpah Pemuda (Youth Pledge) was initiated. This pledge basically emphasised the importance of Indonesia’s unity – one motherland, one nation, and one language.
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enough to take on the responsibility of a new family, and (is assumed) to have moved out of the natal home and achieved economic independence (Pakpahan et al., 2009: 2). In their study on adulthood in several developing countries, Eyetsemitan et al. (2003) describe Indonesians as having different indicators of adulthood, depending on which stage of adulthood is referred to.49 During early adulthood, marriage and parenthood are the main indicators of adulthood for women, while looking physically strong and starting work is an indicator for men. In middle adulthood, marriage, parenthood and work continue to be important (especially for men), but other indicators come into play, such as being able to fulfil one’s role in the community and providing for parents. Thus, while different indicators are used to define adulthood, maturity (physical, psychological, social, economic) is the main basis of adulthood. When asking how young people construct the meaning of youth and adulthood in Pontianak, I used the term anak muda (for youth) and dewasa (for adulthood). For youth I used anak muda instead of remaja or ABG because I felt that anak muda covers a wider age range than remaja or ABG, and it has more neutral connotations than the term pemuda. Thus, it is not surprising that some young people use this term interchangeably with remaja, ABG, or pemuda. There are not many alternative terms for dewasa, so using this term was sufficient. While the Malay terms for youth (anak mude) and adulthood (dewase) are closely related to the Indonesian term (anak muda) and also have much the same meanings, there are other local dialects in
49
The authors of this study did not define when early or middle adulthood starts. Theoretically, early adulthood is a life stage beginning around the early 20s-mid 40s, while middle adulthood starts around the age 45-60 (Dannefer, 1984: 102)
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Pontianak that define youth and adulthood using other terms. The Madurese and the Dayak have the same way of defining youth, which is often parallel to the meaning of child. For instance, the term ‘rek kerek’ (child) was mentioned by my Madurese informant to refer to how adults in his community categorise those who are unmarried (regardless of age). However, finding a word parallel to adulthood in Madurese was quite difficult. An informant described the use of the term Cak to call a young adult male, who is defined as an adult once he is considered to be physically a man. No term parallel to Cak is used for young adult women. When a man or woman is physically seen as grown persons, the term rek kerek is rarely used. Another word close in meaning to ‘adult’ is sepoh (old). It mainly refers to a person with ample knowledge, especially of tradition and religion. The same applies to one of the Dayak subdialects, Bekati. There is no specific term for adult or adulthood in Bekati. Unmarried people are referred to as are (for a boy or a young man) and ma-u (for a girl or a young woman). The closest term for an adult is the word bujang (young adult man) and dara (young adult woman), both indicated by physical maturity. However, both terms refer to unmarried men or women, and seem to denote the start of adulthood (early adulthood). Once they are married, they are no longer referred to as bujang or dara. Marriage seems to be an important indicator of ‘full adulthood’. For instance, when a dara is called ‘sister-in-law’ by her husband’s siblings, one knows that she is a ‘full’ adult. In the Teochew dialect (one of the Chinese dialects used by the majority Chinese in Pontianak), youth in general is referred to as hou se. However, specific gender-based terms are also commonly used, ca bou kia means young woman and ta pou kia means young man. Both terms 96
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refer to young people (remaja) who are unmarried. Sometimes a young person is also called nong kia, which emphasises the person’s child-like state or his/her social position in relation to his/her parents. An adult in this Chinese dialect is referred to as tua nang, normally used for people who have reached physical maturity, around the age of 18. As in the use of bujang/dara, physical maturity is important to define entrance to adulthood. Tua nang, as in the use of Cak in Madurese, is not defined by entrance to marriage. Thus, although marriage is often said to mark the separation between youth and adulthood, the use of those terms suggest that marriage refers to an established state of adulthood rather than the start of it. Physical maturity is a more important indicator of the start of adulthood (early adulthood). Defining Youth and Adulthood in the Eyes of Young People I have elaborated a general construction of youth and adulthood in the Indonesian language and in different local dialects in Pontianak. Now I will turn to how young people in Pontianak currently construct their own definitions and boundaries that denote youth and adulthood. Orientation and Identification As mentioned in Chapter 1, the characteristics of youth and of adulthood are seen as contradictory. For instance, youth are often seen as being present oriented, and adults as future oriented. As a consequence, young people are assumed to be emotional, and self oriented and focused on leisure activities. Conversely, adults work hard, are rational, and oriented towards others. According to some young
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people in Pontianak, one of the important aspects of being ‘rational’ is the moral capability to distinguish good from bad rather than simply making judgments out of context. This line of thinking is close to cognitive and moral developmental theories that place hedonistic and instrumental orientations at the lowest stage of development – reflecting child-like capabilities that are inferior to those of adults. On the contrary, an orientation emphasising social contexts and universal moral values is considered the highest level of development (Santrock, 1996: 441-442), associated with adult capabilities. ABG don’t think about what’s good and bad, they walk straight ahead, without looking left or right. When you’re 21 and above (adult), you are capable of thinking what is good and what is bad. (Udin, 23, a Malay man) Being future oriented is also related to how young people make appropriate plans to lead a life framed within the normative human life cycle and keeping pace with it. Seigner and Halabi-Kheir (1998: 310-311) term this type of future orientation a ‘prospective life course’ orientation. This life course orientation focuses on ‘practical domains’ of the transitions, assuming that people move from the education domain, to the work domain, to the marriage domain. The importance of the prospective life course orientation in the construction of adulthood was mentioned by a young man, Ben. Ben thinks of himself as a young person, despite being in the mid-thirties. Being unmarried at an age when most of his peers have settled down into a family of their own has made him feel that he is not following and keeping pace with the normal life cycle of society. Ben has also chosen to work in the field of
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creative arts instead of settling into an office job, and this further signifies his social position as being young. Choosing an alternative lifestyle, as Ben has done, is often considered to be contrary to the life choices an adult would make. Adults would choose to follow the normative life course, as described by Ben below. Of course, I’m still a young person. Adults think ‘I have to form a family, I have to have children’. To tell you the truth, I don’t know whether that is good or bad. But I’m still searching what it is (I want to do). So if I’m bored, I like to hang out with my friends. I still think about developing new ideas, young people are like that. Adults (on the contrary) only look straight forward and get married. (Ben, 35, a Dayak man) In order to stay within the time table of this idealised cycle, making the necessary preparations to enter adult life is considered crucial. According to Arnett (2004), young people who actively make preparations for the future are considered to be emerging adults. These preparations into adulthood often refer to how young people make use of their time. For instance, being able to manage time between school and work is a key issue for Eny, a young woman from Sanggau, in preparing for her future. Eny started combining school and work in her second semester in university. She admitted that her grades went down during the first months of combining school and work, though she later managed to improve her academic performance.
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The difference between young people and adults, is that young people do not think about their future50, they only think about having fun (bersenang-senang). Working makes a person mature, because working is for the future. Going to university and working at the same time prepares us for the future. I consider myself an adult because now I am able to use my time wisely for the future. (Eny, 19, a Chinese woman) Linus, also from Sanggau, emphasises making appropriate preparations for marriage as indicating a future orientation. For him, the time used for dating should not be wasted by continuously changing partners. Instead, it should be used wisely by seriously getting to know one person who is expected to be one’s future spouse. I am an adult. Young people like to change their dating partners, but that kind of dating is very immature. It is a waste of time. Dating someone should end in marriage, I don’t like to do that (change partners). (Linus, 22, a Dayak man) In other instances, what differentiates youth and adulthood is related to how resources are used, especially money. Young people are assumed to use money in a careless way for the sake of fashion and preserving their image instead of saving up for the future. Being in style seems to 50
This statement somehow contradicts the national or historical image of pemuda, in which it is the pemuda who are portrayed to be the ones who thought seriously about the nation’s future and put their lives on the line for it. The term Angkatan 45, Angkatan 65, and Angkatan 98 all refer to different young generations of the era, who struggled to fight for the nation’s future. Angkatan 45 were young people who were active in the struggle for independence, Angkatan 65/66 were young people involved in the establishment of the New Order, while Angkatan 98 were youth who contributed to ending of the New Order and paving the way towards the era of reform.
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be related to youth identity in many developing countries, despite the lack of financial capacity to keep up (Scheld, 2007). This was mentioned by Tari, who has been working at her father’s small restaurant to contribute to the family economy. Her involvement in the restaurant seems to back up her identity as an adult. By working, she understands the value of money and how to wisely spend it instead of using it for unnecessary purposes. I’m not a young person, but an adult. Young people tend to waste their money (berfoya-foya), for example for buying the latest fashions, or the latest motorcycle. If they (young men) have girlfriends, they don’t want their girlfriend to look down on them (jatuh gengsinya), so they buy their girlfriends stuff, even though they actually don’t have the money. (Tari, 25, a Malay woman) The difference between youth and adulthood is also indicated by how people use space, which is still linked to an individual’s time orientation. Young people in Pontianak point to the use of space for leisure activities as an indicator of youth, in contrast to adults, who are assumed to use space for serious matters that will be beneficial for their future. Young people in Pontianak, such as Mahmud, refer to the Mega Mall in constructing the difference between youth and adulthood. This shows the central role the Mega Mall has in young people’s lives, especially among migrant youth such as Mahmud, who come from places where entertainment facilities are quite limited. Mahmud categorises himself a young person who is now in the process of entering adulthood. Mahmud’s identification is similar to Arnett’s notion of emerging
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adulthood, where young people subjectively think of themselves as being between adolescence and adulthood (Arnett, 2004). (the mall) is for ABG to hang out. I am a young person (anak muda), not an ABG. But I am starting to enter adulthood (mulai masuk dewasa). (For me, the mall) is still important for keeping up with global trends; that’s what young people do. But now I go to the mall to buy or read books (not to hang out). I like to read books on Corel, Photoshop, and politics. (Now I) use the mall for more beneficial things, (to prepare) for the future. (Mahmud, 23, a Malay man) Some Madurese youth, on the other hand, seem to focus on an existential future orientation to indicate adulthood. Existential future orientation is related to a ‘philosophical domain’ concerning the relation between the self, others, and collective groups (Seginer and HalabiKheir, 1998: 310-311). Siti is a Madurese who happens to be the only one in the family to go to university. Her father is a farmer, who was evicted from Sanggau with the rest of the family when a Dayak-Madurese conflict erupted out in 1997. She and her family have stayed in Pontianak ever since. In between schooling, Siti helps with the household responsibilities of a Malay family and uses some of the money she earns for her education. Madurese youth such as Siti referred to adults as those that have a social orientation, and have the capability to redistribute resources and empower the community. According to these youth, adulthood extends beyond psychological maturity, and tends to focus on one’s capability to contribute to the achievement of social justice. This is similar to the argument of Eyetsemitan et al. (2003)
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that one’s role in community is an important indicator of entrance to mid adulthood in Indonesia. An adult is a person who brings benefit to others. I am an adult when I am capable of opening new job opportunities for other people. I want to make a change in my village. I was born in Pontianak, I want to build Pontianak. (Siti, 21, a Madurese woman) When defining ‘youth’, some Madurese youth tend to draw upon the state’s definition of youth as being ‘revolutionary’ or ‘agents of change’, but translate this to the individual capability of being creative to make that change. Creativity is seen as a trait that young people have to challenge the status quo, as stated by Aji. Aji has lived in Pontianak all his life and has no direct experience of ethnic conflict like Siti has. However, he is well aware of the marginal position the Madurese have in West Kalimantan. In principle, youth are those who are highly creative. (Youth are) those between 20 and 40 years old, (because) 40 is the maximum for a person to maintain (his or her creativity). Men and women who still have strong spirit (for creativity), are youth. Being creative enables change in society. (Aji, 23, a Madurese man) In the context of Madurese youth, using existential future orientation to indicate adulthood and using the state’s definition of ‘revolutionary youth’ to categorise young people may reflect their need and desire for change. Being marginalised in various sectors and continuously being negatively stereotyped, these existential future orientations are constructed in the hope of better integrating into Pontianak society. The 103
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above notion of adulthood and creative youth demonstrates their efforts to try to make that happen. A person may also emphasise the situational context to identify whether he or she is a youth or an adult. Here, the situational context refers to which of the two one is relating to (youth or adult), as stated by Riko. Riko is an active member of a political party in Kubu Raya district. Though he referred to adults as those who are ‘wise’ (arif) and have control over their emotion, he repeatedly gave examples of adults as those who have a higher social standing in society than he does. This social standing is, among others, indicated by one’s access to positions of power. He refers to his friends in the legislative body as adults. On the other hand, he perceives his unemployed friends he usually meets at coffee shops as youth. The same applies to colleagues in the political party who have the same or a lower position than he does. The category he puts himself in (an adult or a youth) depends on who he is relating to. I feel that I am a young person (anak mude) because I hang out with other young people. Youth and adulthood are not differentiated by age, but by looking at the kinds of social relationship one has with other people. Sometimes I feel like a young person when I hang out with young people, and sometimes an adult when I hang out with adults, like members of the legislative body. So it all depends on the situation. (Riko, 33, a Malay man) Like Riko, Eli identifies herself as a young person or an adult depending on who she is relating to. Eli defines the difference between young people and adults in the way they dress and behave. Adults are those that dress formally while youth are those that like to dress informally 104
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and stay up to date on the latest trends. That is why she expresses the importance of these two factors in her way of negotiating between being young and being an adult. I am a young adult (dewasa awal). So I usually adjust, sometimes I can be a young person. When my friends (who are younger than me) ask me to hang out with them at a café, I will go with them out of respect. But that does not mean that I have to act like them, I follow them only in the style of clothing. Of course I can’t wear high heels like older women (mbak-mbak). I can still feel young, even though I don’t act in the way they do (Eli, 22, a Malay woman) Adulthood as a Social Concept The above section shows how youth and adulthood are defined by psychological capabilities (especially related to time orientation and use of resources) and social relations with others. Here, I will elaborate how constructions of youth and adulthood are embedded within social relations with the family. The notion of adulthood is often related to concepts of independence, especially independence from the family. In the cases below, mandiri is the local term used to indicate independence. Independence usually refers to financial independence, the capacity to make decisions without the support of an adult family member, and sticking to one’s own value in the process of decision making. For example, a Madurese migrant from the district of Pontianak, Didik, emphasises the importance of financial independence in indicating adulthood. Didik is currently an administrator at a private university in Pontianak. He used to give private lessons to children when
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he was still studying. Didik feels that his income has always been small, but it has been more than sufficient to meet his daily needs in Pontianak. (When one starts working), he is no longer dependent (financially), and one can claim that he is an adult. (Didik, 25 years old, a Madurese man) Boy, who was also working as an administrator staff at an educational institution in Pontianak when I met him, focuses on the capability of making decisions without having to ask for an adult’s opinion or suggestions. Based on his own experience of studying in Java, he states that being away from parents facilitates the capability to make decisions independently. Adulthood is about making one’s own decision, based on your own judgment. Young people usually ask their parents what they think before they decide on something. (Boy, 28, a Malay man) For young men in Pontianak, independence also refers to being able to meet one’s own basic needs without the help of female family members, especially their mothers, as indicated by Bani. Bani remains unemployed and unmarried in the third decade of his life and is still living with both his parents. He considers that taking on domestic responsibilities to meet his own needs is a big step towards adulthood for many young men in Pontianak, including himself. Sometimes we want someone to make our coffee, (or we yell to our mother) ‘Mak (mum)…food,
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Mak…where are our side dishes?’ I don’t do that anymore, (I am an adult). (Bani, 33 years old, a Malay man) In most cases, adulthood for young people in Pontianak is not only about trying to distance oneself from the family by lessening parental authority and committing to one’s own values without interference from external pressure (Kins et al., 2009) as often cited in Western youth’s conceptualisations of adulthood. Adulthood in Pontianak goes hand in hand with family responsibilities, shown in how young people attempt to reduce their parents’ economic burden. This often means being able to take care of one’s own expenses and making a financial contribution to the family (which applies to both young men and young women), as stated by Tris and Ila. Tris prioritises the importance of financing one’s own needs as the ultimate indicator of adulthood, but adulthood becomes even more meaningful when a person is able to provide for their parents. Tris’ statement is a common thread in many of the Chinese youth’s accounts of adulthood. Providing for parents is an additional criterion for adulthood rather than the main indicator in their concept of adulthood. Adults think about ways to earn money, to finance their own life, and think about their family’s future. In addition, (adults) may also think of setting aside money specifically for their parents, but financing one’s own life is more important to be an adult (Tris, 23, a Chinese man)
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On the other hand, Ila’s conceptualisation of adulthood reflects most of the non-Chinese youths’ accounts of adulthood. Adulthood is achieved only when one is capable of providing financially for his/her parents. Adulthood is when a person receives one’s own pay check, and is capable of assisting his/her parents and siblings (financially). (Ila, 23, a Dayak woman) Edwin had an even stronger opinion of the importance of financing one’s family. He said that people who think only of financing their own needs without providing financial assistance to their parents are categorised as youth. Those who think financial independence only goes as far as fulfilling one’s own financial needs, I categorise as youth. Adults will think about their family; an adult might think ‘instead of buying a motorcycle, I should spend the money on my family’. (Edwin, 25, a Malay man) One of the explanations for this difference between the ethnic communities in their emphasis on taking care of one’s family may lie in the socialisation processes within the family. That these processes are less emphasised among the Chinese might be related to the historical process of Chinese migration to Pontianak. Despite the importance of the family in the lives of Chinese youth, the value of self-reliance seems to be emphasised in their socialisation process. Parents are also less demanding in expecting compliance from their children, as I will further elaborate in Chapter 4.
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Being responsible towards the family also includes being able to maintain the family’s respect and status in society by behaving appropriately according to the norms of society. There is a wide range of ways in which young people can maintain their family’s respect, from staying in education, as expressed by Nata, to controlling one’s expression of sexuality in public, as stated by Eli. Nata’s father is a teacher in a small village in Sambas, and education has always been important to his family’s social status. However, Nata dropped out of university in his fourth semester and decided to focus on working instead. After keeping his dropping out of university a secret for some years, his parents eventually found out what he had done. They came to Pontianak in hope of sorting out this matter. It was then that he came to understand how much grief his behaviour had brought his parents, and why they consistently told him he had dishonoured the family’s name. He admits that he has brought shame and frustration to his family. His parents are embarrassed when they meet other members of his extended family, especially considering that children are always the main topic of conversation at family gatherings. Though it may not be ‘full adulthood’ (belum sepenuhnye dewase), the important thing (to be an adult) is that we have the intention of lessening our parents’ burden, of not bringing shame. In my case, this would mean going back to university and being serious about it. (Nata, 23, a Malay man). For Eli, maintaining family respect means having self-control. She considers being able to control one’s sexuality crucial to prevent bringing shame on the family. Expressing sexuality through physical contact with dating partners, especially in public, is often considered offensive behaviour, even
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for Elli who does not consider herself a religious person. For young women, controlling sexuality is even more important in safeguarding the family’s social standing. In Pontianak, dating practices are often controlled by the authorities through what is known as ‘razia’51 for ‘sexual misconduct’ at certain ‘high-risk’ locations in Pontianak52 (Suara Enggang Post, 2012). Elli explains the difference in dating practices between youth and adults. Young people are more aggressive, they are bold enough…to hug in public, to kiss also. Adults may sometimes do that, but that is an exception. If parents knew (about this), they would be ashamed, especially if their daughter is involved. (Eli, 24, a Malay woman) Similar to Eli’s description of youth, Bani, a young man who has just graduated from university, also stresses the lack of sexual control among young people. The grown-up way of dating is not like those kids (budak-budak). You know how teenagers (anak ABG) hang out on Ahmad Yani (road), on ‘one-legged’ motorcycles53, hugging and leaning against each other, like ABG. They are ‘free’ to date at the road side, or at UNTAN (Universitas Tanjungpura), or in dark 51
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Police raids to capture ‘criminals’, who are then brought down to the police station for identification and questioning. Some of the locations include A. Yani Road, and the area surrounding GOR Sultan Abdurrahman and Kapuas II Bridge. ‘One-legged motorcycles’ are motorcycles that are parked in an upright position on its centre stand (not on its side stand). This position makes the vehicle stable when two people sit on it, usually sideways. Dating on a motorcycle allows more physical contact that would otherwise be seen inappropriate in other contexts (for example while walking or sitting on a bench wide enough to have space in between two people). These ‘one-legged motorcycles’ are a common feature of dating practices among young people, not only in Pontianak, but also in other cities in Indonesia.
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places. It is different for adults, they can control themselves. (Bani, 30, a Malay man) Fulfilling the family’s expectations of growing up, usually framed within the notion of gender-based expectations of growing up is considered a form of interdependence between young people and their parents. Parents usually expect young men to maintain their role as family breadwinner, while it is assumed young women will take on their role as a wife and a mother, as stated by Ardi. Ardi is a young Malay politician who was campaigning for a seat on the regional legislative body when I was carrying out my fieldwork. He states that women are not obliged to work outside the household domain, but a woman has additional value if she does. He does not consider himself a full adult, because he has not been able to fulfil his role as family breadwinner. He admits that his income is irregular, and the nominal amount he receives is far from enough to support himself – let alone a family. For (young) women to be an adult, parents expect them to have the characteristics of a mother (bersifat keibuan). Young men are adults when they are focused on earning money. (Ardi, 26, a Malay man) However, there has been a generational change in the conceptualision of what it means to become an adult for young women and young men. Some young women in Pontianak describe how the labour market has become more prominent as an indicator of adulthood for them, while some young men also express how marriage has become significant for them as an indicator of adulthood, as illustrated by the following two statements.
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If my position at work were high, I would choose work over marriage. For me, marriage is not that important. Marriage is less important than work to become an adult. (Ifen, 19, a Chinese woman) I would choose marriage, even if that means not working forever. Marriage is an expectation and a need. An adult will understand that if we try, good fortune will come our way (rejeki itu datang kalau kita berusaha). (Aam, 24, a Madurese man) Various factors are assumed to contribute to these changing values, such as the increase in women’s education levels and feminisation of the workforce in Pontianak (Pontianak Statistics Bureau 2008a). Some young women in Pontianak, such as Yani, believe that it is change in the development of Pontianak’s infrastructure that has increased young women’s mobility in the public arena and enabled them to join the work force. Now there are many women who work. Before (during my mother’s time), it was embarrassing for women to work, as if their husband couldn’t support them. It was also difficult to work late, since it was dark everywhere. The woman’s role was to focus on her family and her children. (Yani, 26, a Malay woman) In an interview with Yani’s mother, Ibu Mina (47), it was also obvious that young women during her time did not consider work an important life domain. Young women in those days had no intention of working, but focused on searching for a well-to-do man to marry. She described how her female friends in junior high school decided to marry rather than
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continue their education to senior high school. Her friends’ husbands have become important bureaucratic elites, which she assumes is enough to make them happy. Her own decision to study until high school, and especially to enter a technical vocational high school (Sekolah Teknik Menengah), was not a popular choice among young women at that time. She is very supportive of her own daughters entering the work force, but still considers marriage as the most important indicator of adulthood for women. Transition to adulthood is also indicated by a young person’s focus on understanding and fulfilling parents’ psychological and social needs, not only their parents’ financial needs. This includes fulfilling their parents’ need for self-esteem, by letting their parents know that they are still of use to their children. Ika said that showing a certain degree of dependence was one of the ways to fulfil that need.54 Ika, who had just resigned from a private company, draws upon her female colleague’s experience to explain her point. Sometimes (young women) want to be independent after getting married, but sometimes their mothers love their daughters (too much), especially when their daughters give them grandchildren. So young women think ‘well, our parents just want to be close to us, they want to be close to their grandchildren. It is also nice to be with our parents’. Dependence is not bad. The important thing is that we make our parents happy, even though we actually want to be independent. (Ika, 26, a Malay woman)
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This kind of dependence should be differentiated from dependence that is enforced by certain conditions, such as financial conditions.
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The above illustrations show how families are dependent upon the younger generation to fulfil financial, psychological, and social needs, but not much is expressed in relation to how the younger generation’s needs are also fulfilled by contributing to the family. Below is a quote from a young man who expresses the importance of making contributions to the family not only for his standing in relation to family members and the community, but also to safeguard his future. I need a job to earn money, to help the family and for myself… but more importantly for my family, that is more important…Recognition from my parents, my older brother – but especially from parents – is important… My mother will tell neighbours, her friends that I (financially) support the family. People will respect me. If I don’t do it, I am also afraid that my parents will not be (emotionally) close to me. Who knows what the future holds? Maybe I will need support from them, advice, money, like for my child (when I have one). (Hendar, 22, a Malay man) The above statement shows that contributions to the family enable young people to gain respect from their family and from society. Also, contributing to the family strengthens emotional attachment to the family. Creating stronger emotional ties brings feelings of emotional security and increases the possibility that family members will also be willing to provide support in times of need. In other words, adulthood is more about interdependence than it is independence. The local conceptualisations of youth and adulthood above emphasise a state of in-betweenness in these two life stages, when young people talk about their own position. The interaction between
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the different dimensions of youth and adulthood contributes to this feeling of in-betweenness. They may feel like an adult in some dimensions (such being future-oriented), but a youth in others (they are not yet capable of fulfilling family obligations). This is reflected in the terms used by the informants, such as dewasa awal (early adulthood)55, belum sepenuhnya dewasa (not yet a full adult), mulai masuk dewasa (starting to enter adulthood). The feeling of in-betweenness among these young people provides empirical support for the notion of emerging adulthood that has been suggested by Arnett (2004). The difference lies in the indicators of adulthood, where Arnett’s youth often point to individual markers (independence, responsibility for oneself) rather than social ones (interdependence and responsibility towards others, especially the family).
Conclusion This chapter has described how West Kalimantan’s development lags somewhat behind that of other provinces in Indonesia, and how development remains unequal between urban and rural locations within the province. Pontianak, the capital of the province, is a periphery to larger cores, such as Jakarta. At the same time, it is also a core to 55
The notion of the early adulthood stage, commonly translated into Indonesian as dewasa awal, is also mentioned in developmental psychology literature (Santrock, 1996). Though the same term is used by some informants, it differs slightly from the developmental psychology understanding of early adulthood. Early adulthood in developmental psychology literature is considered a stage where young people have actually entered adulthood and are expected to progress to mid and late adulthood (see Eyetsemitan, 2003). No mention is made of the state of ‘feeling in between’ in early adulthood in developmental psychology literature, as it is in the emerging adulthood literature.
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other, more peripheral locations, such as cities in surrounding districts in West Kalimantan. This position, along with decentralisation and the history of ethnic segregation, has implications for how young people experience modernity and social mobility. As a core, it attracts many young migrants who want to be a part of the urban scene, especially as decentralisation has contributed to the city’s growth and opened up opportunities for marginalised ethnic groups to experience social mobility. Located on the periphery, Pontianak’s young people remain oriented towards larger cities in Java, especially when seeking education opportunities. Rarely do young people see themselves competing for work opportunities in these larger cities. Within this context, social relations in young people’s conceptualisation of youth and adulthood remain important. Having a social orientation (thinking, supporting, or helping others) is one of the first steps to entering adulthood. However, in order to reach full adulthood, a person needs to possess the capability to manage social relations (especially with parents), which includes fulfilling various family obligations. These family obligations are often related to making financial contributions to the family, safeguarding the family’s name by behaving according to societal norms, and having the capability to support a new family. Young people’s accounts of youth and adulthood emphasise a feeling of in-betweenness, as in some dimensions they feel they have fulfilled the criteria for adulthood, but not in others. This provides empirical support for the notion of emerging adulthood that emphasises this feeling of in-betweenness. The next chapter will elaborate in greater detail how the making of an adult and youth identity plays out in the context of tertiary education.
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Chapter 3 Family Expectations and Cultures of Educated Youth
3 Family Expectations and Cultures of Educated Youth
This chapter will elaborate what tertiary education means for young people in Pontianak. For many young men and women, participating in tertiary education is considered part of fulfilling family expectations. It is one way of growing up by showing responsibility, especially to parents, and strengthening bonds of interdependence in the family. However, tertiary education also functions as a medium to construct youth identity through ‘cultures of educated youth’. At the end of the chapter, I will show how young people actively strategise to negotiate the process of growing up and being young within the domain of tertiary education.
The Sarjana Degree as a Means of Growing Up For ethnic minorities or people living in peripheral locations, such as Pontianak, education is often a means to achieve collective empowerment, and not merely a means to individual upward mobility. Abada and Tenkorang (2009: 202), for instance, argue that immigrant youth in Canada (especially those of Asian and South Asian descent) achieve academic success with the support of their families. Family relations function as social capital in their children’s educational sphere 117
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as families tend to motivate their children and expect their children to achieve academic success. Immigrant children who receive tertiary education are expected to increase the possibilities of social mobility which will benefit the whole family. The same holds true for immigrant youth in the United States (Fuligni, 2001) and young people in Pontianak, who pursue tertiary education to fulfil family expectations rather than merely for the academic life. Family expectations that young people try to fulfil through tertiary education include getting a better job in the future, finding a compatible future spouse, and obtaining a prestigious sarjana degree. The Indonesian term sarjana may refer to a four year university degree or to a person holding the degree.56 There are various levels of tertiary education offered in Pontianak, the most popular being a one-year diploma (D1), a two-year diploma (D2/Akta II), a three-year diploma (D3), and a full undergraduate programme (S1, D4 or Akta IV)57. Not all of these programmes confer titles, except the S1 and D458 programme which confers the sarjana degree to its graduates. Getting a ‘Better Job’ Here, I will elaborate how tertiary education functions as a means to an end. The human capital perspective argues that education facilitates economic growth and development (Blundell et al., 1999). Tertiary education is usually considered a capital for securing ‘good jobs’ and 56
57
58
In this text, ‘sarjana degree’ is used when it refers to the degree. When it refers to the person, the term ‘sarjana’ alone is used. D in these abbreviations stands for Diploma, S for Sarjana. Akta is a qualification specifically for teachers. Diploma programmes are ‘vocational’ or applied tertiary education. Even if a D4 programmes confers the title of sarjana, it is considered less prestigious than a four-year university programme because of its applied nature.
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enables a person to achieve upward social mobility (Haveman and Smeeding, 2006), despite the ambiguities many families often face in relation to how much return they will obtain from investing in their children’s education (Demerath, 1999: 171-174). In the context of developing countries, senior high school and tertiary education is usually regarded as the basic capital for increasing the chances of acquiring these ‘good jobs’, which usually refer to jobs in the formal sector, especially permanent white collar jobs or state office jobs (Maria, 2002; Jeffrey et al., 2008; Schielke, 2009: 255-256; Kompas Ekstra, 2012). In the small survey I carried out, 68 per cent of respondents said that the main reason for participating in tertiary education was hope of obtaining a better job (mendapat pekerjaan yang lebih baik) in the future.59 An equal proportion of young men and young women reported this as the main reason for entering tertiary education (50 per cent each), which supports the notion that paid work is important for both young men and young women. Seventy-four per cent of these young people consider a job in the civil service a ‘better job’, despite the fact that employment opportunities in Pontianak for those graduating from tertiary education institutions are mainly in the service sector outside the state domain. Positions offered in this sector include sales promotion
(for
young
women)
at
the
mall,
or
staff
in
companies/hotels/restaurants (for both young men and young women), which usually require some kind of tertiary education (regardless of level, be it at the diploma level or the four-year university level).
59
The remaining 32 percent of the respondents prioritised reasons other than ‘getting a better job’ for pursuing a tertiary education. However, this does not mean that the expectation of finding a better job is not also a significant motivation for participating in tertiary education.
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Parents expect their children who have received tertiary education to obtain a ‘better’ job after they graduate. Parents hope that their children will be able to enhance the family’s position by doing so, as stated by Ibu Era. Ibu Era is a stay-at-home mother with four children and married to a mid-level civil servant. Her eldest daughter has graduated from university and is looking for a job. Her other two children are in tertiary education, while the youngest is still in elementary school. Like her husband, Ibu Era is a senior high school graduate and admits that she has limited knowledge of university life. What she believes, however, is that tertiary education will open up opportunities for her children to achieve a higher position in their careers than her husband has. I will send all my children to university, I don’t tell them which university to go to, I let them choose (because) I don’t know about universities. I want them to get a job, a permanent one, not a contract one. (A state job), like their father’s. But he only graduated from senior high school. Going to university will secure them a better position in a permanent job, and make their parents proud. (Ibu Era, 47, a Malay mother) Echoing Ibu Era’s words, her eldest daughter also sees tertiary education as a way to secure a job in the formal sector. Though she was more realistic about her chances of actually getting a permanent job in the formal sector with her university degree, her motivation to go for tertiary education was framed within the notion of fulfilling her mother’s expectations.
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My mother would consider me successful if I got a job in the formal sector. Actually, I know that after university there is no guarantee (of getting a job in the formal sector). But I think university is something that I have to do so I can (try to) live up to the expectations (of my parents), to make them happy…that is part of adulthood (Mully, 26, a Malay woman). As suggested by the quotes above, investing in tertiary education is related to expectations of occupational upward mobility, especially in comparison to their parents’ occupational domain. In Ibu Era’s case, her children are expected to achieve upward mobility within the same work domain as their father. This is not always the case. Many young men and women in my small survey equated ‘better job’ with a job outside their parents’ occupational domain (not just having a better career within the same occupational domain). In my small survey, most parents were employed in non-government jobs, mainly in the agricultural and (small scale) business sector. This may explain why they see civil service jobs as the pathway to social mobility, whatever position they may eventually attain. Tertiary education is the first step in achieving this aspiration, as it is now the minimum education requirement for a civil service job. Applicants must have at least a D2/ Akta II to apply for elementary school teacher positions. These were the only vacancies available during my field research that required D2/Akta II, as other positions required higher education levels (Government of Pontianak, 2009b). Some districts have even started refusing D2 applicants for the position of an elementary school teacher, requiring instead at least a D3 (Tribun Pontianak, 16 July 2010). In Chapter 4, I will elaborate in further detail why civil service jobs are seen in that way.
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In other cases, however, assumptions of upward social mobility by securing an office job do not always refer to jobs in the civil service. Julie, for instance, expressed her intention of getting an office job in a private company, which she considers to be better than her parents’ occupation as shopkeepers. She explains that working in a private company can offer her the opportunity to achieve upward social mobility and become financially independent. Her interest in working in a private company may also be influenced by the extremely low chance of a Chinese obtaining a civil service position, even though there is no official discrimination. I continued to tertiary education to get a good job. If I was only a high school graduate, I’d just be a shop assistant (in my parents’ shop). But if I have a D3 (threeyear diploma) or an S1 (undergraduate degree), (I) can work in an office. I would have a better job than my parents. Even to get a job in sales in a company (I would have) to have a D3 (certificate). Rarely are there openings for office jobs for high school graduates. (Tertiary education) is a must in this ‘modern’ age. (Julie, 21, a Chinese woman) Fulfilling family expectations through participation in tertiary education is not only associated with acquiring better jobs in the future. Tertiary education is also assumed to make young men and young women more eligible, when it comes to seeking a compatible spouse in the future. The next section will discuss this point.
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Finding a Compatible Spouse I have elaborated above the importance of education as a means for upward mobility, as it builds expectations of acquiring a job that is considered superior to the occupations of the previous generation. Education also plays a part in ensuring other dimensions of the social reproduction process, such as finding a compatible spouse by using tertiary education as capital. As also suggested by Arends-Kuenning (2000: 130-132), education increases one’s chances of obtaining a spouse, especially among young men. For instance, Yulius is a young Dayak man from Landak, a district not far away from Kota Pontianak. Yulius’ parents stress the importance of him obtaining a sarjana degree, which will provide the bargaining power needed to attract a compatible spouse, that is, a young woman who is also a sarjana. Though he agrees with his parents, he is in fact dating a senior high school graduate who is not interested in continuing her education to university. Confronted with this reality, Yulius argues that his status as a future sarjana gives him the right to enhance his girlfriend’s level of education so that she is acceptable to his family. Otherwise, he feels that he would have no right to do so. Adulthood is about making parents proud, by finding a compatible spouse…I will be a sarjana when I graduate. If (my girlfriend) is not a sarjana, then I will ask her to get a sarjana degree. In my family, it has never happened (that one ends up marrying someone with a lower educational background). If I date someone who is not a sarjana, I will not be acknowledged as being part of the family. So I also have to be a sarjana and I have told my girlfriend to go
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to university, so that when we are married, she will also be accepted by my family…(Yulius, 20, a Dayak man) While a sarjana degree tends to enhance a young man’s eligibility in his search for a spouse, it may have the opposite effect for young women (Raymo and Iwasawa, 2005). Young women usually expect to marry a young man with at least the same level of education, but preferably a man with a higher education level than themselves. However, this does not seem to be the case in Pontianak. For some families in Pontianak, where a young man studied is more important than what education level he has achieved. This perhaps has to do with the current trend of increased educational opportunities for young women, even in Pontianak (Pontianak Statistics Bureau, 2008b). One consequence is that it reduces the possibility of them getting a husband with the same level of education. Dea comes from Pontianak district. She had just finished tertiary education in Yogyakarta when I met her. She told me about her boyfriend who has a three-year diploma (D3). Having a sarjana degree, she emphasised her awareness that people would expect a young woman like her to find a future husband with (at least) the same level of education. But what is important for her and her parents is the fact that her boyfriend has studied in Java. (Everybody says) that you have to look for a spouse who surpasses you (pasangan yang lebih)60. My boyfriend is a D3 graduate, while I am a sarjana. My parents don’t consider level of education (as an 60
This means that a young man is expected to have a higher level of education than his future spouse.
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important factor in considering a future husband). But then, my boyfriend graduated from Tasikmalaya (West Java), so that makes his position is a bit higher (agak keangkat). (Dea, 25, a Dayak woman) For some Madurese youth, having a sarjana degree is not enough. Madurese parents consider a sarjana degree from an Islamic education institution, or a sarjana degree complemented by a pesantren (Islamic boarding school) education, as an advantage when it comes to promoting their sons to other families. Firmansyah, whose father is a speedboat driver, expressed his pride at having managed to fulfil this criterion. When I interviewed him, he had just broken up with his girlfriend. However, being a sarjana from STAIN, he was confident of his chances in finding another girlfriend. When parents see us, people like me, who have studied at university and have a pesantren background, my parents can say ‘can you find fault with Firmansyah?’ So other Madurese families (who have a daughter) will say ‘OK, then’ (ye udahlah). I can also eye up other young women; there are many to choose from. (Firmansyah, 25, a Madurese man). The Prestigious Sarjana Parents often expect their children to obtain a sarjana degree or become a sarjana, but not necessarily to acquire knowledge through learning. The sarjana degree is valuable in itself as a status symbol. As I was entering the house of Dewi, one of my informants, I noticed a large framed picture of her whole family hanging on the wall. The picture was taken at a photo studio after Dewi’s graduation 125
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ceremony at Tanjungpura University in 2005. Dewi, wearing her graduation gown, smiles alongside her proud parents. Graduation photographs are common in many of the houses that I visited, where older brothers or sisters or sometimes even extended family members in gowns decorated the walls of the living room. These pictures are on display to the public as a reminder of their social status or their connection with a person of higher social status, a sarjana. Gerke (2000: 135-156) observes that diplomas and educational titles are often used as a symbolic capital to gain entrance into the Indonesian middle class. As a consequence, most young people prefer to enter an S1 programme. In most cases, young people who do not continue to an S1 programme are unable to do so for financial reasons, not out of choice. The focus group discussion I had with students at Tanjungpura University also confirms my observation of the importance of the sarjana degree for young people’s families. One of the students explained that most of his friends go to university merely to obtain the sarjana certificate, and many of the others in the group agreed. As shown in Table 5, obtaining the status of an educated person was one of the reasons for young people to enter tertiary education, especially for young men. Out of the 14 per cent of the respondents61 who regarded tertiary education as significant for status (over tertiary education as a means to attain a better job), 64 per cent were young men.
61
The respondents were only allowed to give one answer.
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Table 5 Primary reason for participating in tertiary education Reason
Per cent
Obtaining a better job
68
Educational status
14
Expanding knowledge
11
Other reasons
7
Total
100
Pepen, for example, expressed how meaningful the sarjana degree is, for himself and his family. Pepen comes from a small village in Pontianak district. His father is a farmer who did not finish elementary school. Pepen’s faith in the power of tertiary education to enhance his family’s status was strong enough to make him work hard to finance his studies. His parents only gave him 30,000-40,00062 rupiahs each time he went back home to visit them, which was not very often. So Pepen combined study with work. His educational background in a Madrasah63 (from elementary to senior high), enabled him to offer children lessons in Quran reading. Why did I decide to go for tertiary education? Because in my (extended) family, on my father’s side, my mother’s side, nobody did tertiary education back then…My family expects me to become a sarjana. So I said to myself that I have to go to university so people will respect my family. Not one person in my family (of 62 63
An average meal at the time Pepen studied would cost around 5,000 rupiahs. An Islamic school
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my parents’ generation) has gone for tertiary education to get a title (sarjana degree). (Pepen, 29, a Malay man). Not all young men and young women are capable of entering tertiary education, despite the significance the sarjana degree has for them. Like Pepen, financial constraints are usually the main reason that a young person decides not to continue to tertiary education. It is often considered inappropriate to burden parents with the responsibility of financing their children’s tertiary education. Mala, for instance, has just graduated from senior high school and is working in an internet café near her house. She is confident about her intellectual capacity, which she measures from her acceptance into prestigious (but relatively cheap) state secondary schools. However, she failed the entrance test for Tanjungpura University. Her parents, who are small traders, cannot afford to finance her studies at a private university. Like Pepen, she was willing to work to help finance her studies at university. But she knew that no matter how hard she worked, she would never earn enough to go to a private university. At the time this study was conducted, the tuition fees at Tanjungpura University were 400,000-500,000 rupiahs. This is much less than at Widya Dharma or STKIP PGRI, where the fees were around 2,000,000-3,000,000 rupiahs a semester.64 64
Young people like Mala have even less chance of going to university since the increase in tuition fees in 2013. In 2011, the rector guaranteed that there would be no increase in tuition fees at Tanjungpura for the 2011/2012 academic year (Kompas, 15 July 2011), but there has been a considerable increase for the 2013/2014 academic year. The lowest tuition fee is now 1,033,000 rupiahs, which applies to most majors in the Faculty of Social Sciences, but most faculties charge around 2,000,000 rupiahs (Tanjungpura University, 2013). Tuition fees for the academic year 2013/2014 at private universities, such as STKIP PGRI Pontianak, remain more or less the same (STKIP PGRI Pontianak, 2013).
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I wanted to go to university, to a state university. (My parents) supported the idea, but I did not pass the selection test at UNTAN. Private university is not an option. If some people only go to university (without combining it with work), that is their choice. If I went to university, I would have to work. But private university is too expensive. I pity my parents who had financed me up to high school. I don’t want to force my parents, I would be embarrassed to have to ask them for more money (to go to private university). (Mala, 19, a Malay woman) Sometimes parents and their children have a different understanding of the meaning of the sarjana degree, which causes tension in family relationships. In these cases, young people often submit to their parents’ demands. For instance, Anto wanted to become a police officer after graduating from senior high school. For him, the sarjana degree did not mean much, especially in comparison to entering the police force. His desire to enter the police force was so strong that he was greatly disappointed when his mother did not approve. Eventually he decided to follow his mother’s wishes when he was offered a place in a tertiary education institution in Java without an entry test. He would have resisted following his mother’s wishes if he had had to stay in Pontianak for tertiary education. He thought that having a sarjana degree from Java would mean having a more prestigious status in the future, and that the family would also be more respected. The sarjana (degree) may be the same, but it is different if you get it from Java. It’s better, the quality, and people will respect you more. (Anto, 27, a Dayak man)
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Meanwhile, Illa’, who graduated from the Faculty of Economics at a private university in Pontianak, expressed her frustration when one of her uncles accused her of not living up to his expectation of what a sarjana is. Illa’ comes from a small village in the district of Sanggau. In her village, a sarjana is expected to understand contemporary issues that the people in the village do not. She explained that one day, her uncle asked her about a problem he was having with his computer. Illa’ was honest enough to say that she knew nothing about computers. This was not the answer he expected, and he expressed his disappointment in the sarjana identity that Illa’ has. After explaining several times that an S1 programme varies and that computer science was not her major, Illa’ stopped trying. She just tried to show empathy with her uncle in order to avoid conflict with him. He said (in a cynical tone) ‘you are a sarjana and yet you don’t even know (how to solve) a simple problem like this.’ At that time he was with his laptop. (I tried telling him) that this has nothing to do with me being a sarjana (because) I studied many things, (but) not about computers. He has said (things like that) two or three times, so I just said to myself, he is an older person who has lived in this village all his life. He does not understand. So I tried to understand him. A sarjana is better equipped to think about the future (consequences). I don’t want conflict. (Illa’, 23, a Dayak woman)
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The Mahasiswa and Cultures of Educated Youth The previous section has explained how participating in tertiary education is considered a way young people fulfil family expectations. I have explained what acquiring educational status means for young people’s families and how it functions as a strategy to become an adult. In this section, I will explain another dimension to the importance of educational status – that is of being young. Being an educated young person often involves styles of appropriation, which are a source of cultural distinction (Jeffrey et al., 2005) that differentiates between educated and non educated youth. This includes ways educated youth try to maintain their respected identity as young educated people through engagement in a certain lifestyle (for example, the use of language, time or space), even within their limited economic capabilities (Jeffrey, et al., 2008: 62-77). The Mahasiswa as Urban Intellectuals In Indonesian, the term mahasiswa (from Sanskrit, literally ‘great student’) is used to refer to students in tertiary education. Therefore a mahasiswa is not just any student, but a student of a higher intellect, and thus of higher status and prestige. The term commonly used to refer to the education process of a mahasiswa is kuliah (literally, ‘attending lectures’). Kuliah only applies to mahasiswa, while sekolah (going to school) is a term for lower educational levels. Tertiary education provides a means of being young that separates young people from other youth who are not in tertiary education, and from the rest of society. This already distinguishes the mahasiswa as a superior identity, 131
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which in turn is an important aspect of being young, as illustrated by the following two statements. People in (tertiary) education are different (from the rest of society), especially the way they talk, (and) how they analyse other people’s sentences (what other people say). (Lina, 24, a Dayak woman) The difference between young people in Siantan65 and Pontianak is the way that they speak. Pontianak youth are more polite when they speak, many young people in Pontianak go to university. (Young) people in Siantan are rude, even the Chinese in Siantan speak rough… not coarse in what they say, but just in the way that they speak. (Dendy, 19, a Chinese man) In Pontianak, the notion of being an educated person is often intertwined with the identity of being modern and urbanised, which contributes to the formation of various ‘cultures of educated youth’ in this city. Some of the students I met are not interested in learning, but fixated on building the mahasiswa identity, which emphasises the image of urbanity and modernity. For instance, Mimi moved to Pontianak when she was in junior high school. Mimi says that many of her friends do not really take much interest in studying, and the urban experience often diverts them from finishing their education. Mimi explained that the homogenous life in the rural areas immediately changes when they come to the city. Social stratification, she says, 65
Siantan is the capital of Pontianak Utara subdistrict. I have mentioned in Chapter 2 that this subdistrict is often associated with poor and uneducated young people. There are also no big universities in this part of Pontianak, just small academies offering diploma programmes.
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becomes apparent, and this usually drives young people to consumptive behaviour in order to keep up with their peers. …their reason (for studying in the city) is actually their interest in city (life). The kinds of friends they meet (in the city) changes, and their social status also changes. By social status, I mean, in rural areas simplicity is valued, most come from modest backgrounds (keluarga yang biasa-biasa) or (their parents are) teachers…(and social status) does not matter much. Here, they meet children of high ranking civil servants and merchants, (anak pejabat, anak pedagang), they meet people who dress smartly (perlente), coming to campus by car or motorcycle, while they just walk…it makes them feel degraded and beneath them (the upper class youth). Their parents who tap rubber can send them money, but only enough to eat, and here they want to buy credit for their mobiles, they want to hang out in the mall…in the end they become frustrated and some, who give in to temptation, end up selling themselves to oom-oom or tante-tante66. Regardless of all that, they (still maintain) their status as modern youth (through) being a mahasiswa. (Mimi, 27, a Dayak woman) Not all young people go to the extremes described above in constructing the mahasiswa identity. Tina, from the district of Sanggau admitted that she wanted to have fancy things after coming to Pontianak. Unfortunately she cannot afford them, so she dates a couple of young men who are also studying in tertiary education in Pontianak. She dates young men who are willing to take her out to a restaurant, 66
Oom-oom refers to older men, and tante-tante to older women, who are willing to pay for sex.
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buy her clothes, and cover her mobile phone bills. She does all this without her steady boyfriend in Sanggau knowing. The perception of possessing the ‘cultural capital’ of being educated and streetwise in an urban context aside, the increase in the past decade in the number of mahasiswa in Pontianak, has shifted the meaning of being a mahasiswa. Being a mahasiswa is idealised as the mainstream youth identity, rather than an identity achievable only by a specific group of young people. This applies especially to young people who have been in education institutions in Pontianak before entering university, because ‘everybody’ in Pontianak seems to be going to university. As such, going to university feels like the normal thing to do after senior high school. Epi, whose father works as head security guard at a junior high school in Pontianak, was actually not interested in going on to tertiary education. However, because his friends were going to university, he decided to go anyway. For Epi, a Malay young man of 23, going on to tertiary education is a means of keeping his friends from senior high school. He knows that his going to university is a burden on his parents, but he insists on not being left out of his social group. He says that it would ‘feel awkward’ if he did not go to university. Working Mahasiswa and Killing Time Cultures of educated youth that form the mahasiswa identity in Pontianak do not only involve displays of urbanity and modernity. They also involve a strategy young people use to kill time, pass time (Jeffrey, 2010), avoid boredom (Schielke, 2009), or as Stefanus in Pontianak says, to avoid ‘doing nothing’. Stefanus (20) was chosen by his high school to apply for merit-based entry to Tanjungpura University without a test,
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also known as PMDK (Penelusuran Minat dan Kemampuan). He passed the selection, but was not sure whether to go to university or not. He was thinking of working, but was not sure whether he would find a job immediately after high school. Later, he decided that going to university would be better than being unemployed. “I was confused…re-register or not, if not, then I would be unemployed, doing nothing. So I reregistered.” For Stefanus, tertiary education was about killing time, which he thought was better than waiting around for a job he wanted. When he finally started his years in tertiary education, he felt he had enough spare time to work. So, he helped his cousin sell fruit and vegetables on the market to earn extra cash. He needed more money to treat his girlfriend, who he has been seeing for quite a while. Like Stefanus, some mahasiswa perceive that they have a lot of time to kill. With more free hours than they had at high school, many end up combining work and school. Thus, financial reasons may be a necessary condition for students to work (Curtis and Williams, 2002: 7), but the perception of having the time to do so is more important for young people in Pontianak. Muchtadin is a young man from Sambas who studied at the Faculty of Forestry. His parents often did not send him enough money. His aunt was responsible for his daily expenses, but his tuition fees and pocket money were provided by his father. With only a few classes each week, he felt that he had plenty of time on his hands to do something else. So he decided to start working in his third year, because he wanted to earn more pocket money. His lecturer offered him a marketing position on one of the faculty’s projects. This job earns him around 500,000- 600,000 rupiahs a month, which he uses to buy mobile credits. He thinks the job raises his status as a mahasiswa because he already practices what he has learned in class. The job also 135
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gives the impression that he is smarter than other mahasiswa, even though he admitted that a large portion of his work hours are spent in selling selected seedlings to logging companies. He ended up being behind in class and even stopped going to university. (I worked) to earn money, I had so much free time on my hands (banyak nganggurnye). My lecturer offered migrant students the chance to earn some pocket money…I had to identify specific seedlings. You’d only know (about these seedlings) if you’d studied about them, so it is related to forestry. Eventually I got behind (in my studies). I was very confused, I stopped my education without telling my parents. (Muchtadin, 23, a Malay man) Rita also combined school and work after her father died. She felt that a mahasiswa has more space to manage his or her free time, but she also wanted to help her mother finance her education by working. Rita chose teaching over other part-time jobs such as working as an administrator in a private company or as a waitress in a small restaurant, because teaching is a dignified profession. So even though she wanted to kill time and earn money, she still chose a job that would maintain her selfesteem and status. So she started giving private lessons to elementary school children when she did not have any classes or assignments. Though she wanted to earn money, she emphasised that the lessons she gave to children were intended to make use of her free time. She only had classes at university until the afternoon, so she had nothing to do the rest of the day.
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(I was inspired) to give private lessons because there used to be many children living nearby who played around my house. They started asking questions (about) their homework, or they asked me to teach them stuff. So their parents felt uncomfortable that the children came (to my house) every day, and they brought their friends along (to ask me questions for school). I didn’t mind actually, I had the time (to help them). Classes are only until the afternoon and I like children, but their parents insisted on paying me. In the evening, I (always have the time) to teach them anyway. But I can use the money. My mother gives me money, but I also want to contribute towards (things like) gasoline for my motorcycle (to get to campus). (Rita, 24, a Malay woman) Mahasiswa and Leisure Activities Being a mahasiswa offers particular leisure activities that are often not as accessible and acceptable for non mahasiswa. As a mahasiswa, hanging out is often done on campus through various organisational secretariats. This gives the impression that it is a more respected form of hanging out than hanging out at a coffee stall, because it is done in an ‘intellectual’ space. One day, one of my informants, Riri, asked if she could borrow my camera. I agreed to lend her the camera, but also asked if she could take pictures of her daily life. She handed me the results, which showed various dimensions of her life – her family, her home, and her friends. But her photos were dominated by pictures of her involvement in campus activities. I asked her why, and she explained that campus organisations are an important part of being a mahasiswa, just as important as studying itself. She considers her involvement in
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campus activities a break from studying. For her, it is a respectable form of leisure activity. I always get good grades…but being active in student organisations is also important as a mahasiswa. The organisations that I participate in are all good (organisations)…I have more friends, we talk about things. It’s to get away from studying. It is better (to meet here and talk) than in a coffee stall. It is more respectable (on campus). (Riri, 24, a Madurese woman) I also visited one of the student organisations on campus, a group for music and arts, also known as bengkel seni or art workshop (see Figure 4). It was interesting for me, because unlike other secretariats, which are usually only open certain hours, this secretariat seems to be open 24/7. The secretariat is a simple building made out of plywood, with a wooden floor67. It is shared with other organisations, but most of the students who hang out there are from the music and arts groups. There were always students hanging out there, sometimes playing music, or just having a chat. Most of them are young men, but sometimes there are young women too. It was of particular importance because it is used not only as place for students to hang out, but also somewhere that senior students who no longer have classes can meet and hang out. Alumni of the university who are still in Pontianak or are visiting the city, also often meet here. Thus, it functions as a connecting space where 67
The art workshop was burned down in a fight between students of the Faculty of Social Sciences and the Faculty of Engineering on March 12, 2010 (Pontianak Post, 13 March 2010). Fights between groups of students are referred to as tawuran, and have become more frequent in recent years. In 2012 alone, 11 incidences of tawuran were recorded in Jakarta (Kompas, 27 September 2012). For more on tawuran in Indonesia, see for instance, studies by Kadir (2012) and Nilan (2011b).
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young people share information, especially related to youth activities happening in the city (such as concerts, theatres, etc.). This place is preferred over others because it provides a sense of collective ownership, and it is free. Figure 4 Mahasiswa hanging out in campus secretariats
Being young through the mahasiswa identity is not a privilege for all mahasiswa. Ari, for instance, expressed how young women like her have to choose between continuing education or working. She felt that her parents did not leave her much space and time to think about what she wanted to do after senior high school. So she decided to continue her education to buy time to think about what she wants to do later in life. She expressed how different her experience was to that of her male 139
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peers, most of whom, at the age of 25, are still free to explore their options. She said that young men of 25, knowing what they want with their future and making preparations for it, are the exception rather than the norm. Men have more freedom (to choose) what they want do. Some of my male friends already have targets for their future, saving money for marriage – even though they are only 25. That is really early for men, but not for women…Usually men can still think about their options until they are 30, 35. (Ari, 22, a Dayak woman) Muchtadin, the young man in the case above who worked and got left behind in his studies, explained that young women do not have as much space as young men to ‘stay young’. Referring to the experiences of young women in his small village in the district of Sambas, he said that young women typically have three choices after high school: marriage, work, or going on to tertiary education. Young women are not given much time to explore their options after high school. Thus, many young women opt to go for tertiary education in Pontianak so they can hang out and have fun. There are also many recreation facilities in Pontianak, like the mall where they can hang out with their friends and ‘do nothing’. He considers that urban society is more accepting of this behaviour among young women than rural society. So for some young women, being a mahasiswa is also a means to prolong their youth. Young women spend their leisure time in specific places and at particular times. These places are ‘safe places’ such as the home or respectable public places. Their activities, usually carried out during day time or in the evening, include hanging out on campus or at a friend’s
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house, or eating out with a friend. Lincoln (2004) argues a distinct youth culture exists among young women, which he refers to as the ‘bedroom culture’, a youth culture influenced by ideas of romance and marriage. For instance, when I hung out with the young women, the liveliest topics of discussion would be their love lives or their relationships with their boyfriends. There was a tendency for young women to share intimate details of their love life when hanging out in the privacy of their homes. This included instances when other family members, especially parents, were out or were in another room, out of earshot. However, some young women, like Sari, attempt to reject the ideas of femininity that bind women to these particular places. As a migrant student from Ketapang, she is far from the watchful eye of her parents, and campus grounds provide her the opportunity to enjoy her social life. Sari is known as a tomboy among her male peers. She likes to hang out at the art workshop, where most of the others are young men. One of the young men at the art workshop said that Sari insists on paying for her own drinks and meals when she hangs out with them in the campus canteen – a reaction rare among young women when a man offers to treat them. She is not shy, either, about the fact that she is attracted to Adi, one of the young men who is also a member of the art workshop. When Adi decided to go out with another young woman, Sari was generous enough to congratulate him. She also refused to shy away from the art workshop community out of embarrassment because Adi rejected her in favour of another. For young women, being rejected by a young man is often considered much more humiliating than vice versa. I know I am considered a tomboy, that’s OK. I like it (because) I don’t want to be (seen) as weak. I like to
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hang out with young men. (There is more) freedom. (Sari, 25, a Malay woman) Young men have more options where to spend their leisure time. Urban nightscapes (Robinson, 2009) often provide the opportunity for young men to find leisure space to experiment with behaviour commonly deprecated by adults. In Pontianak, these spaces include campus grounds, cafés, open spaces such as the town square and sport hall grounds. For young men, these spaces provide a place to consume alcohol, smoke and take drugs, which facilitate the construction of a masculine identity (Mullen et al., 2007; Ng, 2007), including that of young men in Pontianak. Ony, a young man who lives in the outskirts of Pontianak city admitted that the reason he wanted to study in the centre of the city was because in his home community, drugs and alcohol are strictly controlled. (I) chose to study in Pontianak because I wanted to know about (city) life, observe the young people, (including) in destructive (activities)…I wanted to know, and I ended up involving myself in those activities ha ha ha (laughs)…well, we’re young, so boys will always (be involved) with narcotics, drugs, that’s for sure. It’s important for young men. (Ony, 25, a Madurese man) What separates the consumption of alcohol among mahasiswa and nonmahasiswa is the capability to manage their alcohol intake. As such, young people also perceive that society provides more space for a mahasiswa to consume alcohol, as society assumes mahasiswa are
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better able to manage alcohol intake than high school students are. Leo, a young man from the district of Landak says that when he moved to Pontianak, he often hung out with his friends and got drunk. He thought that it was a normal thing to do as a migrant student coming to the city, even though after a while he decided to reduce his alcohol intake to make sure he does not get drunk. I was still like a high school kid back then. You know, (high school students) don’t have (self) control. In my first, second semester (of university), I often got drunk (but) I didn’t do drugs. I got wiser afterwards. Many of my friends did (drugs). People who hang out have many friends who are like that. But (now) many of my friends just hang out but don’t drink alcohol; they just hang out. Maybe some drink, but others don’t. (Leo, 20, a Dayak man) The notion that mahasiswa have more control over alcohol intake is supported by Mak Mas. Mak Mas is a forty-something canteen owner at one of the universities in Pontianak. Even though her canteen is located on campus, she admits that it is a place where some ‘naughty young men’ (budak degel) hang out. At night, these male students bring in alcohol and get drunk. They are actually nice, and not all get drunk. There are some who don’t (get drunk). I try to understand (that the ones who get drunk) just want to have fun and relieve stress. I don’t mind (them drinking) as long as they don’t wreck my place. (Mak Mas, 40, a Malay woman)
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Because alcohol management is important, beer (rather than traditional forms of alcohol drinks such as arak or tuak, or even factory-made local products) is considered a better choice of alcohol drink. Beer contains less alcohol, which decreases the risk of getting drunk. Staying sober while drinking alcohol is said to be what characterises the drinking habits of mahasiswa, as mentioned by Hanan. Mahasiswa don’t get drunk like (people do) in the village. We try not to drink arak or tuak (because they contain) too much alcohol. We like beer. If we have no money (to buy beer), then we just buy arak, tuak, or maybe factory-made bottled alcohol if we have a bit of money. But we only drink a little bit (if we buy arak or tuak). Drinking is only for relaxation, not to get drunk. (Hanan, 26, a Malay man) However, the perception that a masculine mahasiswa identity involves smoking, the use of drugs and alcohol, is not shared by young women. They can tolerate smoking as a way of demonstrating masculinity, but not drugs and alcohol. Young women who are attracted to the ‘bad boy’ image of masculinity (those who do alcohol and drugs) are considered the exception, because the negative stigma of being a ‘naughty girl’ (cewek nakal) rubs off on them. Also, not all young men agree that smoking, drugs and alcohol perpetuate the masculine identity. Bhakti is a mahasiswa who often works night shifts in cafés. He admits that he smokes and enjoys a bit of alcohol now and then, but he would never do drugs. Young men who do narcotics are failing themselves. I have friends that are like that (take drugs). I don’t stay
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away from them, as long as they don’t force me to use drugs too. If they want to get high, then get high, but don’t take too much, otherwise you’ll die (I say to them). That’s all I can say to them. (Bhakti, 24, a Malay man) Aside from smoking, taking drugs, and drinking alcohol, for young men being a mahasiswa also legitimates hanging out, which might be seen as a negative behaviour if it were other groups of young men who were doing it. For example, young people who are still in high school have rigorous school hours that do not leave much time to hang out, except on a Saturday night or on Sunday. Young men at high school who hang out too often are sometimes seen as not being serious about their studies. As mentioned elsewhere, a mahasiswa has a lot of free time. Thus, hanging out is viewed as normal. On the other hand, when people who are unemployed hang out, it is often seen as a waste of time – a form of ‘laziness’. Andy, a young man from Ketapang notices that, Nowadays young people continue their education to university so they can hang out together, to meet friends, (but) not to study. It is different from (hanging out) when (a person) is unemployed. (Hanging out while being unemployed) seems like (one is) wasting time, (being) lazy, (or) not wanting to work. (Andy, 24, a Malay man) In the previous section, I have shown how the sarjana degree functions as a means to an end (enabling young people to obtain better jobs and find a compatible spouse in the future) as well as cultural resource in itself. Here, I will show the limitations of the sarjana degree in facilitating the growing up process, which forces young people to find other ways 145
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to grow up through the education system. One of these ways is by engaging in youth cultures within and outside the university system, which they assume will complement the goals that the sarjana degree is supposed to serve. One of these is the arisan nilai system.
The Arisan Nilai System and Hanging Out The value of the sarjana degree for families actually lies in the state’s acknowledgement of it, which opens the possibility of upward social mobility in formal sectors that is very central in young people’s narratives. However, many young people are also aware that there are not enough jobs available that match their educational background. Nonetheless, the sarjana degree is a resource for survival – a resource that gives many youngsters the minimum base from which to apply for work in the formal sector. The function of the sarjana degree as a resource for survival was mentioned by one of the senior lecturers I met, Pak Alam. He is aware of the reality that youth have to face today, where education can no longer be expected to help them get a job – any kind of job, let alone a job that matches their educational background. When he made that statement, his expression was a combination of frustration and disappointment. He told me that he has siblings with S1 diplomas who graduated around 2000, but none is working in a field that they were trained for. So, he is very pessimistic about education as a means to securing a good and satisfying job.
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I always tell the students, tertiary education is only a means for survival68 (untok betahan jak), that’s it. (Pak Alam, 54, a senior lecturer) The gloomy picture of tertiary education in West Kalimantan is portrayed on one of the websites that discusses education in Pontianak. The website emphasises the need to provide quality education in West Kalimantan, parallel to that found in Java. Many parents cannot afford to send their children to Java to study. By increasing the quality of education, students from lower social economic background will have the same access to quality education as their more privileged peers who are able to study in Java (InfoPontianak, 2011). Some students expressed that class sessions were boring for them as a techno savvy generation. Older or senior lecturers are reluctant to learn to use technology that young people are used to. Rarely did I find classes with the technology to generate interactive and interesting teaching processes. Many classes still use black/white boards (with limited use of overhead projectors). However, this only partially explains the de-motivation among the students. One of the most important factors in quality education is the teacher’s performance, creativity, teaching style and their commitment to their profession (Supriyoko, 2012). Authoritarian teaching styles (Tribun Jogja, 1 October 2012) and poorly trained teachers (Kompas, 7 December 2012) remain one of Indonesia’s main problems in enhancing the quality of education. In her research among students at the Faculty of Economics, Tanjungpura University, Ramadania (2008: 52) suggests that ignorant 68
What he means here is that tertiary education merely provides the minimum base for applying for jobs, even though these may not be ideal jobs that offer job satisfaction and decent pay.
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attitudes among lecturers are one of the main sources of dissatisfaction among university students. These ignorant attitudes are reflected in lecturers’ lack of empathy towards the students’ learning needs, the difficulty students have reaching lecturers via phone or text message, and the dearth of guidance offered to students by academic counsellors. Lecturers have thus become uninspiring and motivation to learn has remained low. Ramadania’s study is a reflection of dissatisfaction among students in one of the preferred faculties; and perhaps it is even worse in other non-preferred faculties. Many students also stated their disinterest in using the library. It was the last thing on their mind, as stated by Ian. I never go to the library, I don’t even know when it is open or what time it closes, ha ha ha (laughs)…sometimes I study, but not at the library…and that is only when there is going to be an exam. (Ian, 21, a Malay man) Though Ian did not specifically mention why he did not take interest in going to the library, the lack of good books on the shelves, the disorganised catalogue system, and the unenthusiastic librarians in one of the libraries that I visited, may have been among the reasons for students’ lack of interest in visiting the library. The high expectations parents have of the sarjana degree stand in contrast to young people’s awareness of its limited capacity to access the jobs they dream of. Poor education facilities exacerbate the need to emphasise the symbolic function the sarjana degree has – the diploma in itself is enough. Learning becomes much less important than the grades listed on the sarjana diploma. This has given rise to the arisan
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nilai system as a strategy for acquiring a sarjana degree, without having to deal with the challenges of learning. The arisan nilai system is basically a bribery system, the term arisan being used ironically here. Arisan generally refers to a rotating savings or credit association. Members of the arisan each deposit a set amount of money. At each meeting, a member’s name is chosen at random, and he or she ‘wins’ the arisan, meaning that he/she will receive the pot of money saved by the members of the arisan. All members will be given a turn to ‘win’. The arisan also allows its members to take turns to take out loans, which they usually repay in instalments. When I asked a student why it is called arisan nilai, he told me that it is similar in that people pool money and ‘win’, in this case, a particular grade or nilai (depending on the amount of money pooled). There are different ways in which the arisan nilai system operates, but usually one of the students plays the role of middleman. He or she distributes a form on which the students are asked to write down how much they are willing to pay. The form will later be given to the lecturer. The lecturer will then determine a student’s grade based on the amount he or she has written on the form. Usually an A costs around 50,00075,000 rupiahs, and a B, 30,000 – 40,000 rupiahs. The middleman does not have to pay, as he will automatically get an A for his services. The term arisan in the campus context seems to refer to all activities related to bribes paid for grades, regardless of whether it involves the actual pooling of money. For instance, students also use the term arisan (or in some cases, sogok, meaning bribe) to refer to the money paid directly to a lecturer to pass the defence of their undergraduate thesis. Some students pay 100,000 rupiahs to each of the committee members, and in this case, no middleman is involved. In 149
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addition, some lecturers require that their students bring a basket of fruit, snacks or biscuits to their home the day before the defence. I happened to accompany one of the students to his friend’s house. This student wanted to ask the direction to his thesis advisor’s house, because he wanted to deliver some biscuits to him. I asked his friend whether this delivery was actually necessary, the friend said, …if we don’t deliver anything to the lecturer’s house, he/she will make up excuses for not showing up for the defence, like forgetting the schedule or something. A friend of mine, Carla, paid 100,000 rupiahs, so the lecturer wouldn’t ask too many questions. (Dedi, 25, a Malay man) Of course, not all campuses have an arisan nilai system, and not all students or lecturers participate in it. For instance, high achieving students are not always keen on paying lecturers for their grades. One of the examples of a high achiever is Riessa. I had a chat with her one day at her faculty canteen after one of her classes. While we were chatting about daily life, Riessa suddenly stopped. She had a troubled expression looking at her agenda. I asked her what was wrong, and she explained that she feels that she has been discriminated against by one of her lecturers, because she asked why he gave her a low grade for his class. You know, I always get an A, sometimes a B. But a B minimum. Suddenly I get a C. I asked (the lecturer) why I got a C, and he was furious. Really mad. I asked if I could get a resit and he refused. I didn’t pay (the lecturer). I have friends who did get a good grade. My friends who never study get good grades (because they pay)…I know (my friends who pay) just never 150
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study. I am going to try to meet him again this week. Some of my friends say I am too ambitious, having to have A (for all subjects). So I only told my best friend about my concerns (over this grade). (Riessa, 21, a Madurese woman) Because the system incorporates short cuts to earn grades and the sarjana diploma, youth cultures of hanging out on campus are even more prominent. What else is there to do on campus when the motivation to learn is low? Since the sarjana degree functions mainly as a symbolic capital in itself, hanging out is sometimes a way to find other means of growing up in the university context. Youth cultures of hanging out on campus become a strategy to acquire networks and information that will facilitate future transitions to work, as Yayan explained. Yayan comes from the subdistrict of Matan Raya, about a fourhour drive from Pontianak. He sees hanging out as an investment in his future. Rather than seeing it as a waste of time, he sees it as a way to scope out potential sites for future business opportunities. He often hangs out at his faculty canteen while playing chess with his friends. He also often goes to billiard halls, where he hangs out with three of his best friends to have some fun off campus. No matter where the hanging out takes place, he feels it is important to have friends from campus to hang out with. Even the friends from his hometown that he sometimes hangs out with are students, though from different universities. He describes how hanging out at mobile phone counters on campus could benefit him financially.
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Figure 5 Young men hanging out on campus
I go to university…I hang out the smart way…I usually hang out at mobile phone counters around campus. If hanging out doesn’t get me something (I don’t do it)…you know when they just talk about stuff (berbualbual), their lives, their girlfriends. Sometimes hanging out (produces) something (money), like when I help out at the mobile phone counter. Or sometimes (I hang out) at a coffee shop near campus. There I get to know people, middlemen looking for people to buy and sell mobile phones and stuff, and network. (Yayan, 20, a Malay man) Yayan wants to open his own mobile phone counter back home, where he can provide a hang out place for other young people while earning money for himself. Hanging out on campus with mahasiswa from 152
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various regions is a crucial experience for him, especially to get the connections he needs. He assumes that many migrant students like him will go back to their hometowns. He finds it more comfortable hanging out with friends from his own ethnic circle, but especially with friends from his hometown. Because he plans to open a counter in his hometown, he prefers to hang out with peers from his hometown. By doing that, he will expand his distribution network when he has opened his mobile phone counter. Others see that hanging out as a mahasiswa is a way of meeting young men and young women from different backgrounds, which provides the opportunity to learn to be open-minded and tolerant of differences. This is part of the mahasiswa identity that Tris, a migrant Dayak student from Kapuas Dalam subdistrict, emphasises. She compares herself to her friends back home who have never experienced tertiary education and never lived in an urban environment like she has. She said that they still often feel insecure about building relations with people from a different social group, and especially of a different ethnicity. Thus, they tend to confine themselves to people from their own group. This attitude, she argues, will close doors to future opportunities, such as finding a job. The way of thinking (back home) is wrong. Everybody is the same, no matter what ethnicity (they are), poor or rich. It depends on us whether you want to learn from other people. Here (in Pontianak), you have to learn about other people, but it all depends, whether you try or not. Being a mahasiswa in the city is supposed to change (they way you think)...Those who have been in the city to study will have adapted, and (will have) the power to find work (despite obstacles 153
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they face). People back home are afraid of competition from people who are different (from them), of different ethnicity. (Tris, 25, a Dayak woman) The importance of hanging out as a leisure activity and as a media to facilitate future work opportunities was also supported by Nyra. Nyra is a young Chinese woman who comes from Sekadau, a district four hours away from Pontianak. She admits that hanging out is significant to maintaining friendships, networking and for sharing experiences, especially among her urban peers. Her fascination about science and technology has influenced where she hangs out with friends, preferring internet cafés to restaurants or the mall. She argues that by having friends who share her interest in technology, she will be able to accumulate enough knowledge to achieve her dream of starting her own electronics business in the future. She does not have many friends who share her passion in the village she comes from. When I hang out, I am happy because I meet my friends. Hanging out is important for sharing stories and experiences. The young people in my village are left behind, they have limited friends and networks, and they do not understand technology. But young people who study in Pontianak have a wide range of friends and they also understand technology. That is why we (Nyra and her friends) choose to hang out at internet cafés to acquire knowledge and to network. (Nyra, 19, a Chinese woman) Pipi is a 24-year-old Malay woman who works in her mother’s canteen near one of the universities in Pontianak. She is in her last semesters of university and has started to work in her mother’s canteen after her 154
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father died. With limited income, her mother had to rely on her children to run the business so that it can stay open longer hours. She admits that at first, working was only an expectation that she had to fulfil after her father died when she was still in high school. However, she now looks at it differently. Taking care of her mother’s canteen is something that she now enjoys doing, especially considering that she has more free time to do so after becoming a mahasiswa. For her, the canteen is where she hangs out and meets other students or alumni, friends, and acquaintances, not just a place to work. She says, ‘Hanging out in the canteen, I get to know many people. Many young men come in’. A couple of days after our first encounter, I went to her canteen again to meet someone for an interview. I noticed that there were many young men in the canteen, including a group of young men that Pipi seemed to know. All were students from various universities in Java who were back home in Sambas (a five-hour drive from Pontianak) for the vacation. They had come all the way from the district of Sambas to watch a movie at the Mega Mall. They were on a tight budget, so they decided to have lunch at Pipi’s canteen. I saw Pipi engaging in lively conversation with them, and asked whether she was so friendly with all her customers. Having so many young men from various backgrounds visiting the canteen, I asked whether she had ever had a boyfriend who she met at the canteen. No, not yet. My mother says ‘it is a waste if you go for tertiary education, but still date boys that are degeldegel (those that hang around and have fun without thinking of their future), it is better not to have a tertiary education, high school is enough.’ Many
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mahasiswa come in, but so far none (have become my boyfriend) (Pipi, 24, a Malay woman) Her case shows that hanging out is not only beneficial to future prospects in the work domain, but also to finding a spouse. Pipi believes that being a mahasiswa herself, she has the skills to select nice young men.
Conclusion In this chapter, I have argued that participating in tertiary education to earn a sarjana diploma is a way young people fulfil family expectations, or a way to grow up. Being in tertiary education is also about forming a mahasiswa identity by engaging in cultures of educated youth. As a result, tertiary education is both a means that young people draw upon to facilitate growing up, as well as to stall it. As a means of growing up, a sarjana diploma is used as a means to an end: to obtain better job opportunities in the future, and to find a compatible spouse to ensure the family reproduction process. It is also used for symbolic purposes of status. It is therefore partly to be viewed as a way for young people to grow up. Gender differences exist in relation to how young people see tertiary education as a means of growing up (especially in finding a spouse) and how they construct their youth identity. There have been changes in how young women and young men evaluate the compatibility of a future spouse. Young men in tertiary education are now expecting their future spouse to be educated to at least the same level as they are, rather than accepting young women with a lower level of education. It is also more common to see 156
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young women dating young men with lower education levels, though they often have to rationalise other positive attributes the young man has to maintain their self-esteem. Young men and young women also differ in the timing and practice of leisure as a mahasiswa. Young men have more time on their hands to engage in leisure activities, as there is no pressure to move on in their lives. There is also more freedom for young men to hang out in various locations on campus grounds, even if that involves breaking campus regulations by drinking alcohol or doing drugs. While drinking alcohol is more acceptable among the Dayak and Chinese communities, young Malay men and young Madurese men are constrained by parents and adults who observe the Islamic norm prohibiting alcohol consumption. Yet, they still find ways to engage in this youth culture of alcohol consumption in spaces where there is little or no adult control, including on campus grounds in the late hours. The young people’s experiences in this chapter also show that they have to negotiate between family expectations of upward mobility through tertiary education and the pushdown effect of education69 (Keyfitz, 1989) in utilizing the sarjana diploma. Systems of bribery have become one of their strategies to attain the sarjana degree without having to put much effort into gaining a title that might otherwise be useless. Naafs (2012b: 125-126) also noted how university students in Cilegon, West Java make deals with lecturers to have ghostwriters write up their theses in return for considerable amounts of money. Other strategies include using the youth culture of hanging out to network (Jeffrey, 2010: 474), to learn to be tolerant of people from different social
69
The pushdown effect occurs when there is an increase in young people obtaining educational credentials, which makes it harder for them to enter the kind of work they are qualified for. Even when they do, there is a decline in the income they receive.
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groups, to access future work, and even to search for their future spouse. Yet, the paradox in making meaning of tertiary education is also shown in how young people view tertiary education as a way to postpone growing up. In peripheral locations, tertiary education institutions are usually centred in the provincial capital. Thus, being educated is associated with being modern and urbanised. Educated youth build their identity through campus settings that provide a respectable way of being young (Jeffrey, et al., 2005). Together, the qualities of being educated, modern, and urbanised form a particular culture of educated youth among mahasiswa in Pontianak. Killing time by working in dignified part-time jobs or in engaging in leisure activities on campus is one of the ways young people express their educated youth identity. The next chapter will deal with young people’s work aspirations and the strategies they employ when their work aspirations are not fulfilled. It will also describe how young people negotiate the differences between their own work aspirations and those of their parents.
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4 Meaningful Work and Youth Cultures of Waiting
In the previous chapter, I have shown how participation in tertiary education becomes a part of growing up, of respecting family expectations and trying to fulfil them. I have also illustrated how tertiary education provides space for the existence of youth mahasiswa cultures which form the identity of being an educated young person. Tertiary education often facilitates (or in some instances is used to stall) the process of growing up. Here, I will explore how young people try to secure a smooth transition from education to work. The first section will explore what meaningful work means for young people in Pontianak. The second section will show how young people engage in alternative work domains, outside mainstream white-collar work. The last section will show young people’s active agency in ‘waiting’ for meaningful work to come their way. This chapter will show that finding meaningful work is a central issue for young people. Meaningful work in this case is about finding work that is meaningful not only for them but also for their family. Many young men and young women share the same work aspirations as their parents. Those who do not share the same aspirations as their parents often have difficulties pursuing their pathway when it comes to negotiating the tensions between their own aspirations and their parents’. Young people 159
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who are unable to secure meaningful work try to cope by reconstructing what meaningful work means, and try to find work they consider meaningful through the temporary work domain they engage in.
The PNS: Defining Meaningful Work The growing up perspective views transition from education to work in a linear fashion, assuming that the move from education to work will turn a dependent individual into an independent one through acquisition of financial resources. However, for many young men and young women in Pontianak, successful transition to work is not only about acquiring the financial resources to become independent from the family. It is also about entering work that is meaningful, which relates to the value one attaches to a job (Johnson, 2001: 298-299). In Pontianak, work is meaningful when it enables contributing to the financial, social, and psychological welfare of the family. Many Indonesian youth in provincial cities such as Pontianak aspire to what Nilan calls the ‘1980s dream of being employed in the civil service’. She believes that the aspiration to join the civil service is a thing of the past.70 Professional jobs are what young people in Indonesia aspire to (Nilan et al., 2011b), even though she also recognises that many young people with civil servant fathers aspire to become civil servants themselves (Nilan, 2008: 10). However, among the majority of the young people that I studied, being a civil servant – commonly known as PNS (Pegawai Negeri Sipil) – is the kind of work that young 70
Quoted from Pam Nilan’s comment during my presentation in the “Growing up in Indonesia: Experience and Diversity in Youth Transitions” Conference, Canberra, Australia (29-31 October 2009).
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people find meaningful, no matter what family background they come from. This career aspiration is chosen regardless of whether it suits their personality or even matches their educational background, as stated by a young man during the early period of my fieldwork. When I met him, I explained that I was trying to understand what kind of jobs young people in Pontianak are interested in after graduating from university. He replied, “You don’t need a year (to carry out a research to answer that question)! Everybody here knows that everybody wants to be a PNS.”71 The small survey that I carried out among Pontianak youth (N=369), supports the above statement. The majority of young people in my small survey said that they aspired to a job in the civil service. Tables 5 and 6 show the work aspirations of young people in Pontianak by gender and ethnicity.72
71
72
An interview with the mayor of Pontianak, Sutarmidji and a staff at the Pontianak Regional Staff Bureau (Badan Kepegawaian Daerah Pontianak) seems to confirm that young people aspire to becoming a PNS without considering whether their educational background is suited to the position offered. In the past couple of years, fresh university graduates have tended to dumb down their educational level to apply for positions offered for high school graduates. This has caused various problems within the system, because these applicants are often dissatisfied with their job once they are hired as a PNS. This practice is said to no longer exist, as starting 2008 the government no longer offers positions to high school graduates. The interviews with the mayor and the Regional Staff Bureau were done separately, but they both referred to the case of ‘English teachers’. At the time of interview, temporary school teachers, mostly still in their 20s and 30s, were pushing the government to accept them as PNS teachers. They come from various educational backgrounds, but have all been teaching English in those schools as temporary teachers (guru honor). The government is reluctant to comply with these demands, as it insists on there being consistency between the positions offered and the applicant’s educational background. For this question, the option ‘other’ was followed by a blank space where respondents were asked to specify their answer. Nineteen (19) respondents chose ‘other’, and their answers included programmer, systems analyst, and graphic designer. These answers were then re-coded and included in the option ‘worker in private company’. Nine respondents, however, did not specify their answers, so their answers were not recoded.
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Table 6 Primary work aspiration by gender Gender
PNS
Business
Politician
Worker in private company
NGO
Others
Total
Male
Female
122
137
61%
82%
40
14
20%
8%
9
2
5%
1%
21
10
10%
6%
5
0
3%
0%
4
5
2%
3%
201
168
(100)%
(100)%
Tables 6 and 7 show that 61 per cent of all young men and an even higher proportion of all young women (82 per cent), and the great majority of young people in all ethnic groups except the Chinese, aspire to becoming a PNS as their first preference. The gender difference may be due to the low number of Chinese young women that were included in the survey sample (13 young women as opposed to 43 young men). If a more balanced number of women in the Chinese sample were attained, the gap between young men and young women who aspire to become a PNS may not be that high. Although it is true that the majority 162
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of all groups, except Chinese, aspire to become a PNS, the per centages are considerably higher among Malay (87 per cent) and Javanese (85 per cent) than among Madurese (79 per cent) and (the least) Dayak (68 per cent). The numbers give the impression that the Madurese and the Dayak were not as interested in becoming a PNS as the Malay and the Javanese were. Yet, further interviews with some of the Dayak and Madurese respondents of the survey revealed that there was a difference between their true work aspiration and the work aspiration expressed in the survey. The work aspiration expressed in the survey was work they assumed within their reach.73 Thus, there may actually be a higher number of Dayak and Madurese who aspire to become a PNS, were the work aspiration expressed in the survey parallel to their true work aspiration. In the latter section, I will further explain the work aspirations of the Chinese and why theirs differ from those of the other ethnic groups in Pontianak, despite the fact that they define meaningful work in the same way. Thus, the young people that I refer to in the first section of this chapter are non-Chinese youth (Malay, Dayak and Madurese).
73
Becoming a PNS is sometimes considered an out of reach dream for some Dayak youth who are unable to provide bribery to enter the bureaucracy. The relatively low network of Madurese in the bureaucracy is also assumed to lower the chances of Madurese youth to become a PNS. I have explained this in Chapter 2.
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Table 7 Primary work aspiration by ethnicity Ethnicity
PNS
Business
Politician
Worker in private company NGO
Others
Total
Total
Malay
Dayak
Madurese
Javanese
140
34
19
39
2
21
4
259
87%
68%
79%
85%
4%
75%
100.0%
70%
10
8
1
1
30
4
0
54
6%
16%
4%
2%
54%
14%
0%
15%
4
3
2
2
0
0
0
11
3%
6%
8%
4%
0%
0%
0%
3%
3
2
0
0
23
3
0
31
2%
4%
0%
0%
41%
11%
0%
8%
1
3
0
0
1
0
0
5
1%
6%
0%
0%
2%
0%
0%
1%
3
0
2
4
0
0
0
9
2%
0%
8%
9%
0%
0%
0%
2%
161
50
24
46
56
28
4
369
(100)%
(100)%
(100)%
(100)74 %
(100)% (100)% (100)% (100)%
Chinese Others Missing
My in-depth interviews with 106 young people show that most young people in Pontianak feel sure about wanting to become a PNS, but rarely mention what specific branch of the civil service they want to be in. Some have not thought about it, and some just do not care. Their sole main goal is to enter the civil service. The following section will try to explain why this is so. 74
Column totals may not add to exactly 100 due to rounding of decimals.
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Material Benefits: Stability, Opportunity, and Security Material benefits are often the first answer that comes to mind when young people are asked why they want to become a PNS in the future. First of all, becoming a PNS means that there is a guarantee of income stability. Regular monthly income is considered an important aspect of creating stability in a person’s life, as stated by Bani. Bani currently works on construction projects, but has always wanted to become a PNS. A PNS is (about) having a clear (future), you feel settled, your life is guaranteed. Not like in (construction) projects, (you earn money) when there is a project, if not, well...(People) like us want income every month, for next year, and the next, and so on into the future. (Bani, 30, a Malay man) The idea of the income stability provided by civil service jobs often outweighs the reality of the absolute monthly income. Some of the young people admitted that PNS salaries are not very high, and the low salaries of PNS are regularly ridiculed in local media. For instance, in an edition of Berkat, a story starts with two PNS who meet at a coffee stall. One of them starts the conversation by asking how his friend is doing. His PNS friend answers, “You ask how I am doing? It’s like you’ve just met me. Every day we go to this coffee stall and you still ask how I’m doing? This is how life has always been for us PNS. I only have money on the first (of the month). Even that doesn’t stay around for long, cut for loan repayments…”. The first PNS then replies, “You and I share the same fate. My salary is always cut for loan repayments, too. It gives me a headache…even salary increase can’t solve the life problems we lowlevel PNS have” (Berkat, 31 March 2009a). 165
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Even though young people recognise that they would get a low salary working as a PNS, they know that the job provides the opportunity to earn money on the side75 and gives them access to credit schemes (in addition to their monthly income). This is also one of the reasons why becoming a PNS is important for these young people. Being a PNS in itself is seen as guaranteeing access to these credit schemes since credit schemes are usually only available to those who have a steady income. This was expressed by Lian. First, a PNS job is guaranteed. The (official) salary is not high, but you can get money on the side. Sometimes even more than your (official) salary. Second, you get (access) to credit. You can get a motorcycle; (you) know how important a motorcycle is to get to places here. That is why people are competing to enter the PNS. (Lian, 27, a Malay man) Though Lian’s interest in credit only goes as far as getting a motorcycle on credit, being a PNS also means a person has access to other types of credit schemes that involve more money. A house mortgage scheme is one of them. The importance of house ownership for a PNS was acknowledged by the mayor of Pontianak, resulting in a policy in March 2009 stating that the city would no longer consider loan applications from PNS that required repayments exceeding more than 40 per cent of their monthly salary – except in the case of mortgages (Berkat, 31 March 2009b).
75
Money on the side includes bonuses or gifts from clients, which usually involves money changing hands (bribes) for administrative services provided by a PNS. It can also take the form of bonuses and commissions from institutions that secure government projects with the help of the PNS, as briefly explained in Chapter 2.
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Pensions are another material benefit that guarantee lifetime security. Since Indonesia is not a welfare state, having a civil service pension ensures life-long security, which young people feel they need for their future. Even though the pension received is very small, it is still better than nothing. Tina is a daughter of a deceased police officer. She feels that her father’s pension has really provided as a safety net for the family. A PNS, even though their income is small, (and) they live modestly, at least they have a future. During bad times or good, you still get money. If you’re a businessman, you get millions of rupiahs, but you don’t know (what) the future (holds).... (If you’re) a PNS, even though you’re retired, at least you have money for your children to eat. For example, my deceased father, even though he has passed away, I still enjoy the benefits (from his pension).76 I want that for my children, I want to become a PNS. (Tina, 24, a Dayak woman) Civil service pensions also function as a buffer against stigmatisation in old age. A Madurese young woman mentions that a PNS pension is crucial for safeguarding herself in old age and cannot see herself living in an old people’s home (panti jompo)77 in the future. If I cannot get a job in the civil service (therefore, receiving no pension), or if I can no longer work, who will take care of me? I would probably live in an old people’s home, but I don’t want that. People will pity me; I don’t want that. (Wati, 28, a Madurese woman) 76 77
Pensions of a deceased PNS still go to the widow or widower. She is referring to free retirement homes subsidised by the Ministry of Social Affairs
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Status in Society All three aspects of the PNS job that ensure stability (through regular income), opportunity (through side money and credit schemes), and security (through pension schemes) make the civil service jobs attractive to young people in Pontianak, particularly in comparison to other job sectors in Pontianak. But another added value of becoming a PNS is related to status. This was mentioned by Aas. The motivation to join the PNS is to acquire a position or social status. (Aas, 26, a Malay man) In my small survey, many young men and young women emphasised the importance of societal recognition of their job, especially from their parents and from society in general. For those who chose working in the civil service as their first work aspiration (N=259), parents were the most significant source of recognition, followed by society. The extended family is also an important source of recognition, though less so than parents and society. However, in the last column of Table 7, which presents the total responses for a specific source of recognition, 244 responses mention parents and 229 responses mention extended family as their top three main source of recognition (compared to only 152 responses mentioning ‘society’). Thus, becoming a PNS is often about fulfilling the need for social recognition that will enhance one’s social status, without rendering the family unimportant.
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Table 8 Source of recognition of aspired PNS jobs by priority78 First Priority
Second Priority
Third Priority
Number of Responses
Parents
136
86
22
244
Extended Family
17
124
88
229
Future husband/wife
4
17
65
86
Future husband/wife’s family
1
2
19
22
Friends
-
16
28
44
Society
101
14
37
152
TOTAL
259
259
259
777
Access to state facilities is a common indicator of the social status acquired from working in the civil service. State facilities in this case include the privilege of wearing a PNS uniform. In everyday life, the status of a PNS is displayed in public via the uniform. The significance of the PNS uniform is so engrained in the lives of Pontianak society, that it has generated a debate on who is entitled to wear the uniform (Berkat, 27 March 2009). This debate was sparked by the fact that temporary workers (tenaga honor) in government offices are wearing PNS uniforms, even though they have not yet ‘entered the system’. It has always been taken for granted that even temporary workers were entitled to wear a 78
Respondents were asked to rank the source of recognition towards their aspired job. Only the responses that show the three main priority sources of recognition are presented in this table (from the responses of six sources of recognition listed in the questionnaire).
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uniform, until the mayor recently regulated the use of the uniform. This was expressed by Lia when I showed her the mayor’s new policy limiting the wearing of the uniform to permanent PNS only. I often meet my friend, riding her motorcycle when I am on my way (home). I have always thought it was all right. She is a temporary worker (tenaga honor), but she wears the brown uniform. Yes, really, she wears a uniform. Maybe (the policy) is still new. That is why (she is in uniform), even though she is actually not allowed to (wear the uniform) yet. (Lia, 24, a Malay woman) I asked her what she thought was so important about the uniform that it became a debate in the local media. At the time, we were having lunch at a small canteen, in front of a government office. She asked me to look around, Look around, see those PNS in that corner? Many of the PNS come here to eat. We feel, I don’t know, (gimana gitu – indicating reluctance) when we see them. They are so confident, and proud in their uniforms. They know everyone knows they are civil servants. (Lia, 24, a Malay woman) From the above description it is obvious that a uniform has an effect on those wearing it and those who see it. Uniforms are considered one of the bases of power for those who wear the uniform, expecting a form of compliance from others (Bickman, 1974), especially those who are not entitled to wear that uniform. The importance of the uniform in creating social power over others has made the uniform ‘sacred’ and valuable. As
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entitlement to wear this uniform is becoming even more limited by the state, its value is perhaps increased. Following this logic, jobs in the civil service (with the uniform) are now even more desirable. Another type of state facility that civil servants enjoy when holding a particular position is access to motorcycles, cars, or houses. Unlike the uniform which can be worn by all PNS, these state facilities are not available to all PNS. The more valuable the object a PNS has access to, the higher the rank of the PNS is assumed to be. Because these objects indirectly show one’s position within the civil service, it is also a source of prestige in society. This was mentioned by Dino, who wanted to be the head of a local government office one day. He not only wants to get a job in the civil service, but aspires to attaining a certain position within the civil service that would give him access to state facilities. I want to be the head of a district government office (Kepala Dinas). They have (access to office) cars, sometimes civil service housing. People know (what your position is) if you live in civil service housing. I think that is achievable. If (a person obtains an) S1, he will enter the service at level IIIa. It is easier to climb up (the career ladder) from there. (Dino, 21, a Malay man) Having a house or car is also considered a source of prestige that young people assume they can obtain by being employed in the civil service. Rather than merely being interested in having access to civil service housing or an office car that show off their rank within the civil service,
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they stress the importance of a job in the civil service enabling them to buy and show off a ‘proper’ house79. For us, success is…success is about achievement, (having) material things…a house, a car, or a new car. People will judge us, people are considered successful if they have those things (a house and a car). Usually it is those in the civil service that are able to afford them. I don’t know what they have to do (to get the money to buy those things), I don’t know. But that is how people see success, from large (conspicuous) material wealth. With a car, you can also display (your success in public) more (than you can with a house). (Lany, 24, a Dayak woman) Lany’s statement also shows that even though ownership of a house is significant in young people’s perception of success, a car is more displayable in public. Thus, the car serves the same function of bringing social prestige, but in a different way. A car is more mobile than a house, allowing a person to show off his/her financial success in public places. Family’s Social Expectations The above description explains how civil service jobs are seen to provide present and future security and upward mobility, and how they offer symbolic power in society. The security and symbolic power offered by a 79
In Pontianak, a proper house is usually seen as a house with brick walls (rather than the commonly used concrete blocks or wood) and a tile (rather than wood) floor. This image is a very Java-centric view of what a proper house is supposed to be, and in many cases unsuited to the unstable peat land that Pontianak has. Having a brick house and a tiled floor means that one has to put in more money to lay a solid foundation, and this adds to the impression that it is an expensive house to make.
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civil service job means being able to fulfil the family’s social expectations, which for many is the key to achieving adult status. Regular Financial Assistance to Parents Among Pontianak youth, being able to provide regular financial assistance to their parents is a question of responsibility in achieving adulthood. Arnett (1998) claims that in the Western world, responsibility often refers to being responsible for oneself. Similar to youth in India (Seiter, 2009), China (Nelson, et al. 2007) and Bolivia (Punch, 2002: 23), Pontianak youth feel that their responsibilities go beyond that. Adulthood is achieved when responsibility extends to include others – especially parents and the family. Young people also note that financial responsibility (especially when it is sustainable and regular) can also enhance their bargaining power within the family. I have more say in decision making in the family if I can support the family each month. (Hendar, 22, a Malay man) Parents’ idealisation of civil service jobs is most common among people who have experienced the insecurities of life outside the civil service, as described by Ibu El. Her eldest daughter has just graduated from university and is looking for work. She has other children who are still studying in university. She told me, I think about (what) my children (will do) when they have finished, finished university. But if she (my daughter) becomes a civil servant, then she has 173
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achieved the height of success (sukses penuh, literally full success)...I think in the past, civil servants already had high (status). They can ensure a stable income for their families, not only for their wife and children, but also for their parents. That is why (I expect) my children to become civil servants. (Ibu El, 50, a Malay woman) Ibu El then added that her father was an employee in a private company. When she was in junior high school, her father was fired and her family were left penniless. For her, it was a traumatic experience, the fall from being a well-to-do family to a family that had to struggle against poverty. That is why she views the civil service jobs in a positive light. Her father’s experience has made her emphasise the importance of stability that she feels she could have got if her father had worked as a civil servant. Mortgages In the previous section, I have shown how a house serves as a basic need and also as a symbol of social status which a job in the civil service is assumed to confer. In addition, having a house is also considered the start of a new mode of relationship with one’s parents. According to these young people, ownership of a house (usually after marriage) symbolises one of the often mentioned indicators of adulthood – being independent. Since these youth are from lower middle class families, most will not inherit a house. Therefore, if ownership of a house is ever accomplished, it most probably will be from their own income. This is why mortgage schemes are crucial in the making of an adult identity, since it gives a feeling of independence from parents. Even so, ambivalent attitudes are often expressed with regard to this matter, as 174
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stated by Awan. He seems to idealise having an independent house when he is married, yet also states that temporarily living with parents after being married does not make a married couple less of an adult. (Living with their parents) does not mean that they (married couples) are less of an adult (than those who live independently)….It may be that they need to share for the time being because people start (a new life) from zero, so they live with their parents first while they save money to build a house. But a PNS can get a mortgage to buy a house. They don’t have to wait too long (to save money for a house). A PNS can become an independent (adult) sooner. (Awan, 24, a Malay man) Aside from symbolising financial independence from one’s parents, a house is also believed to facilitate independent decision-making and thus, less parental control. If you are away from your parents, you become an adult faster, because when you are with your parents, it is ‘Mum! Mum!’ ‘Dad! Dad! all the time. ‘Dad, mum I can’t do this, I can’t do that’. When you’re alone, like you are when you have your own place, you have to try (to solve your own problems). (Mimi, 25, a Dayak woman) Pension and Safeguarding the Family’s Future Aside from being able to provide regular financial assistance to the family, another indicator of adult identity is having responsibility for the long-term future. In this case, the concept of the family embraces not
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only the ‘present family’ but also the ‘future family’. This is why pensions are crucial in the formation of adult identity. By envisioning having the capacity to safeguard one’s future family, some of the young people feel that they will be confident enough to move on and think about marriage once they enter the civil service. I also tried to see whether pension was a significant factor motivating parents to encourage their children to enter the civil service. While it is not surprising that young people themselves see a pension as important for safeguarding their own future, parents are most likely not motivated by self-interest when encouraging their children to enter the civil service and get a pension. I met an old Malay man who is a retired PNS teacher with three grown children, all three are in civil service jobs. Pak Alip asked me where I worked. When I was doing my fieldwork, I was working as a lecturer at a private university, and he immediately asked, Then you are not a PNS? Then you don’t get a pension, right? I have two daughters in the civil service, and my son is also in the civil service. I am a lucky man, I know that my grandchildren will be secure. That is why (a pension is important). (Pak Alip, 65, a Malay man) So for parents, knowing that their children will be able to secure their grandchildren’s future is reason enough for them to encourage their children to enter government service. Raising Family Status through the Uniform I have mentioned above that the PNS uniform brings status to those who wear it. However, the ‘power’ of the uniform is not limited to the individual. In societies such as Pontianak, where an individual’s success 176
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and power also extends to the family, a family member wearing the uniform means that he is providing a basis of social power to the whole family. If you wear a uniform, the whole family will be proud. Other people will know that someone (in the family) is a PNS...they know that we can perhaps help with this and that, like giving information and stuff. Like I was offered a civil service job by another PNS. People know, that a PNS can do all that. (Arjan, 20, a Madurese man) Arjan’s story shows that the uniform symbolises the power one has to access limited state resources – in this case, access to help jobseekers get into the civil service. Even a low-ranking civil servant has the power to negotiate a place in the civil service recruitment process, provided that he/she has developed good relationships with a high-ranking bureaucrat who can influence the recruitment process. A network of middlemen usually offers this service.80 Since informal negotiation of access to these state resources often runs through family members (not necessarily the PNS him/herself), other family members related to the PNS also feel that they can also exert a certain amount of power over others. This was mentioned by Wawan who graduated from the Faculty of Forestry in 2008. If I am a PNS, in the eyes of society, I have standing. If I am not a PNS, then I have less standing, unless I am really successful (at what I do). My family will also have 80
An example of how this works has already been described in Chapter 2.
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status, because here if you are successful, your family is also (successful) in society. And people notice that when you wear the uniform. (Wawan, 30, a Malay man) Ethnicity and Meaningful Work This section will focus on Chinese youth, who do not necessarily associate meaningful work with civil service employment. Their job aspirations are shaped not merely by personal preference, but the opportunities that are open to them. Siahaan (1974: 41-43) shows that in 65 years (1905-1970), there was a remarkable increase in the Chinese population in West Kalimantan. However, until the 1970s, most Chinese in West Kalimantan remained foreign citizens. The New Order’s discrimination of the Chinese resulted, among others, in a costly bureaucratic process of naturalisation which many poor Chinese could not afford. This, coupled with their attachment to cultural ties, deterred them from taking citizenship. As a consequence, they have always had to find ways to survive outside the state’s domain. Thus, trade became an important source of livelihood among the Chinese, as accessing work in the trade sector is not subject to the same degree of state control as jobs in the bureaucracy are. This history has influenced how young Chinese choose what they would like to do. First, Chinese seem to be sceptical about their chances of entering the civil service. How Vanka, who comes from a small village, feels about becoming a PNS illustrates this scepticism. I heard that if you want to apply for a job in the civil service, only local (indigenous) people (putera daerah) will be considered. Non-indigenous people (non-
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pribumi) like the Chinese, will definitely be refused. (Vanka, 22, a Chinese woman) The statement above seems to contradict the fact that the Malays are historically as ‘non-indigenous’ as the Chinese (and the Madurese) are, as they are also migrants from elsewhere. As I have explained in Chapter 2, the fact that the Malays are able to obtain positions in the bureaucracy is related to the historical privilege that they attained during the Dutch colonial years, rather than a matter of the Malays being part of the indigenous identity. As such, being indigenous or nonindigenous is more a social and political construction and related more to securing positions of power than to the actual origins and migratory history of a particular ethnic group. Meaningful work for Chinese young people is about earning a decent income in the private sector and being able to construct their own pension schemes. Private pension schemes are believed to provide higher benefits than the civil service pension scheme. A Chinese young woman explains, Among the Chinese, the kind of work that parents are proud of is trade. Very few Chinese parents demand that their children become civil servants. There is an assumption that there is a time limit to being a PNS, but if you are involved in trade, no matter how old you are, you are still allowed to run your business. Chinese parents also say that if you are a PNS you cannot work (when you reach the statutory retirement age). If you are a PNS you get a salary of only 1 million rupiahs; it is better to trade, because when we are old, we never know what illness we will have. And with only one million, what will we eat? (Dylna, 19, a Chinese woman) 179
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The importance of self-reliance often means that parents place less pressure on Chinese young people to support them financially. Most Chinese youth emphasise the importance of giving financial support to parents, but only when their work earns them enough income to be selfsufficient. Recent social and political reforms, however, have opened up more space for the Chinese to fully exercise their rights as citizens (Berkat, 2 February 2009), including to enter the civil service. The opportunity to obtain citizenship may partly explain why not all Chinese youth reject the idea of becoming a PNS, though a job in the civil service is just one of several jobs that young Chinese people aspire to. Hutomo (25) is a Chinese young man from the district of Singkawang who is now a PNS. He is actually the only Chinese civil servant I met during my research. For him, it just so happened that out of all the job applications he sent out, this one passed muster, and was for a position that matched his educational background. Unlike many non-Chinese youth, who would take any position in the civil service regardless of whether it matched their educational background, Chinese people tend to think the contrary. Ipin, who is currently studying information technology, says that a match between his educational background and the job is a must if he were to apply for a position in the civil service. If there is an opening for a civil service position that matches my major, I will then apply to become a civil servant. But my intention of becoming a PNS is only 20%. For the most part (80%), I want to have my own business or work in a private company, but in a high position (if I choose to work for a private company). (Ipin 20, a Chinese man)
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Playful Work The previous section has elaborated the reasons why young people aspire to a particular kind of work, especially to work in the civil service. Work aspirations are shaped by what work they (and their family) consider meaningful work, within the (ethnic) opportunity structure, rather than by their own personal identity. In this section, I focus on young people who have graduated from tertiary education who choose to engage in what they view as playful work. What I mean by playful work is work that offers them freedom, pleasure, and fun. The youth described in this section are those who enjoy their involvement in work domains outside the civil service. Business and Pleasure Sometimes young people in Pontianak have their own small businesses, most linked to youth cultures that develop in an urban context, such as the fashion business. In Pontianak, Muslim gear for women is one business sector that is quite attractive for young women like Ipur. While at university, she started doing business selling women’s accessories such as brooches, barrettes, socks, and headscarves. With the help of her former lecturers and her networks in a religious group that she is involved in, she managed to open a shop selling Muslim gear near campus. I asked her what it was about this business that she enjoys most. She replied that she enjoys being able to provide fashion advice to her customers, especially youngsters who are always keen on keeping up with the latest fashions. When I bought a piece of clothing from her shop, I could sense that Ipur was indeed fashion-savvy, patient, and 181
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attentive to her customer’s needs and tastes. She guided me through several pieces of clothing, describing in detail their positive and negative aspects, relative to my fashion preferences. Young men also see fashion as a potential business opportunity that also develops their interests. According to Hendra, young men today like to go to distro, a term that usually refers to a fashion outlet for young men and women. However, most young people in Pontianak define distro as fashion boutiques for men, perhaps because most shops selling young men’s fashion explicitly use this term. Distro is definitely a growing business in Pontianak, with most importing their clothing lines and accessories from Bandung (Berkat, 14 October, 2008). Some of Hendra’s male peers have their own distro, while others work in one. Despite the potential business opportunity a distro provides, Hendra was more interested in opening an internet café because he wants to provide a space for him to hang out with his friends. His parents have supported him in the setting up of his internet café by providing the capital and buying the building where it is located. So far, he is happy with his business. Aside from providing a place to hang out while running a business, the financial gains that he gets from the business also enable him to buy ‘luxuries’ from these distro that his parents are not willing to pay for. (I decided to open an internet café) because it is important to hang out, to talk to other people, forget our stress. (When I hang out with friends), no campus topics are talked about. So opening this internet café provides a space to hang out, and because this is an internet café, the topic of discussion is (online) gaming. We also sell drinks here, juice or alcohol, but only so people stay longer and chat with friends. Sometimes I 182
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give (the drinks) for free, but usually they pay (for them). (Hendra, 22, a Chinese man). Being involved in business does not have to mean working in a tangible market, but may take the form of MLM (Multi Level Marketing) business. MLM is a system where the selling of products and service is distributed along a network of distributors. The recruitment of new distributors (called downliners), will earn the recruiter a share of the income generated by these new members. Thus, without actually having to work, a recruiter with several levels of downliners may manage to earn a significant income. Many young people in Pontianak are involved in this business, some since they were in university. For example, Any is a young woman who is involved in an MLM business located in China. She joined the group when she came back to Pontianak after graduating from a university in Java. Even though her parents were insistent on her entering the civil service, she was more interested in getting involved in an MLM business. She admitted that she once tried out for a job in the civil service just to keep her parents happy. She succeeded in getting a position in one of the offices, but she decided not to take up the job. One of the main reasons why she decided to work in MLM and has been able to maintain her involvement in the business is that she feels that the MLM business provides space for playful work; meaning that she is able to spend time with her boyfriend, who is also in the MLM business. Their shared interest in this business has helped them develop a better relationship with one other. She admitted that she once quit the MLM business, but then decided to join up again because she realised that she could spend more time with him if she worked in MLM. They spend
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time together, for instance, searching for new downliners, giving presentations, and discussing books on business and popular psychology that enhance their performance in this business. Aside from that, she wants to have money to maintain her fashionable look. She compares her childhood experience of being the daughter of a PNS and finding that her father’s income was just enough to get by. She wants to have more than ‘just enough’. From the income that she obtains from her MLM business, Any is able to dress sophisticatedly for a young woman. When I met her, she was wearing a formal suit, consisting of matching blazer and trousers. She also had a nice pair of high-heeled shoes. I made a remark about how good she looked, and she laughed and replied, There is a lot of money (to be made). I can afford nice clothing, like this. There is not really a specific dress code, or uniform (like in the civil service). I just have to dress smartly (because) I deal with people. (Through MLM), some people have even managed to buy a Mercedes, a vacation on a cruise ship, or a luxury villa. But for now, (the ability to buy nice) clothing and the freedom to wear what I like is enough for me ha ha ha (laughs). (Any, 23, a Dayak woman) Seeking Freedom through Arts Another alternative work domain that often attracts young people, but is looked down upon by adults, is the arts. Young people involved in the arts usually consider it a job for life, while parents often think of it as a hobby. Parents expect that one day their children will find a ‘real job’. Liana, for example, is a young woman who takes her work as a dancer
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seriously. Liana has always loved dancing since she was in elementary school. Dancing began as an activity to pass the time in between studying. It was only after doing regular dance performances, that she felt that she had been ‘freed’ from the mainstream constructions of what work is supposed to be. She became passionate about her dancing, and is trying to enjoy it as much as she can. She has tried to deal with the conflict with her parents about her decision to become a dancer by prolonging her study in university. She is buying time to convince her parents of her career choice. I was unemployed for a year after high school…that was when I really got to know the world of art. I’ve always loved arts, especially dancing. But I had thought of it as a hobby and not real work. Now it is different. (Even though) people may think it is not work, I think differently. My uncle says all I do is dance, dance, dance. But here I have friends who think the same way (I do), that dancing is liberating. (Liana, 24, a Dayak woman) Awan is also involved in creative arts. Awan told me that he holds down two jobs: as a temporary lecturer in a private university and as an artist. He considers being an artist his main job and lecturing as a sideline. This is unusual for a young person to place his work in the informal sector above his job in the formal one. He is currently making Dayak musical instruments (sape) and Dayak carvings. For him, this is more important than his job as a lecturer. If he had to choose between his work as a lecturer and arts, he is confident that he would choose the latter. He explains that he had been invited to become a permanent lecturer, but he turned the offer down. His art work is much more inspiring and 185
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emotionally satisfying. He graduated from an arts institute in Yogyakarta, majoring in wood craft. Like most parents in Pontianak, Awan’s parents have encouraged him to enter the civil service. He applied last year, just to satisfy his parents. However, he was not accepted, and was actually glad that he did not make it. His parents think that he has always been ‘playing around’ and not taking life seriously. He admits that he gets enjoyment from his work and that he has more time to hang out with his peers because of his flexible working schedule. However, he emphasised that he is not playing around with his work. He does not know what will become of him in the future, but he knows that he is happy doing what he is doing. To be honest, I am still exploring where I will go (with my work). When I’m bored, I can just hang out with my friends. But I am serious about this. If I were not serious (about my work with the Dayak culture), I would have stayed in Jogja. Jogja is the centre for arts education, and I could easily hold an art exhibition there. It is so easy (to do that in Jogja). I could become popular or whatever. But I cannot abandon my (calling) to develop my ethnic group’s arts and culture. So I am also making sacrifices. How could that just be playing around? (Awan, 30, a Dayak man) Writing and Romance Pri is another young man who rejects the idea of being a civil servant as the ultimate career ambition, despite his mother encouraging him to do so. He went to a university in Yogyakarta and dropped out in his sixth semester because he was too busy participating in theatre 186
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performances. He now identifies himself as an ‘independent travel writer’. Most of his work is based on his travel experiences, especially in remote areas of West Kalimantan. His passion for both travel and writing has strengthened his intention to focus on expanding his career as a writer. Like every parent here, my mother wants me to enter the civil service. (But) I am not a person who wants to apply for (office) jobs. I don’t know what else to do, but write…(Pri, 27, a Malay man) As a writer, he crosses paths with all kinds of people, but his influential network seems to consist of journalists and NGO workers. Being able to connect with a variety of people is also a source of esteem and status that comes with his work. What he seems to enjoy most about having this network is being able to form short-term romantic relationships with young foreign women, traveling to the countries where they live and then writing books about his travel experience. While I was conducting my fieldwork, he was going out with Stacy, a young Canadian woman. When she was transferred to another country, the relationship ended. A couple of months later, he was involved with a young woman from Eastern Europe who invited him to come to her country. He stayed there for a couple of months (supported by his girlfriend), wrote his book, and then the relationship ended. He re-lived the same story with a young woman from Western Europe, wrote another book, and terminated the relationship.81
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While this may seem like ‘playful work’ for Pri, it is also a rather extreme example of the instrumental dimension of sexual/romantic relationships, a topic that I will discuss in the next chapter.
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Youth Cultures of Waiting: Making Work Meaningful and Finding Meaningful Work I have described how young people grow up through finding meaningful work, and also how they construct their identity of being young by expressing the pleasures they find in the alternative work domain they are involved in. This section will go a step further by showing how young people understand themselves as being in both processes. Young people who are ‘waiting for (meaningful) work’ also construct an image of their work as playful work. Even so, unlike the young people described in the previous section, they do not really find pleasure in their line of work they have chosen. As these young people ‘in waiting’ are expecting to find other forms of work, they try to reconstruct what meaningful work means in relation to the alternative work domains that they are currently involved in. Because they are well aware of their inability to fulfilling family expectations through their current job (because of the low social status attached to it, its temporary nature, and sometimes the low earnings), they try to emphasise the playful side of their work. At the same time, they are actively searching for networks to access work their parents find meaningful and to get ahead in their line of work. Working at the Mall Favourable alternative work options outside the civil service usually involve
formal
work
sectors,
including
those
under
private
management. These formal work sectors are assumed to offer more job security and status than work in the informal sector. One of the formal 188
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private work domains that are accessible and attractive to young people in Pontianak is working at the Mega Mall. Young people see working at the mall as working in a place that is glamorous, chic, and modern. Working at the mall makes you proud, it is a trendy place and not everyone gets to work here. The building is modern and grand. You also see a lot of young people, so you can also cuci mata (literally ‘wash your eyes’, meaning entertain yourself watching the people go by). (Yuli, 24, a Malay woman) It is also a place where young people are free to see and be seen by others. Dressing up is more acceptable when people are working at the mall. For some young women, including the Malays who do not wear a headscarf on a daily basis, the mall uniform is considered liberating rather than constraining. The dress code justifies their desire to look pretty, not only by wearing relatively tight clothes and short skirts, but also by using make up. Izza, for instance, started working in the mall when she was in her last semesters of university. When I met her, she was applying for a job as a sales promotion girl at a cosmetic counter in the mall while also working as a sales promotion girl for a mobile phone company in Pontianak. She had just been rejected in the last round of civil service recruitment. So, she wanted to go back to working in the mall, which she feels is more prestigious. She also wants to work on the cosmetic counter, because it will give her more of a reason to put on make-up and look pretty. We work with people our age a lot and we get to look pretty with make-up and all. We don’t get to look pretty (in daily life), putting on that much make-up. (It 189
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would look) strange, overdoing the make-up. (Izza, 24, a Malay woman) Izza used to work at a restaurant at one of the malls in Pontianak. This restaurant serves ‘Western’ food, such as pizza, pasta, and chicken wings. For many young people in Pontianak, tasting different kinds of food (especially Western ones) is a privilege that not all young people get. Since these restaurants usually allow their workers to have a taste of the food they serve, Izza was excited to have got a job at this restaurant. She confirmed that she was allowed to try some of the food the restaurant serves. She explained that they were allowed to take chicken wings during meal breaks (all they could eat). However, she said that she had quit the job at the restaurant after working there for a year, and thinks that it is time to start another job. At first she said that the reason she left was that she was a bit disappointed because the job was exhausting and she felt that her position as a waitress did not allow her to be ‘pretty’. However, it turns out that her main reason for quitting was the rule in that restaurant that allowed its workers restaurant to eat only chicken wings, but not other items from the menu. She says that she really wanted to be able to have the pizza, not only the chicken wings. For young people like Izza, having access to certain foods and not others might be perceived as unfair treatment by the employers. This was reason enough for her to quit the job.
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Figure 6 Working and looking pretty at the mall
We were only allowed to eat certain items. Sometimes we wanted other things from the menu so badly that we secretly stole (the food we wanted), ha ha ha (laughs)....See we are only allowed to eat the chicken wings, but not the pizza or other ‘Western’ food. (Izza, 24, a Malay woman)
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Like many other young women in Pontianak, changing jobs at the mall might be easier for Izza than it is for young men. The global expansion of the service sector has affected the structure of labour markets in various parts of the world, resulting in the feminisation of work (McDowell, 2001: 449). The same phenomenon is happening in Pontianak, and also in other provincial towns in Indonesia such as in Cilegon, Western Java (Naafs, 2012b). Sometimes the idea of jobs in the service sector as being too feminine has resulted in reluctance among young men to enter these types of jobs, frightened that it would have impact on their masculinity (McDowell, 2001). However, this is not so among young men in Pontianak. A young man I interviewed, Udi, stated that young men are as open to working in the mall as young women are. At the same time, he also recognises that young women have a better chance of securing a job at the mall than young men do. He has tried several times for a job as a technician at the mall, but has always been rejected. In contrast, many of his female friends have managed to get a job at the mall. Despite young men’s view that it is easier for young women to become workers at the mall, the opportunity that young women have to stay on as workers in the mall is quite limited. Age (the maximum limit is 25), marriage, and pregnancy all limit young women’s chances of securing a long-term contract at the mall. Ami, for instance, is a sales promotion girl for a shoe business at the mall. She has a regular sixmonth contract that is extended after each contract has expired. However, entering her fourth year, she has not got a new contract. She feels insecure, as she has been waiting for two months for an extension of her contract. Ami’s anxiety about her contract has led her to now
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think about trying to get a permanent job, even though she feels that she is still eligible to ask for an extension of the contract. I am actually frightened that (without a proper contract) I will suddenly get laid off. I actually want to extend my contract, but when I asked, there was no answer. Maybe it’s because I am getting older. When a woman is 24, usually her contract ends. Also (when they) get married. But I am not 24 yet. I don’t know. (Ami, 22, a Malay woman) Ikut Orang in Informal Work During my fieldwork, several elections were held at the district level. I noticed that many young people (especially young men), were involved in these political campaigns, including Anto. Anto had recently graduated from a university in Yogyakarta and immediately applied for a position as a PNS in the district of Kubu Raya. He was greatly disappointed when he did not get the position. He then decided to join a political party, which was in the process of campaigning for one of its members to become the head of district in the area. He was asked to join by Rai – an old neighbour who is only a couple of years older than Anto. Anto explained that they had known each other since they were children and that they were quite close childhood friends. When Rai knew that Anto had come back to Pontianak, he asked permission from his own superior in the political party, Pak Dar, to involve Anto in their activities. Pak Dar agreed, on the condition that Rai would ‘supervise’ Anto and make sure that Anto ‘got what he needed’. This means that Rai would take care of all costs incurred during the political activities –
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meals, transportation, payments, getting him around to meet people, etc. Anto was quite happy being involved in politics. This (involvement in politics) is for experience. I get to meet new people, eat for free…like in seafood restaurants which are too expensive for me ha ha ha (laughs). I also get to hang out with old friends like Rai and stay out until really late at night (since political parties usually have meetings or visits to constituents past midnight). It’s better than being unemployed…but I wouldn’t join in if Rai wasn’t there. (I would) probably stay at home and watch TV. (Anto, 27, a Malay man) Anto’s case shows that he sees his work as an opportunity to engage in ‘playful’ activities after failing to be accepted into the civil service. Like Izza (the young woman working at the mall), joining the political party for Anto is about having access to meals he could otherwise not afford and engaging in youthful activities. These youthful and fun activities include hanging out with old friends and not having to obey his parent’s curfew, because his late working hours are supposedly a part of his ‘job’. Anto’s participation in the political party started with a process that is locally known as the ikut orang system, ikut-ikut or bantu-bantu (literally, following or helping someone in a higher position). Ikut orang is a system in which people access pathways to social mobility through networks that provide the opportunity to do so. These networks are usually familial, but may also be regional, ethnic or religious. Young people often view jobs attained through the ikut orang system as a
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training process82 before getting a ‘real job’ in the future. Jobs attained through this system are quite a popular option for those who are not able to enter the civil service or any other relatively permanent jobs. The ikut orang system is applied in various domains, including education (Minza, 2012) and work, as in the case above. It also includes both intra and intergenerational relations. There are no formal contracts and agreements, so the working relationship is usually based on trust. Usually the ikut orang system involves an adult (having a higher position) recruiting a young person to work for him/her. Other times, young people also help an adult recruit their peers (as in Anto’s case above). In these cases, the hierarchy of the relationship becomes layered. The friend who provides access will not have much power, but nonetheless, does exert some kind of control over the new ‘employee’. Peers are influential in the ikut orang system because they often provide information and access to the jobs that use the ikut orang system. The idea of working with friends also makes these types of jobs more attractive to young people. As Anto also acknowledged, his friend was the reason he joined the political party – even though he is not really interested in politics himself. Entering the ikut orang system through peers serves as an entry point for young people to get work experience in the informal domain, which also allows more flexible working arrangements than the formal sector offers.
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This is similar to the Indonesian term magang (literally, ‘apprenticeship’). However, the term ikut orang emphasises the key role of social networks in attaining the job, and the mode of relations (patron-client) between employer and employee.
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Finding a Path to Meaningful Work Young people not only actively re-construct what ‘meaningful’ means in their period of waiting; they also seek networks, as they are aware that networks are crucial resources to gain entrance to the civil service. Young people who have not succeeded in entering the civil service and do not have family networks in the bureaucracy often try to break through this structural constraint by forming their own social networks through the alternative work domains that they are currently engaged in. These networks often comprise both intergenerational and intragenerational relationships. Didin (24) is a Malay young man from the district of Ketapang in the southern part of West Kalimantan. I met Didin when he was at his ‘office’. He is the head of a local NGO which focuses on life-skills learning, located in a Malay based community. He obtained the job from the former head of the NGO, who is the father of his girlfriend. He not only works at this place, but he also lives there. Next to the main room of this simple NGO office is a small bedroom. Together with his Malay friends from the neighbourhood, he also runs various courses through his NGO (such as computer, English, auto repairs, Paket B83and Paket C84). While I was there, he was with a friend who was helping him run the NGO. This is my friend, Rony. He has been helping me here, we spend many evenings together, also with other friends. Sometimes discussing our problems, our (daily) lives, everything. I like (working) here. I have 83 84
Official junior high school equivalent. Official senior high school equivalent.
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time to hang out with friends, but work (at the same time). (Didin, 24, a Malay man) The above quote shows how Didin enjoys the ‘hanging out with friends’ part of his job. Unlike Anto’s relationship with Rai in the ikut orang system, in this case, the relationship between Didin and Rony is more equal. Didin sees Rony more as a friend rather than a subordinate. The office, which also functions as his home, has also enabled him to spend time with his friends there. Being a director at this local NGO is not Didin’s only job. He is also involved in other jobs. He teaches scouting and karate to high school students, something that he also enjoys doing. Being able to relate to the younger generation through his interaction with them has been one of his sources of enjoyment. He also explicitly pointed out how his job has helped fulfil his own material needs. He tried to prove his point to me by explaining how people in the surrounding community regard him as successful, especially now that he has his own car. This means that he has not only been able to fulfil his primary needs, but has also managed to procure ‘luxury’ goods. He has also managed to provide some financial assistance to his parents, though it is very small. Thus, he feels that he has achieved some aspects of adulthood, but not others. He says that his work cannot provide other things that can make the job in the civil service meaningful, such as regularity of income, access to credit, pension, and social status. Thus in his family’s eyes, his adulthood is still questioned. That is why Didin feels that he still needs to become a PNS. He aspires to becoming a high school teacher in the next round of civil servant recruitment. After starting university (majoring in agricultural
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studies in 2006), he decided to move to a private university in 2008 (now majoring in education). Some of the money he gets from working at the NGO is used to finance his studies. Despite putting effort into enhancing his cultural capital, Didin knows that this additional education will mean nothing as far as his work prospects are concerned if he does not have the appropriate social networks. In this situation, he acknowledges the benefits of being a Malay for getting the job that he has longed for, because many of the orang dalam at the local education office are Malays. With his experience in teaching scouting and karate at a state high school, he hopes that his prospects of getting in will be quite high. His education-based NGO also provides reasons to pay frequent visits to the education office at the district level. Another effort to expand his network is by becoming a member of the campaign team for a candidate running in the election for district head. He actually hoped that by joining the success team, he would have better social networks with people in important positions if his candidate won. By being a member of the campaign team he imagined that he would have easier access to the future head of the education office. He also assumed that he will be able to make political deals with the future head of the education office to ensure that he would be able to become a PNS teacher. However, his candidate lost, so he now intends to concentrate on graduating from university and will have to rely on his existing social networks in the schools that he has been teaching in to pave his way towards becoming a PNS teacher in a state school. Every time I have spare time, I participate in various activities, youthful activities like scouting or karate…I have always liked them since junior high school. (I do 198
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them) because I like them and so that I have links…(I have) many links (meaning, connections), I meet this and that person… from scouting, from politics, karate…(I even) know many teachers. Some of my friends do not have links. So that’s the problem, they waste an opportunity for future prospects. Since I was appointed as the (new) director here, I have been trying to build better communication with the people up there (higher level decision makers). The teachers that I know help (me network with people in the district/municipality education office). (Didin, 24, a Malay man) Didin feels that becoming an adult is not just about finding meaningful work in the civil service, which he believes will make him better off financially and enable him to better assist his family. It also means having the capacity to build one’s own social networks to actually get there. Forming ethnic-based networks to progress in the domain of work is not exclusive to Malay youth such as Didin. The Dayak, like the Malays, stress inter and intragenerational ethnic networks as crucial to getting into the civil service. On the other hand, Chinese and Madurese youth emphasise the role of intragenerational relationships in accessing work. Most Chinese young men and young women I met already had prior working experience, are currently working in formal sectors, or setting up their own business while studying. They work in private companies as sales representatives, marketing/administrative staffs, or tutors. These opportunities to find a job are usually obtained through peer networks. Thus, the Chinese prefer forming networks with people of the same generation within their own ethnic group.
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I like to hang out in cyber (internet) cafés. Sometimes I go online with my Chinese friends. It’s like hanging out together, but online. Having Chinese friends has a lot of positive aspects to it, they are very easy to socialise with. Most of my friends work, so I can share things about work with them. Sharing experience and knowledge, so we accumulate (experience and knowledge). At the same time I also expand my knowledge through the internet, like knowledge that’s useful for work. Information on work also circulates among us…so it is good to have friends who can help us develop. (Valen, 25, a Chinese woman) When Valen refers to ‘friends’, she always means friends who have the same (Chinese) ethnic background as herself. Having same-ethnic friends is perceived to be easier and more comfortable for the Chinese young people in Pontianak, especially considering that most of them have been working since they were at school. Work then becomes a topic that can easily connect them when they are ‘hanging out’ online. These friends will also be a source of information about work opportunities in the future. For young women like Valen who look forward to working in the private sector, this kind of information is considered valuable. Same-ethnic peers are important in building a sense of belonging and identity among young people, even more so for those who feel excluded and discriminated against (Reynolds, 2007: 395). While this may be true in the case of the Chinese, it does not explain why some Madurese youth cite the significance of engaging in networks with young people from other ethnic groups. One of the explanations might be that the Madurese feel a stronger sense of marginalisation,
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and thus need to form alliances with peers from dominant ethnic groups to find meaningful work, as expressed by Aji below. I have many Malay friends. It makes me feel like one of them, and working with them is also good (for me)…getting out of my own community. I am also starting a business (with my Malay friends). Young people should be creative and have fun, but productive. I imagine having my own distro, I have a distributor in Jakarta that produces clothing. I will raise the capital (to open the business), but I have to go into business (ber-join) with local people, the Malays. Because if I carry out the business by myself, people might look down on me if I distribute (the clothes myself). So I will rely on my Malay friends to do that. That way we can help each other out, maintain good friendships, and work, and stay stylish, ha ha ha (laughs)….(Aji, 23, a Madurese man) Aji has a one-year contract as an accountant at a private company. His education in Java exposed him to inter-ethnic relationships, which he finds more fluid in Java. He feels that the experience was very beneficial for him to understand how to relate to people from other ethnic groups, without having to feel inferior. When he came back to Pontianak, he put in more effort into expanding his circle of friends (or ‘getting out of my own community’, as he puts it) while he waits for an opportunity to become a PNS teacher. He imagines that he will have to have direct face to face interaction with young people from other ethnic groups when he starts this distro. Assuming that his customers will immediately categorise him as a mere ‘Madurese’ if he interacts directly with them, he feels including his Malay friends would be good for his business.
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Conclusion This chapter reinforces the conclusion of the previous chapter, by demonstrating the significant influence that families have in young people’s life, especially in growing up. Through families, young people define meaningful work for their future. Thus, rather than seeing work as a process of individual self-achievement, work becomes meaningful only when it facilitates young people’s ability to fulfil family expectations. Similar to viewing a sarjana diploma as a pathway to adulthood, entering meaningful work becomes an important process of growing up for many young people. Many young people share the same work aspirations as their parents, which is to work in the civil service. Young people in waiting, or those who feel that they failed at accessing civil service work, try to make the work they are involved in meaningful. This is done by constructing the image of playful work, which emphasises the playful side of their work in an alternative domain, while finding ways to find better work opportunities in mainstream state jobs. Playful work is also constructed to justify young people’s passion in a chosen line of work outside the civil service, rather than to compensate for their failure to enter their aspired work domain. Usually, playful work in this situation is constructed by young people who have a different idea from their parents of what constitutes meaningful work. These young people try to find alternative work domains and challenge mainstream notions of meaningful work that their parents have tried to instil in them. They form a youth culture of resistance towards adult-made notions of meaningful work, similar to the freeter youth in Japan who are pursuing jobs that are different to their parents’ expectations (Masahiro, 2001). 202
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Some of these young people may continue resisting their parents’ expectations, while others eventually submit to their parents’ demand and try out their chances in the civil service. It may also be the other way around. First they submit to their parents’ demands, and eventually find out that being in the civil service is not what they want. Thus, these young people try to balance their own aspirations with their parents’, finding different ways of negotiating the tensions in various periods of their life time. How young people make meaning of work is ethnically influenced, as also noted by Borjas (1992). Non-Chinese youth tend to pursue jobs in the civil service, while Chinese youth see meaningful work in trade or in private companies or by opening their own business. The reason for the differences in work aspirations among these groups of young people can be traced back to the history of West Kalimantan that I have elaborated in Chapter 2. Young people are aware of the opportunity structure that exists in the ethnic constellation of the province, which also influences the socialisation process in their families, and further shapes their own work aspirations. For Malay and Dayak young people who want to access mainstream work in the civil service, intergenerational networks within their own ethnic community are considered more crucial than intragenerational ones. This is because access to the civil service is in the hands of adult civil servants, often those with positions in the bureaucracy. On the other hand, intragenerational relations are especially significant in providing support for young people trying to work in alternative work domains (either out of choice or because they are ‘waiting’ for work in the civil service) and for those who come from relatively marginalised ethnic groups (in this case, the Chinese and the 203
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Madurese). While the Chinese rely on intragenerational ties within their own ethnic group in pursuing meaningful work, the Madurese rely on intragenerational relations outside their ethnic community. This may be due to the economic structure that enables young Chinese to attain meaningful work through ethnically established businesses. On the other hand, the Madurese still need to establish their role in economic sectors dominated by non-Madurese.
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5 Pacaran: Courtship, Explorations, and Long-Term Relationships
The previous chapters have shown how education and work facilitate the experience of growing up and being young. Tertiary education and working as a civil servant (PNS) are a means of growing up, as they fulfil family
expectations
of
a
smooth
transition
to
adulthood.
Intragenerational relationships support the formation of a youth identity as an educated person (mahasiswa) and as a playful worker. At the same time, being a mahasiswa also facilitates growing up, as it provides opportunities for networking by hanging out on campus. Being a playful worker is relevant not only to the making of a youth identity. Playful work is also seen as a way young people re-define meaningful work in their transition to adulthood, as young people wait for better work opportunities that fulfil family expectations. In this chapter, I discuss various forms of romantic relationship and the different meanings young people attach to them. The first section will explain how some young people see romantic relationships as a way to grow up by constructing romantic relationships in preparation for marriage. The second section will deal with romantic relationships as a form of exploration. Here, the relationship is more about identity and status rather than a preparation for marriage. The last 205
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section will elaborate how romantic relationships also function as a youth culture of waiting, where young people construct the idea of being in long-term relationships as they ‘wait out’ the uncertainties of the transitions into work and marriage.
Pacaran as Romantic Relationship Young people in Indonesia often use the term pacaran to refer to a lovebased relationship. Pacaran originates from the term pacar, defined as a friend of the opposite sex in which a person has a love-based relationship (hubungan cinta kasih) (Kamus Besar Bahasa Indonesia, 2012).85 I think that pacaran is best explained by the term romantic relationship, as this term also mainly refers to (heterosexual) love-based relationships (Fincham and Cui, 2011: 5). Closely related to this term is ‘heterosexual relationship’, often used in developmental psychology. Developmental psychology assumes that young people become involved in heterosexual relationships to form a proper gender identity (Galliano, 2003: 98-100) and further, find a future spouse that matches their individual personality and needs (Arnett, 2006: 315-317). I have chosen to use the term ‘romantic relationships’ instead of heterosexual relationships because the term romantic relationship incorporates the ‘love-based’ aspect of the relationship (also an important part of the
85
Though a pacar often refers to one’s partner in the context of a heterosexual relationship, it is also used in homosexual relationships (such as among lesbians and gays). Homosexual romantic relationships are no doubt also to be found among young people in Pontianak, but I did not attempt to cover this issue in this study. Therefore, this chapter is restricted to pacaran in heterosexual relationships (see the brief discussion about this in the following section)
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definition pacaran), which does not seem obviously apparent in the term ‘heterosexual relationships’. Both terms are used in a way that emphasises romantic relationships as a part of growing up, as an individual project to secure one’s transition to marriage. While this may be true, I will show that romantic relationships may be defined in a broader sense. I will try to see romantic relationships or pacaran in terms of how young people make different meanings of this relationship, as a way to secure one’s youth identity now, and how it compensates for not being able to grow up. Saxby (2006) identifies the stages of pacaran in Jakarta, starting from being single (jomblo), identifying a person one likes (gebetan), approaching the person which often involves flirting (PDKT or pendekatan). Then the person becomes one’s girl/boyfriend (do’i), and if the relationship is serious, then one gets introduced to the future inlaws (calon mertua or camer); otherwise it might just stay as a casual sexual relationship (TTM or teman tapi mesra). Bennet (2001: 96) differentiates between traditional pacaran, modern pacaran, and backstreet pacaran in Mataram, Eastern Indonesia. Traditional pacaran (midang) implies a man visiting a woman’s house, usually done on Saturday evening and preparing the couple for marriage in the future. Modern pacaran (pacaran modern) is usually carried out outside the young woman’s home and away from parental control or supervision, while ‘backstreet’ pacaran (pacaran backstreet) is a relationship that is kept secret from parents or older relatives, usually because the young woman’s parents would disapprove of the relationship. In some cases, pacaran in Indonesia is closely related to Bennet’s definition of traditional pacaran, which is oriented towards 207
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marriage (Hadi, 2010). In others, it may also be a much more casual relationship, though generally involving romantic ideas (sexual attraction, physical and emotional intimacy), mutual awareness as romantic partners (Baron et al., 2008: 259), and interdependent relations over a certain period of time. This is similar to modern pacaran. Usually pacaran involves physical intimacy and sometimes, sexual intercourse. Casual friendship between a young woman and young man is not considered pacaran.
Courtship: Romantic Relationships as a Prelude to Marriage Heteronormativity is often the rule guiding discourses of romantic relationships in many societies, including in Pontianak. This means that heterosexual relationships are considered universal and appropriate, marginalising other types of non-heterosexual relationships. In West Kalimantan, gays and transsexuals are starting to make their existence noticed by performing road shows in some of the major cities, but the majority of society is still unwilling to even acknowledge their existence (Pontianak Post, 17 February 2010). In this study, I have focused solely on mainstream, heterosexual romantic relationships, since all of the young people that I interviewed claimed to be heterosexual. However, my focus on heterosexual relationships should not be taken to imply that homosexual pacaran (both male and female) has no place in the lives of Pontianak youth. It just so happens that I did not come across a case of homosexuality and it was not mentioned by informants. Most young people in my study consider that involvement in romantic relationships serves the purpose of finding a future spouse,
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and is not just for the sake of exploration. Family and religious institutions influence the meaning given to the relationship, and how it is practiced. Viewing romantic relationships as a preparation for marriage often means respecting the sanctity of marriage and intensifying involvement of the partner’s family. Respecting the sanctity of marriage refers to two processes. First, it means building a monogamous relationship and maintaining a stable partner whom one expects to marry in the future. Romantic relationships are a preparation for marriage with one’s present partner rather than an exploration period to find a suitable partner. Thus, romantic relationships are considered a part of the ‘marriage package’, as expressed in the following statement. There are people who like to change partners (pacar), but not me. If I can, (I want to stay together with my girlfriend) until later in the future, until we marry. (Linus, 24, a Dayak man) Second, it means resisting sexual temptation to ensure each other’s chastity until they marry. Social institutions such as marriage justify sexual encounters (which include a wide range of physical intimacy, from holding hands, kissing, and petting, to oral sex, and vaginal penetration), but it also reduces sexual encounters that occur outside of wedlock to an act that ruins one’s chastity. Yet, the most important point expressed in relation to this issue is virginity (especially for young women) and preventing unwanted pregnancies. In other words, vaginal penetration is an act most avoided in the norms of pacaran, while other forms of sexual encounters are more acceptable. The preoccupation of safeguarding female virginity in Indonesia has also been noted, for 209
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instance, in the work of Bennet (2001) in Eastern Indonesia, and Jennaway (2002) in Bali. Andre believes that abstinence is the best way to respect the sanctity of marriage. During my third, fourth semester I was very busy with campus activities. (I had no time) for her, I didn’t pay much attention to her. So logically it is understandable (that she cheated on me). It is hard (to be in a relationship) where partners understand each other. We should encourage each other (to study), but she wants us to meet up all the time (pengin dekat-dekat). I think we should think about marriage (not) about sexual encounters (mesra-mesra bercinta). If we meet too often, it will result in lust, and then she will get pregnant, then abortion will follow. This relationship (pacaran) should not be about meeting every day; the important thing is trusting each other. That is enough to build a stable relationship and to have a good marriage in the future. (Andre, 20, a Dayak man) Resisting sexual temptation when in a romantic relationship is also meant to avoid the consequences of defiling the sanctity of marriage, assumed to result in an unhappy marriage in the future. Lia, for instance, believes that premarital sex is a sin. In turn, sinning will bring her misfortune in life. She reflects upon two of her friends’ experiences of having unwanted pregnancies, often called MBA (Married by Accident). Sometimes I am afraid what happened to Dini and Sari will also happen (to me). (In high school), Dini asked me to help her get an abortion. We had to do it secretly, at a traditional masseuse. She had an abortion twice, and then she got married to her boyfriend. Sari (also) was involved in MBA. She got married to a man 210
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who she had just got to know because of it. (He) did not have a decent job. She does not have a happy marriage, a good life. (Lia, 27, a Malay woman) Lia continued her story of Dini, who later had a handicapped child. Lia attributes this to a punishment by God for Dini’s sin. She also thinks that Sari’s economic hardship and failure is God’s way of punishing her for her sins. Lia does not consider herself as pious, because she goes on dates that involve physical intimacy, such as holding hands and kissing. But her belief that premarital sex and abortion are sins remains strong. Belief in repressing sexual desires to avoid sinning is even stronger among religious Muslim youth. They use the term ‘ta’aruf’– from an Arabic word meaning ‘introduction’ as a substitute for the term pacaran. The use of this term is associated with finding a future spouse by building a relationship which, unlike pacaran, strictly limits the couple’s physical and sexual encounters. Pacaran is often assumed to involve at least some physical and sexual contact. In some communities where Islamic norms are still predominant, pacaran may even be considered as facilitating the loss of a young woman’s virginity. In this case the concept of virginity is sometimes extended to refer not only to a state where a young woman has never had sexual intercourse, but even ‘suspicions of sexual misdemeanours’ (through pacaran) may bring a young woman’s virginity into question (Platt, 2012: 78). The religious leader often plays the role of matchmaking members of the religious group with other members (or a person that the religious leader deems appropriate), though the decision whether to continue the relationship to marriage is made by the ‘couple’ and their families. If one is not attracted to the person introduced by the religious leader, he or she is
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allowed to decline the leader’s proposed arranged ta’aruf. Ami (23) is a member of one these religious groups. She claims that she does not have a boyfriend and does not intend to have one. Even so, Yani, her older brother’s girlfriend, told me that many young men outside her religious circle have approached her, coming to her house and introducing themselves to her and her family. You know that in Islam, there is no such thing as pacaran. For me, pacaran is measured by the benefit of it, whether it has more advantages or disadvantages. To be honest I think that it does not have many benefits. We have a religious teacher who delivers our messages that we want to get married. We can approach (the teacher), and tell him we are ready to marry. He will look for someone (for me). If we are attracted to each other, then the ta’aruf will continue (to marriage). Otherwise, we can tell our parents that we are ready, because (parents) have the right to decide who their daughter will marry. (Ami, 23, a Malay woman) When romantic relationships are viewed as a prelude to a marriage, they are no longer an individual matter, but a social one. Young people have to think ahead and understand how kinship systems work in their partner’s family. Achid, for instance, says that his girlfriend’s family expects him to be responsible for their welfare once he marries. Achid comes from a relatively well-to-do family, and is currently campaigning to be a member of the local legislative body. On the contrary, his girlfriend’s parents are small farmers. He emphasises that he has to be
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prepared to become part of his girlfriend’s family, and thus become responsible for them. When I marry, her parents, her family, they will all live in my house….I will also be financially responsible for them. Even when we are old, we will have to bear that burden. We have to be prepared for that. (Achid, 35, a Malay man) Though the family is usually involved in the romantic relationships of their children, the intensity of involvement differs according to how serious the relationship is. In romantic relationships that are expected to end in marriage, the intensity of family involvement is assumed to be quite high. They can be influential from the very start of the relationship. Nius, for instance, has just started university. He says that he is still a long way from actually marrying his girlfriend. However, he expects that their relationship will end in marriage. This is why he feels that it is important to have his family involved early on in their relationship. What is important in determining my future spouse is not me, but input from my parents and family. (I will take into consideration) what my mother thinks is good, what my older sister thinks is good, what they think is bad. I take on board what they think, and reflect upon it. Oooh, my family likes this and this, and it is not me that determines my future spouse. So there is a need (for approval) from my parents or my older sister. (Nius, 24, a Dayak man)
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In other cases, the partner’s family may encourage a prospective son-inlaw to find a ‘proper job’ to ensure the welfare of their daughter, as expressed by Yudha. Yudha is a guitarist in a band who has been in a steady relationship with his girlfriend for four years. They have accepted Yudha as their future son-in-law but they encourage him to find stable work. Yudha agrees with their advice that he should think about his future family’s economic security, as he earns only 600,000 rupiahs a month; barely enough to cover living expenses in Pontianak. According to my small survey, 35 per cent of the respondents assume that a person would need to have a minimum income of 2,000,000 – 3,000,000 rupiahs to provide for a nuclear family when he or she gets married. However, marriage often entails a responsibility to the extended family, especially to parents and in-laws as expressed by Achid above. In this case, 47 per cent of respondents say that they would need a minimum income of 5,000,000 rupiahs a month. In relationships where the couple intends to marry in the near future, the family also expects their children’s partner to become involved with the family. The involvement of their children’s partner in the family can take many forms, and can apply to both young men and young women. It is common, for example, for the child’s partner to contribute labour to the family’s economic activity, as in Rita’s case. As a widow, Rita’s mother finds Erry’s labour a positive contribution to her family’s economy. Rita has been involved with her boyfriend, Erry (24), who works as a temporary worker in a small communication company in Pontianak, for almost five years. Rita’s mother has approved of him, and considers him a member of her family. He often assists Rita’s mother in her wedding rentals business. He is also asked to help out in their small
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optician’s business. There are even plans to send Erry to Jakarta to be trained as an optician. I expect that Erry can get along with my family and become part of the family. He has to help the family, because being involved with a man is not just for me, but for my mother, too. He has to be able to help my mother. It does not matter whether or not he succeeds as an optician or anything. It’s just a plan. (Rita, 24, a Malay woman)
Finding a Pacar not a Calon: Romantic Relationships as Explorations In the previous section, I have described how romantic relationships are viewed as a step towards growing up by expecting that the relationship will end in marriage. Proper romantic relationships are seen as those that abstain from sexual intercourse to respect the sanctity of marriage. Adult family members have a substantial role in controlling young people’s sexuality, because of the expectation that the partner will one day be part of the family. Control and restriction of young women’s sexuality is stricter than of young men’s. However, not all young people see pacaran as a step towards marriage. Instead, they view it as a must for a successful young person, especially in relation to their peer group. This includes processes of exploration, from sexual attraction to sexual intercourse. A relationship aimed at exploration usually means that the family’s involvement is limited, and peers play an important role in how these relationships are played out.
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A Pacar and Social Status Explorations in romantic relationships are often determined by education and age. Young people often use education and age as a basis of their reasoning as to why they view romantic relationships as part of a being young, emphasising exploration and the process of constructing a youth identity. Being in education strengthens the justification to concentrate on the present, because transitions to work and marriage are matters that they have to deal with in the future. As such, rarely do young people who are still studying at university refer to their partner as their calon (future spouse). They use the word pacar as in girlfriend/boyfriend instead. The term pacar is more neutral than calon. It may be someone who one is thinking of marrying, but in the far distant future. On the other hand, using the term calon often indicates that the couple will marry in the near future. In other instances, a pacar may also refer to someone who one wants to be involved with at present, without really seeing him/her as a future spouse. This was expressed by Aam, a young man who was recently involved in a oneyear relationship with a young woman from campus. He claims that he has not thought about marriage yet. We are still mahasiswa, albeit in the last semesters, but still mahasiswa. We haven’t discussed what we are going to do (with the relationship) in the future. We are still enjoying ourselves, so we haven’t talked about marriage and other things. Of course, sometimes I say to my pacar (just to show that I am not playing around) using ‘pretty words’ (rayuan gombal), ‘Dek (honey), if we do this and that, we will achieve this and that in the future, for us, for the both of us.’ But that’s just in my
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mouth, not from the heart. (I consider her) a pacar, not a calon. (Aam, 24, a Malay man) Aam says that having a pacar (not a calon) means that he does not have to introduce her to his family. However, he recently decided to introduce her to his mother, out of politeness. But he says that he is not actually obliged to do so. This is different if he later has a calon, whether it is the current girlfriend or another young woman. In this case, the family will definitely be involved. His insistence on differentiating a pacar and a calon is based on his previous traumatic experience when he thought he had met his calon. He once introduced his (then) calon to his neighbours. He thought that they would get married when they had settled down. But the relationship had to end because his calon found a job in another town. He was devastated when the relationship ended, and decided to focus on the present if he was involved in a relationship with a young woman. He no longer wants to set his hopes too high, for fear that things might not work the way he imagines. Having merely a pacar also justifies his keeping the relationship to himself to avoid any embarrassment with his extended family and neighbours. Lina (24), a Dayak young woman, also differentiates these two terms. When I asked her when she planned to get married to her calon, she immediately corrected me, “I have a pacar, not a calon.” Like Aam, for her, the term calon is to be used only when they are going to marry in the near future. There is no benchmark for the ‘near future’; rather, it is based on feeling. She also added that sometimes, the term calon is used if the couple is engaged. Romantic relationships as a sexual exploration do not always start out romantically. Instead they may start out as transactional
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relationships. This is seen in cases where young women seek sexually attractive men who they believe will help them acquire material goods and status. Evi (20), a Malay young woman who has just started her D1 (one year diploma), mentions how her friends often search for men in the army to have as boyfriends, even though most of these men are married. They seek status from this relationship, by being able to show off their ‘cool’ boyfriends to the public. Having an attractive boyfriend not only means being handsome, but in the case of army men, often has more to do with having an athletic body and wearing a uniform. It forms the image of masculinity and power. Such display of authority and power seems to be important in Pontianak society for acquiring social status. However, she notices that her friends begin to form emotional attachments when they feel that their need for protection and security is fulfilled by these army men. In this process, the transactional relationship evolves into a romantic relationship where the intensity of emotional and physical intimacy overrides that of sexual attraction per se. The men however, do not seem to experience this change. Evi believes that these adult men actually have their own interest in getting involved with these young women, which is merely for sexual pleasure. This often has serious consequences for young women. In some cases, they become pregnant and the men leave them without taking any responsibility. The young woman’s family take on the responsibility of taking care of her and the baby, often putting even more economic burden on the family. For adult men, dating young women is another way of expressing control and power over the less powerful, often used as indicators of masculinity. There are three layers of power working in this relationship. Not only are they adults in relation to youth, they are 218
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also men in relation to women. Last but not least, they also have more control over economic resources in comparison to the young women that they date. It is this economic resource that Evi believes is most important in driving these relationships towards the interests of these men. If a young woman goes out with an army man, people with notice (and people will quietly say), ‘wow, what a cool guy she has’. ‘This (relationship) has nothing to do with love. I don’t care if he is married. If he loves his wife, he will go back to her’. That’s what (my friends) say. Sometimes I think, how could these girls (date someone else’s husband)? There are so many other nice guys, but they just don’t seem to care. They say ‘(my boyfriend) takes care of my tuition fees’. OK, that’s reasonable, because they have a stable job. But these army men also have their own interests (agenda). They like to play around; there is a (hidden) agenda. First they give the young women money for the first tuition fee, then the second tuition fee. Then (the girls) slowly feel a bond and in no time, they will give all they have. After three months of dating an army man, it turns out that this friend did all kind of things and became pregnant. She was returned to her parents, the man just left her. (Evi, 20, a Malay woman) Status attainment from explorations in sexuality is important not only for young women, but also for young men. There are cases of young men dating adult women in Pontianak, but it is less commonly shown off in public, and I did not encounter one during my fieldwork. Although a young man may be attracted to an older woman, being her ‘brondong’ (a toyboy) does not raise the young man’s status because he is regarded
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as being under the control of the older woman. When the woman has the power in the relationship, it harms a man’s masculinity. Ical (30), a Malay young man, for example states, “Pacaran with an older woman? No, they will control me. People will think I am a weak man.” Exploration in these relationships provides a means for young men to attain status in the eyes of their peers (Lee, 2002: 138). For example, Adi told me about hanging out with his friends and what they talk about.86 Sex is one of the hot topics in this forum, he explained. Adi claims that he does not yet have a girlfriend, so he is more the listener than the talker in these sessions. In one of the sessions, he remembers, one of his friends advised the other members of the group about ways in which to mengikat (literally, bind, get a commitment from) a young woman. His friend assumes that young women form romantic relationships based upon physical and emotional intimacy rather than sexual needs. What young men see as sexual, he says, is often interpreted by young women as physical and emotional intimacy. Thus, the friend emphasises, binding a young woman through sexual relations is an advantage for young men, but without the young woman being aware of it. By sharing his sexual experiences and his insights into how it might work in the interests of young men, the group’s ‘advisor’ wins admiration from his circle of friends. For young men, (sexual encounters) make them proud…especially if they can share it with their friends. Their friends will admire them. For young women, it’s about expressing their love. Most of my friends stop at 86
It was difficult for me to get a frank account from young people of their own sexual experiences. However, it was much easier to obtain stories of their friends’ sexual experiences.
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petting, but some, you know…they actually use their girlfriends. They say ‘if you want to make a woman commit to you, then you have to do all this (have sex). I guarantee (that).’ Young men, they want to safeguard their interests. They know about sexually transmitted diseases, so they only want to be with one (young woman). To ensure they do, they bind the young women by doing all that. To make certain that there is someone there if he feels the need (for sex). (Adi, 20, a Malay man) Despite some young men viewing sexual intercourse in relationships as working in their advantage, some young women also seek sexual satisfaction in the relationship. This was noted by Sujarwo (2008), a prominent local writer whose work is read by many young people in Pontianak. He writes that young women today consider loss of virginity as ‘normal’,87 and that young women are no longer expected to marry or stay with the person who she has lost her virginity to. His words echo what Laila is experiencing. She says that she has been having sex with a young man, Andi, her co-worker at the mall. She has been dating him for a couple of months. One day, Andi quit his job at the mall because he was hired as a driver for one of the local legislative members. That’s when he had enough money to rent a hotel for them. I was just starting to date him, there was no intention of going there (having sex) at the hotel. (But), I have no intention of marrying him. I’m close to many men, I can’t remember all of them. But one that I remember 87
‘…still a virgin these days? (Being a virgin) isn’t important anymore’, that’s what today’s ‘sociable (liberal) youth’ in Pontianak are saying. This statement comes from the book by Sujarwo (2008) who uses the term perawan in this text to refer to a female virgin. A male virgin is termed perjaka.
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has a steady job, his name is Edy. That’s the one (I want to marry). He calls me mama, and I call him papa ha ha ha (laughs). But we haven’t done it (had sex) yet. I want to look good (in front of him). (Laila, 24, a Malay woman) Laila is not worried that Edy will question her virginity once they are married. She strongly believes that if Edy loves her, he will not mind her no longer being a virgin. Edy’s employment status is a major reason that Laila has chosen Edy over Andi. Like many young people in Pontianak, having a steady job is an important factor in choosing a partner for marriage; more important than the fact that she has lost her virginity to somebody else. Ethnicity and Attraction Attraction is the first step in developing romantic relationships. In Pontianak, attraction is often influenced by one’s ethnicity and how he or she views it in relation to the other person’s ethnic identity. Ethnic identity and status are important factors in forming these relationships. Members of a group of lower status are often attracted to someone from a higher status ethnic group, because they often believe that forming a relationship with a member of a higher status ethnic group will boost his or her own status. Language is an important capital to build a relationship with a person from a higher status ethnic group, as expressed by Oni. Oni is a young Madurese man who has just finished his study at a university in Pontianak. Speaking ‘proper’ Malay (without the strong Madurese accent) has enabled him to be involved with a
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young Malay woman, and has provided him the confidence to date young women from other higher status ethnic groups.88 My ex-girlfriend is a Malay. She had no problem (being involved with a Madurese). She admitted that at first she did not even know that I was Madurese because I spoke proper Malay. (Later on in the relationship), she noticed that I had a slight Madurese accent. So I told her (that I am Madurese). She couldn’t believe it. She didn’t mind, but her parents disapproved. So we broke up. I’m thinking of looking for a Dayak (young woman). They don’t really mind dating a Madurese. (Oni, 25, a Madurese man) For Chinese youth, language has a different role. Instead of using it to help find a partner from another ethnic group to achieve higher status, it is used to maintain their in-group exclusiveness. As previously explained, the Chinese have a history of marginalisation and the need for inclusion in mainstream society may not be as great as it is among the Madurese. Having a partner who can speak the same local dialect provides these Chinese youth a sense of security. Most Chinese youth are raised by parents who are fluent speakers of local Chinese dialects and tend to be reluctant to speak Malay, though Malay is the lingua franca of the province. Thus, communicating in the local dialect is a significant factor in choosing a partner, even though the relationship may not be intended to end in marriage. This was mentioned by Vanka and Robert, two Chinese youth who are in the early phases of their university education. Vanka (19), for example, says, 88
Though Madurese parents prefer their children to be involved with Madurese, Madurese youth themselves seem to prefer being involved with a person from another ethnic group.
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I like to go out with Chinese young men because we can understand each other better. It is easier to communicate. When you like someone and date, communication is important, even though marriage still seems a long way off. In daily life we use the Teochew dialect, so dating someone who speaks Teochew would be easier. I speak a bit of Mandarin, but it is for learning (formal education) – like the one used in Taiwan. That’s different. (Vanka, 19, a Chinese woman) On the contrary, a Malay who is attracted and becomes involved with a Madurese is often looked down upon within his/her own ethnic circle. Joni, for instance, explains that he used to have a ‘dark skinned’ Madurese girlfriend, a feature considered undesirable in terms of femininity that is common in Asian societies (Rozario, 2002). When I asked him why he broke up with her, he said that he thought she was ugly. Her physical appearance identified her as a Madurese, who are stereotyped as being dark skinned. Personally, he was attracted to her as a person and did not mind the dark skin. But he was concerned that his friends might see him with her, and that this would be detrimental to his status. So he tried to maintain the relationship by agreeing to meet her only at night. He argued that at night, people were less likely to see her dark skin. However, his girlfriend started to become suspicious of these night-time meetings. He was unable to explain his real reasons, so a week afterwards, they broke up. In Pontianak, both the Malays (politically) and Chinese (economically) are often considered high status ethnic groups. But in relation to each other, Malays often see Chinese as higher, and the Madurese as lower in status. The Chinese are assumed to hold a strong 224
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economic position. The perceived exclusiveness of the Chinese (culturally and economically) also makes it quite difficult for young people from other ethnic groups to approach them, let alone form a romantic relationship with them. In these situations, gender plays a role in how ethnicity works in romantic relationships. Having a Chinese girlfriend is sometimes seen as a victory or an achievement for young non-Chinese men. Another factor has to do with physical appearance; the Chinese usually have a lighter skin tone than people from other ethnic groups. Having light skin is a concept of beauty common in Indonesian society. Jeri, for instance, says that he would like to have a Chinese girlfriend. If I had to choose between having a Malay, Dayak or Madurese girlfriend, I would not choose (any of them). I want a Chinese (girlfriend), because they are white, ha ha ha (laughs)….I like white women. But not Western ones (bule). Chinese girls are also hard (to get). The Chinese are closed (exclusive), and often rich. At least that’s what most people think (that the Chinese are rich), (because) Chinese girls know how to dress. So it would be nice to have one, to go out with. People will probably think, ‘how great he is to be able to get a Chinese (girlfriend).’ (Jeri, 28, a Malay man) However, this does not apply to young Malay women. For young Malay women, having a Chinese boyfriend is not something that they would see as a privilege. Diah, for instance, would like to have a young Malay man for a boyfriend. She has never thought about dating a young Chinese man, because their light skin colour is often associated with femininity. The differences in the way the Chinese dress in comparison
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to the non-Chinese youth are also noticed. But gender plays a role in whether this difference is viewed as negative or positive. While young Chinese women are seen by the Malays like Diah as dressing nicely, young Chinese men are not. Some young Malay women see young Chinese men’s style of dress as extreme – either too fashionable or too conventional. Chinese are white, and I don’t know. White (is) I don’t know (shrugs her shoulders). For women it’s good, but for men it’s like a woman. Dark skin is better, like the Malay. But not as dark as the Madurese. Young Chinese men also dress funny (kampongan), like those Japanese youth…no, not Japanese youth, the Chinese young men dress worse. Maybe like the F4 guys (Taiwanese boy band popular in the early 2000s). Their hair hangs on one side, they wear baggy pants, long sleeves. I don’t like it. My friends don’t either. The young (Chinese) women dress quite nicely, but definitely not the young (Chinese) men. Sometimes, they (Chinese men) dress too smartly. (Diah, 20, a Malay woman) Habits that are linked to ethnic group and gender specific practices can also be a factor in determining a person’s preferences about who they date. Tutty says that she is not interested in dating a Dayak young man because they often get drunk. She claims that because she is Dayak herself, she knows how damaging alcohol can be for young men who cannot control alcohol use beyond ceremonial practices. Even though I am a Dayak, I don’t like Dayak (men). Not that I don’t really like them, but all Dayak, I know. I’ve been to many (Dayak) places. They like to drink. 226
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Not all drinkers are Dayak, but a Dayak man is more likely to drink. Basically what they want to show is ‘we are Dayak’ (and this is what we do). That is actually not important (to show they are Dayak). But they want to show off their (ethnic) traits. Dayak also like to hang around, doing nothing in particular. Drinking, playing the guitar, eating, drinking again. (Tutty, 24, a Dayak woman) These stereotypical ethnic and gender specific habits are also a reason that Chinese young women are not interested in dating young local (pribumi) men. They consider local young men rude and likely to practice extortion. Identifying themselves as migrants in these situations has caused them to position themselves as victims of local male dominance. Local young men are rude. They like to practice extortion. They think we are all rich; we are not. I don’t like them. That is why I take night classes, most (of the students) are Chinese because Chinese work during the day. As migrants, we work hard, we don’t extort. Of course not all (local young men) like to do this. Some Chinese even like to extort (money from) others. But in my experience it is the (local young men) who are doing the extorting. (Frida, 20, a Chinese woman)
Long-Term Relationships In the first two sections, I discussed two forms of romantic relationship: as courtship or prelude to marriage, and as sexual exploration. The last form of romantic relationship I would like to discuss here is long-term
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relationships. Here, romantic relationships are not seen as a preparation for marriage, but neither are they seen as sexual exploration. Instead, a long-term relationship is seen as an indefinite period of commitment to the romantic relationship, without any certainty of marriage in the future. (Financial) sacrifice, expected gender roles, and involvement in inter-ethnic and/or inter-religious relationships exacerbate the need to form long-term relationships. Sacrifice and Consumerism Sacrifice is considered key to maintaining romantic relationships, especially for the sake of securing the future of the relationship. In Pontianak, sacrifice often has a financial dimension. Ibu Ita points to how the meaning of financial sacrifice has changed between her generation and her daughter’s. She explains that young people today are under pressure to live a consumer lifestyle and not to think about saving money for their future. Both young women and young men spend money on food such as buying lunch or dinner (jajan) for their partner, and feel that this behaviour is the proper way of getting to know one’s future spouse. She believes that jajan or eating out has become an inseparable part of current dating practices that she does not agree with, because in her opinion, it is just about having fun and is a waste of money. (When) my husband (and I were courting), he never asked me to do fun things, (hura-hura), like eating out (jajan). That is a waste of our time and money. And even then, my husband was already working in a bank, but he never asked me out to eat in a restaurant or
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even at a food stall. Even though there were already many places where we could have eaten. But he never took me out. (Ibu Ita, 48, a Malay woman) Ibu Jay (44), echoed Ibu Ita’s experience of eating out not being a part of dating practices in the past. Then, not only was eating out considered expensive, young women were not allowed to go out at night. There was not much electricity and parents feared that the darkness made it unsafe for women to travel. She said that sometimes they quietly went out, shivering with fear that they would get caught on their way back to the house. At the same time, she realises that times have changed. Electricity is everywhere, the streets are not dark and dead quiet at night, and in the city there are lots of people about. Therefore, she does not mind that her daughter goes to eat out. She is happy that today’s young women have the opportunity to have a public life. For her, eating out is just an activity that they do in public, and not necessarily a display of consumerism per se. Young people think that eating out is not only about fun; yet it is also not just a meaningless activity they do in public. For them, this is where sacrifice comes into play. It is a demonstration of how far one is willing to share and to sacrifice what material belongings they have for their partner. Thus, for this generation of youth, eating out is a way of knowing their future spouse, and having fun at the same time. So what Ibu Ita sees as a positive trait in her husband would be seen as a negative trait by today’s generation – he would be called tight-fisted (masin) and seen as unwilling to make sacrifices for his partner. Ina (21), a Malay young woman says,
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When teenagers (ABG) date, they are spoiled, they don’t pay attention to their partner’s needs. When I am with my boyfriend, I like to hang out, go places, but most importantly, we like to eat out. My boyfriend has an internet café at his parents’ house. His parents don’t give him a salary, just ‘eating out money’ (uang jajan – basically meaning a small amount of money). We take turns treating each other, but it is mostly him who treats me. That shows that he pays attention to me, that he (makes) sacrifices (for me), that he is not tight with his money (masin). (Ina, 21, a Malay woman) The financial and material aspect associated with sacrifice has exacerbated the need to construct romantic relationships as long-term relationships rather than with a view to marriage (courtship). As secure jobs are more difficult to attain, young people, especially young men, have to deal with the question of whether they will be able to afford to get married. Thus, young people without the appropriate financial resources have to sacrifice in other ways to maintain the relationship. Wiwin is a young man working as a freelance wedding photographer while finishing his studies at a private university. He has a girlfriend who he has been seeing for two years. In the last couple of months he noticed that she was withdrawing from him, but did not know why. It was not long before he knew that his girlfriend’s family had arranged her marriage with another man. Wiwin says that he lacks the confidence to approach his girlfriend’s family because he says he has ‘nothing’ in comparison to the man that his girlfriend is to marry. He has not yet finished his schooling and has yet to obtain a stable job. He feels that these are a must for him to be able to approach his girlfriend’s family, since his family cannot offer anything. He mentioned that he is ‘only’ the
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son of a widowed teacher. However, this does not mean that the relationship has to end. He tries to make sacrifices to make his girlfriend happy in the hope that she will eventually choose him over the other man. (I sometimes) take her to the mall, (some people) go to the palace (keraton) to hang out. But it has a (bad) reputation. I have never taken her there. I just try to go to places she likes, like the mall. I also try to ‘control myself’ (my sexual urges). She likes that. Her parents have arranged her marriage, but if the daughter does not agree, usually the parents will comply (with their child’s wishes). I am trying to make her happy, so she will choose me. I also go to her friends’, treat them, to create a good image. (Wiwin, 25, a Malay man) Wiwin’s case shows how he tries to minimize the influence of his girlfriend’s family by strengthening his bond with his girlfriend and her peers. He seems to be aware that peers are also important in supporting his relationship, as an alternative strategy to approaching her parents. Creating a ‘good image’ in front of her friends includes being willing to chat with them or buy them drinks or lunch whenever he happens to meet them, despite his meagre financial means. Gender and Long-Term Relationships How long-term-relationships are constructed cannot be separated from gender roles and relations. Relationships that were once viewed as courtship may now be long-term relationships because young men are unable to fulfil the societal construction of masculinity. Young men
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often consider the significance of becoming the family’s breadwinner. In the current situation, in which widespread youth unemployment and underemployment is common, this sometimes brings tension and conflict to the relationship. Underemployment often means being employed in casual informal, low-paid, and/or insecure types of job for which the young person is overqualified. Young men often feel that they are not able to fulfil this future role. Kaka is a 30-year-old Malay young man who works on contract at several local NGOs. Kaka felt the need to find a secure job to continue his relationship with his girlfriend, Diana. Diana’s family did not approve of the relationship because he does not yet have a permanent job. Kaka has been with Diana, a freelance writer, for two years. Diana, who originally came from East Java, agreed that she would move to Pontianak if they got married. However, Diana then landed a permanent job at a bank in East Java. She expected him to follow her to Java. Kaka refused, because he was not confident that he would be able to find a job there. I am disappointed about (my relationship) with Diana. She said ‘you should stay here (in East Java)’, I replied ‘what will we eat, how am I going to provide (for the family)?’ ‘I will work, you can find another job.’ ‘I am a man, why should I beg for food from my wife?’. There should be no domination of course, there should be balance (between husband and wife). But I still think that a man should be responsible (for securing his family’s economy); that is the adult way (of forming a family). Her family wants her to marry somebody else, I don’t know (who). I think someone in the army. (Kaka, 34, a Malay man)
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The construction of male identity as associated with being the family breadwinner has made Kaka put his relationship with Diana on hold. He is waiting to see what happens, hoping that Diana will be able to transfer to Pontianak. For unemployed young men like Iwan, matters may be even worse. While Kaka was still allowed to see Diana, Iwan was no longer allowed to do so when he became unemployed. He remembers that when he was a mahasiswa, he was free to come to his girlfriend’s house. However, after graduating and not being able to secure a job, he was banned from visiting his girlfriend. He will be allowed to visit her house only when he secures a job. His girlfriend’s family has forced him to halt the relationship, without obliging him to actually break up with her. His own mother backed his girlfriend’s parents’ decision to temporarily halt the relationship on this condition. His mother feels that it is shameful to date a young woman when he is still unemployed. Iwan also mentioned that having a girlfriend is important for him, because it gives him the feeling that he is progressing towards marriage when he is somewhat stuck in the transition to work. This means that one ‘failure’ in one life domain (work) can be compensated in another (romantic relationship). I was actually close (to my girlfriend’s family before graduating). It was only in the beginning (that everything went smoothly). Now there are many conflicts, especially after graduation. Now I am unemployed, her parents are demanding (that I work), (get) a stable job. I have never talked to her parents, I only know (of their demands) through her. I can only come and visit her if I have a job. My mother doesn’t disprove of our relationship, but she also told me ‘no in-law wants an unemployed (son) in law’. But for me,
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it’s good to have a girlfriend. Being unemployed without a girlfriend would be worse. At least I have a girlfriend. (Iwan, 26, a Malay man) According to Aras (28), a Malay young woman, it is unfair to make young men bear the weight of having a permanent job on their shoulders. Currently she is teaching as a temporary teacher in a pre-school while her boyfriend performs with his band in various cafés. They are serious about their relationship and both parents have approved, but they are still reluctant to think about marriage. Aras does not have a permanent job yet, and neither does her boyfriend. Her boyfriend is a guitarist in a band that does not seem to be going anywhere. So she feels that she has to be the one responsible for getting a permanent job. Her parents do not mind her boyfriend being in a band, because her family thinks that as a couple, both need to find ways of securing their financial future. Aras explained, her parents understand that it is difficult to find a steady job in the current climate, so expecting their future son in-law to have a steady job would be unrealistic. Despite their understanding of his situation, her boyfriend still thinks that it is his responsibility to be the family breadwinner. There is frequent tension in their relationship. Thus, Aras is unsure where the relationship would go. Some young women are also reluctant to view their relationship as courtship because they want to protect themselves from disappointment if marriage to the current partner does not happen. Like Aam, who introduced his partner to others as a calon and was ashamed when he eventually broke up with his calon. Vio is also careful not to give the impression in public that her relationship with her partner is a
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preparation for marriage, to avoid shame if the relationship ends before she marries. My family knows my current boyfriend. But they just know him; they’re not close. There is the intention to get married, but there has been no talk about it (in the family). Just between the two of us, (imagining) if we get married, I want this and that. But I am afraid to hope (that it will happen), because we’re not financially ready. It’s just fantasising (miker bodohbodoh gitu jak). I don’t want to raise my hopes too high. I’m afraid I will get sick (from) thinking about him and feel embarrassed in front of others. I am just not ready (to seriously think) about marriage; but I am not thinking of seeing anybody else. (Vio, 24, a Malay woman) Vio is a temporary worker at a government office. She only needs to ‘wait her turn’ to be employed as a civil servant. In most cases, this would mean that marriage would soon follow. She admits that her friends have been asking ‘When?’ (kapan), meaning that they are asking when she is going to get married. She is still unsure where the relationship will go due to financial reasons, especially on the part of her boyfriend. But instead of emphasising the difference between a pacar and a calon like Aam does in dealing with insecure transitions to marriage, she tries to focus on maintaining her relationship with her partner without explicitly saying that the relationship will eventually enter the marriage phase.
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When a Long-Term Relationship becomes a Waiting Period Young people’s social position based on ethnicity, religion, class, or caste is influential in how they experience romantic relationships. In India, inter-caste couples often have to find ways to make their relationship work. Some Indian youngsters tell their parents that they want to study abroad, though they actually migrate to continue their relationship (Rutten and Verstappen, 2013: 11). I have explained that in Pontianak, ethnicity is often regarded as an important factor in the process of attraction and choosing romantic partners. There is a tendency to prefer a partner from the same ethnic circle, though some seek a partner from other (higher status) ethnic groups. Those who choose to become involved in inter-ethnic and inter-religious relationships often have to deal with the uncertainty of marriage. Thus, viewing their relationship as a long-term relationship is a strategy they apply to deal with this situation. Asti, a young Dayak woman, describes how she chose to end her relationship with Nandar, a Malay young man. Her aunt took her in after the death of her father when she was still young, and arranged for her to marry Budi, a Javanese Christian. Her family was insistent upon this arrangement. She explained to me that her aunt’s family opposed her relationship with Nandar, because he is a Muslim. Her mother has no say in this matter, because Asti has practically been raised by her aunt and her financial needs have also been taken care of by her aunt’s family. In her family’s view, it would be hard to include him in her Dayak circle, unless he is willing to give up his religion. Nandar refuses, but Asti still has hopes that her family will accept him despite him refusing to
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convert. She compares this situation to the relatively easy process for a Dayak to become a Malay rather than the other way round. (When a Malay) marries according to the proper (Dayak) custom, his/her existence has to be explained (to the local people), that she/he is from a different religion, from a different ethnic group, and that he/she is going to follow his/her spouse. Then there are requirements, like sacrificing a pig. Pork is tradition, it has symbolic values to make the conversion official. The pig is not only eaten, the blood also has meaning because it is used for prayers. That is the way of the people. That is why it is hard for a Malay (who insists on keeping his/her religion) to become a Dayak. But for Dayak to become a Malay is easier, because many Dayak don’t mind converting to Islam…We hope to get married, but that is still a long way off. We will see. (Asti, 24, a Dayak woman) The same view is expressed by Opal (27), a Malay Muslim; for him, religion is an important factor in any future marriage. He has been dating non-Muslim women – from Christians to atheists. He has had some Muslim girlfriends in between, but not as many as the nonMuslims. Instead of focusing on how his partners’ religion may become a hindrance to the practice of Malay customs if his non-Muslim girlfriend does not convert, he places more emphasis on the importance of religion for seeking family approval. It does not really matter to him whether or not she practices Malay customs. For Opal, family acceptance is based on his partner’s religion, not her ethnicity. His current girlfriend is a Christian. Opal has long abandoned his religious practices as a Muslim, but still holds on to the notion that if he marries,
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he wants a Muslim wife. This is one of the reasons that he has stayed unmarried until now. For Opal, his girlfriend’s willingness to convert to Islam is an act of sacrifice, which he believes will smoothen the journey to marriage. But until the day that his girlfriend actually converts, he does not have the courage to say that the relationship will end in marriage. Young people seem to take it for granted that it is the young woman who will be obliged to adopt (ikut, literally, follow) the young man’s ethnic group and/or religion when they decide to marry in the future. This view is shared by both Dayak and Malay men. Opal’s case above demonstrates the importance Muslim men attach to having a Muslim wife – though not necessarily a Malay one. The same view was expressed by Nus from Sanggau who is seeing a Malay young woman. He considers it important for his girlfriend to ‘follow’ him – as a Dayak and as a Christian. If we plan to get married, then automatically it will depend on her (whether or not she decides to convert). We all know that (a woman) usually follows her husband. She has to comply (to her husband’s wishes). I will keep my religion, my ethnicity (customs). It does not seem right for a husband to follow his wife. We have talked about it. She is considering it (converting). If she decides not to, well, I don’t know. It is hard to end (the relationship). We are compatible with each other. I will think about it later. (Nus, 24, a Dayak man) The normative standard that encourages young women to ‘follow’ their future husband has made it difficult for young people who are involved
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in inter-ethnic relationships to think about marriage. This applies especially if the young woman refuses to adopt her partner’s ethnicity or religion. Nus’s ambivalence about his situation also shows how difficult it is to conform to social expectations of what is considered proper for one’s future, when he wants to stay with someone he sees as compatible with his personality. However, from the start, Nus seemed to consider his relationship a pathway towards marriage. In his perspective, the relationship will end only if barriers to the accepted form of marriage arise – that is if his girlfriend is unwilling to convert to Christianity and adapt to Dayak customs. Some young men like Marko, a Dayak, differentiate their religious requirements for their partner based on the seriousness of the relationship. Marko says that if he were involved in a serious relationship, he would want a girl of the same religion. Otherwise, he does not really mind having a relationship with a young woman of a different religion. (Whether or not a person is willing to be involved in inter-religious) relationships are based upon their own preference. I will not be a judge (on that matter). But I have decided to look for a person who has the same faith as me. It does not matter whether they are pious or not (they just have to be the same religion), unless the relationship is just for fun (main-main). When I was in high school, I used to date a Malay (Muslim). Her parents were fine (about it), they just reminded me to be careful (jangan sampai macam-macam)89. I only stayed with her for five months, then we decided to break up. Not because of religion, just because of
89
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differences in opinion. That was fine with me, it wasn’t serious anyway. (Marko, 24, a Dayak man) Unlike Marko, many young men who are involved in these relationships often decide to just continue with the relationship, despite the challenges that they have to face. Senius, a young Dayak man, is involved in a relationship with a young Malay woman from Pontianak. Senius, originally from a district in the interior of the province, does not consider it very important to tell his parents about his relationship. He has been going out with his girlfriend for a year, but he has no plans of marrying her in the near future. He assumes that his parents are quite easy going and trust his choice. Senius says that his girlfriends’ parents do not seem to mind him seeing their daughter. I do have a girlfriend, from Pontianak. She is a Malay, a Muslim. About the (differences) in religion, I will think about that later. That is for the future. For now, we both decided to just go with the flow. That doesn’t mean I’m not serious, but I will think (of the future) later. I have introduced myself to her parents, I had to because I have to pick her up on Saturday night. Her parents don’t seem to mind. At least they don’t show (that they mind). (Senius, 24, a Dayak man) Ren, a young Dayak man has been involved with a young Malay woman for two years. In Ren’s account below, he says that there is consensual agreement between them that having different faiths will not be an impediment to their relationship – even if they decide to get married. In Ren’s view, young women are not obliged to adopt their husband’s
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religion or ethnic customs, but he has not discussed this with either side of the family. There are many, many inter-religious (romantic relationships) here. Like me, I have a Muslim girlfriend. We (young people in inter-religious relationships) are able to meet because we join organisations. I am still considering whether to continue with the relationship or not. So far, we are just getting on with it. It has been two years. If both (sets of) parents are fine (with it), then we don’t really make an issue of our beliefs. She does not have to follow me (adopt my religion). (Ren, 23, a Dayak man) In this section, I have shown that most of the informants involved in inter-ethnic and inter-religious relationships are Dayak young men, perhaps because Dayak young men are more open to forming these relationships. It may also be that they are more open about admitting their involvement in inter-ethnic or religious relationships. Either way, one possible explanation for this is that most of these Dayak young men are migrant students in Pontianak, and thus, are far away from family supervision. Family control of a young man’s sexuality is less strict than of a young woman’s. Also, as young men, they may feel that they are in a better position to ask their partner to convert. This provides more space for these young men to become involved with a partner of their choice. This does not mean that informants from other ethnic groups have not been involved in inter-ethnic or inter-religious relationships. Most, however, decided to end their relationship at an early stage – most likely due to family disapproval.
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Conclusion This chapter has identified three views of romantic relationship (pacaran) among young people in Pontianak: as a prelude to marriage, as exploration, and as a long-term relationship. In the first type, romantic relationships are considered to be courtship, as a prelude to marriage. When young people view their relationship in these terms, they emphasise the importance of the sanctity of marriage by resisting sexual temptation. This relates to the notion of self-control as an indicator of adulthood, as I explained in Chapter 2. In Chapters 3 and 4, I showed that education and work serve the purpose of fulfilling the expectations of one’s own family. When young people practice courtship, they sometimes have to start fulfilling the expectations of two families: their own and their future spouse’s. Aside from seeing romantic relationships as way to grow up, they are also seen as present-oriented relationships not leading to marriage. In a present-oriented relationship, sexual exploration and attraction become significant. The emergence of these cultures is driven by the need for status attainment. Status attainment can be gained from public displays of a partner’s physical attractiveness, sexual experience, or membership of a higher status social (ethnic) group. Long-term relationships, the last form of romantic relationship that I discuss, are often a consequence of uncertainties in the transition to marriage. I view them as a form of ‘youth culture of waiting’. As discussed in Chapters 3 and 4, youth cultures of waiting have mainly been discussed in the domain of work and education, focusing on the structural constraints that inhibit young people from making the transition to work. Here, I show that youth cultures of waiting can also 242
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occur in the domain of romantic relationships, and are largely a response to structural barriers to making the transition to marriage. These structural constraints include the experience of circuitous education-to-work transitions (rather than smooth ones), and the challenges young people face in inter-ethnic and inter-religious relationships. Making financial sacrifices to treat one’s partner, especially for eating out, is considered an important way of indicating one’s indefinite commitment to the relationship, albeit without any certainty of marriage. Gender and ethno-religious membership are most influential in the construction of long-term relationships. Unemployed young men are most prone to becoming stuck in their transition to marriage, as a knock-on effect of their halted transition to work. Young men have more space to become involved in inter-ethnic inter-religious relationships because a young man’s sexuality is not under such strict family control as a young woman’s. Also, religious and ethnic conversion is expected among young women, but not among young men. Even so, young men are aware that in practice, there is no guarantee that their partner will necessarily convert. Thus, they tend to wait and see where the relationship goes.
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6 Conclusions
This study has explored the experiences of young people in the provincial town of Pontianak. It sought to understand the various patterns of relations between being young and growing up by focusing on how social relations of interdependence are embedded within this process, and how it is experienced by different segments of the youth population. I have done this by building on ideas drawn from various disciplines of social science, such as psychology, sociology, and anthropology. I suggested that ‘being young’ is related to concepts of social identity and youth culture, which means that being young is a construction of a social identity based largely on age, through practices of youth culture. At the other end, ‘growing up’ relates largely to concepts of youth as part of human development, in which it is considered as a stage of transition to adulthood. By trying to understand how young people navigate between being young and growing up as two co-existing dimensions of their lives, this study offers an alternative approach to dealing with the limitations of both the growing up perspective and the youth culture approach, which are often separately discussed and deployed in research. Focusing on an educated youth population coming from the lower middle class, it has explored how the tensions and continuities
244
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between growing up and being young are experienced in three life domains: education, work, and romantic relationships. It has also shown the interweaving of life domains that young people have to negotiate in their lives, which are also often dealt with separately in studies on youth. Pontianak, the site of this study, is ‘peripheral’ in relation to a bigger ‘core’, and at the same time, a ‘core’ to other smaller towns and the countryside. This magnifies the contradictions between images of endless possibilities and the reality of limited opportunities for young people. Instead of constructing hyperbolic dreams as a way of compensating this gap (Kjelgaard and Askegaard, 2006: 239-240), young people in Pontianak are relatively realistic. Young people’s ambiguous attitudes and behaviour, which piqued my curiosity at the beginning of the study, actually demonstrate their effort to be grounded with regard to their situation. This ambiguity is evident in how they want to grow up by fulfilling family expectations, and how they try to move on with their lives at present. Yet, their behaviour often seems to portray that they want to be young forever. The findings of this study suggest, on the one hand, that growing up for young people in Pontianak means internalising their parents’ aspirations, claiming them as their own, and working towards pursuing that dream. Acquiring middle-class symbols such as completing university education, entering government jobs, and marrying a partner with (at least) the same qualifications, is a significant step in making these dreams (in some cases) come true. This cultural transmission of values constitutes an important part of the social reproduction process. On the other hand, young people in Pontianak try to affirm their youth identity through their engagement with urban youth cultures. Affirming youth identity does not necessarily mean that 245
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they are practicing a form of resistance against the adult world, as suggested by the youth subculture perspective. Instead, it is about living a life as a successful young person, without necessarily having to resist adult culture. The continuities and tensions between growing up and being young are captured by identifying two main patterns of relations: ‘being young while growing up’ and ‘growing up while being young’; the difference between them being a matter of different emphasis along what is basically a continuum. I have suggested that, besides experiencing the dynamic tensions between them, a person can engage with the two patterns at different times in their lives. As this study is not a longitudinal one, data from groups of young people in different life domains and life stages (some still in education, others already graduated), were used to substantiate this claim. Also, the findings suggest that ‘growing up’ and ‘being young’ are experienced differently based on gender and ethnic background, as I will elaborate below.
Being Young While Growing Up: Hanging out for the Future In Pontianak, this pattern of growing up and being young is most observable in the education domain. For example, I have shown in Chapter 3 that school counter cultures, such as perceiving studying as unimportant, exist. However, grades and the diploma granting the sarjana degree are still considered crucial for future transitions to work. As such, the youth culture of arisan nilai (paying for grades) is one of the strategies young people use to negotiate these contradictions.
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University education also provides space for the emergence of particular urban youth cultures of hanging out on campus and at malls, alcohol consumption among young men (especially beer, as opposed to traditional forms of alcoholic drinks), and various kinds of consumptive behaviour, which are more acceptable to the adult world, as they are associated with the lifestyle of an educated person. Adults often consider hanging out by university students to be a way of relaxing after a hard day’s work at school, rather than assuming it is a general way of life young people employ (associated with irresponsible behaviour, laziness or a resistance to growing up). The
domain
of
romantic
relationships
also
illustrates
continuities between adult and youth culture, especially in how adultconstructed views of ethnic group status often frame young people's modes of exploration in romantic relationships. Various ‘styles of appropriation’ (Jeffrey et al., 2008: 62-77), such as physicality or language related to another person's ethnic background become a basis for choosing or avoiding the formation of a romantic relationship (relative to one's own ethnic group membership). Making public appearances that show connections to (ethnic) group of a perceived higher status lends a positive image to one’s social identity. For example, Malay young men are often attracted to ‘white’ skinned Chinese young women, who are also assumed to come from a higher socio-economic background. Fixation on images of beauty based on physicality (the body), public appearance, and material transactions show how expressions of love in romantic relationships are commoditised through processes of global capitalism (Padilla et al., 2007). As an exploration, romantic relationships are seen as a way to attain material goods, find someone to hang out with, and engage in 247
6 Conclusions
physical sexual exploration. Young men and young women are aware of future uncertainties, and these explorations facilitate ways of participating in society in the present. Aside from confirming that cultures of youth sexuality show continuities with adult culture, this study also illustrates another dimension to this pattern. It finds that youth cultures also function as a productive domain – as way to facilitate, and at other times stall, growing up. Many young men and women believe that youth cultures in university facilitate the making of a modern identity, breaking away from structural constraints of ethnicity, class and geographical marginality.
Ideas
of
tolerance,
nationalism,
optimism,
and
competitiveness are part of the young modern identity that they want to build. This applies particularly to Dayak migrant youth, often portrayed as uneducated and backward, who come to Pontianak to study as they try to become part of the urban scene. Though a youthful modern identity emphasising individual capacity is believed to support the process of growing up, young people in Pontianak are very much aware of the role social networks play in making their transition. That is why hanging out is a central resource that young people use to construct their youth identity, but at the same time, to grow up. Youth cultures of hanging out while still studying facilitate inclusion within the peer group in a new university environment. This includes engaging in both leisurely and ‘serious’ campus activities that enable them to acquire and expand their networks for the future. Thus, intragenerational interdependent relationships are also significant. These patterns are experienced differently by young women and young men, and by young people from different ethnic groups. The 248
6 Conclusions
centrality that hanging out plays is equally important for young men and young women, but young men often have more opportunities than young women to hang out in a variety of public places that provide them information and contacts to form social networks. Young women prefer to hang out with just a few friends, and in more private domains, with the exception of campus grounds and malls. Young people tend to prefer hanging out with others from the same ethnic group, as they acknowledge the importance of familial and ethnic ties has become more prominent since the advent of decentralisation. Migrant youth feel more connected to young people from the same region and class, though still within the same ethnic circle. Thus, the making of an urban-educated young (wo)man with a belief in fair competition through individual capacity seems contrary to the significance of constructing a Malay, Dayak, Chinese, and Madurese identity to ensure future mobility. Aside from hanging out, some young people draw upon youth cultures and manage to find a place in a business sector, mostly linked to global youth cultures that are locally defined. These types of jobs, including being a member of an MLM company, opening a distro or Muslim fashion outlet, or an internet café, facilitate a form of resistance towards adult culture, which sets a normative standard for what jobs are considered ‘appropriate’. Young people want to grow up in their own way. Yet, young people do not always want to grow up. Instead, they ‘choose’ to stay young while growing up. In these situations, certain ways of being young can foster the image of fulfilling family expectations, and at the same time, stall the process of growing up. For non-Chinese youth, going to university is a strategy to avoid facing the 249
6 Conclusions
consequences of gender-based appropriations of growing up. For young men, university education is a safe haven: it gives a sense of moving forward that is important to parents, but without the pressure of having to find work, which is often an indicator of manhood. It is also a strategy to avoid early marriage (the fast track to adulthood). This applies especially to young women, who are often forced to grow up via work or marriage. Chinese young men and women, as explained above, see university as a starting point in their careers rather than as a safe haven from having to grow up. Combining education and work in the formal sector provides better chances of continuing a linear career path within the same work domain.
Growing up While Being Young: Transition to Somewhere By taking the perspective of young people, this study finds that young people who are often assumed to be stuck in their youth and in ‘transition to nowhere’, actually feel that they are experiencing a ‘transition to somewhere’. The second pattern of ‘growing up while being young’ stresses the structured experiences of growing up, where young people are forced to grow up quicker than they intend to (on a fast track to adulthood), or are inhibited in their process of growing up and are forced to stay young longer than they expect to (in transition to nowhere). Being young is often a consequence of not being able to successfully grow up – of not being able to make a smooth transition to adulthood. Here, young people’s subjective standards, rather than a normative time table in the human life course, are the indicators of a ‘fast track to adulthood’ or a ‘transition to nowhere’.
250
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In this pattern, interdependence through intergenerational relationships is more dominant in the process of growing up, while intragenerational relations are a coping strategy for the construction of a youth identity. The relationship between the three life domains is shown in the ways that the education and work domains structure the dynamics of romantic relationships. As mentioned above, growing up for young men and women in Pontianak often entails fulfilling family expectations. For non-Chinese young people, fulfilling family obligations includes providing financial assistance as a long-term social security net for their parents, even though they are yet to secure their own financial needs. The Chinese are expected to give back to parents only when they have managed to secure their own financial independence. This means that education-towork transitions are prominent in determining how young people fulfil these obligations, and thus, grow up. The dominance of the service sector in the Pontianak economy has required both young men and young women to invest in longer periods of education if they want to join the skilled labour force in this sector. In the education domain, going to university means young people raise the family status by obtaining a university degree (ijazah sarjana) and create an image of having prospects for future work and marriage. For young women, higher education often places them in an ambivalent position in relation to finding a marriage partner with the same level of education. The fulfilment of these family expectations and the pooling of family resources
to
finance
intergenerational
a
young
interdependent
person’s
education,
relationships.
reinforces
Fulfilling
family
expectations by going to university promotes the feeling of growing up, for young men and young women equally. 251
6 Conclusions
For non-Chinese young men and young women, a university education is expected to enhance the chances of acquiring a civil service job. However, not many young people are successful in securing a skilled position in the (government) service sector of their choice. This has made the period of education-to-work transition longer and more uncertain. Only a minority of youth are able to enter the idealised government jobs. Most young people endure quite long periods of unemployment while waiting for the opportunity to enter a job they find meaningful. Many end up settling for underemployment, basically taking on casual informal, low-paid, and/or insecure types of job for which they are overqualified. The condition of ‘transition to nowhere’ often results, usually among unemployed young men with few resources to either find work or get married. But taking a closer look, Pontianak youth are rarely caught up in this dead-end situation. Young people try their best at making the transition to somewhere; no matter how limited their mobility to somewhere is. In most cases, young men try to make the transition to somewhere by taking up work in informal sectors, such as politics, through the forming of patron-client relationships. For most young men and women, entering into business in the informal sector is an alternative way of making the transition to somewhere. Temporary jobs include contractual formal jobs in the modern sector such as mall jobs, which are considered more acceptable to parents in indicating a transition to somewhere. The formal nature of the mall and its physical, concrete presence (a form of ‘office’) supports the construction that a mall job is a real job. The role of global consumerist lifestyle has lubricated the dynamics of the youth market, by providing room for the emergence of these types of temporary job. However, in reality, malls provide more work opportunities for young 252
6 Conclusions
women than for young men (see also McDowell, 2000), and most young women are able to work in these types of jobs for a limited period only. Age, marriage, and pregnancy are factors that lead to the termination of mall jobs for most young women. Temporary jobs at a government office are often viewed as a step towards transition to the ideal government job (also noted in Kupang, Indonesia by Tidey, 2012). Very few young people actually have the opportunity to secure these jobs. As most temporary jobs in government offices are administrative and clerical, young women are at an advantage when it comes to accessing these jobs, as they are often assumed to be more suitable in dealing with administrative work (Pontianak Post, 10 January 2008). Temporary work in a government office also tallies more with the ideal of transition to work that results in the feeling of having really made it further in the transition to adulthood, because they are one step closer to securing the idealised job in a government office (despite no guarantee of being able to secure a permanent position). Young people in these temporary types of work try to rationalise their ‘failure’ to secure government jobs by expressing the importance of any kind of work experience in starting the process of growing up. Young people also claim that through these jobs, they are able to fulfil some of their financial obligations to the family. At the same time, they also emphasise the youthful (fun) parts of their work that support the construction of a modern youth identity. As also shown in this study, play and having fun for young men often means having the opportunity to hang out, often breaking the curfew their parents set. For young women, having fun is about physical beauty and of having a ‘good reason’ to ‘look pretty’. Thus, these young people want to grow 253
6 Conclusions
up by getting a stable job, fail to do so, and find other ways that give them the feeling that they are progressing towards adulthood. Sometimes efforts to fulfil family obligations mean that some young people experience a fast track to adulthood. This is seen in cases in which working is a matter of economic survival in order to continue their education, or to back up the family economy due to the loss of a parent. Ethnicity has always played an influential role in processes of social reproduction through work in Pontianak. However, the ethnic work domain is currently being challenged. Young people acknowledge that decentralisation has opened opportunities for all ethnic groups to have the chance to seize opportunities, especially entering the civil service. This has changed not only the work aspirations of young people from marginalised ethnic groups, but also the ways in which they try to fulfil these aspirations. Government jobs have tended to be the work domain of the Malay, but now more Dayak, Madurese, and a minority of Chinese young men and young women are aspiring to secure government posts in the future. As securing a government post requires a university education, higher education is even more important for these young people. At the same time, most Chinese youth still aspire to starting their own businesses, replicating their parents’ occupational domain. Chinese young men and women try to make the ‘transition to somewhere’ from early on in their life, as they often combine education and work. They start working in private companies through peer networks while they are still at university. Sometimes with parental support, they open their own business, believing that these experiences will lead to a promising future.
254
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Growing up also means finding a future spouse who meets the standards of the family. Viewing romantic relationships as a form of courtship is often considered the norm, even as many young people are aware that it takes more than love to make the journey to marriage. On the one hand young people, especially young women, hold the image of romantic relationships as individualised intimacy that will ideally end in marriage. For a young woman, it is important to uphold the family’s reputation by being involved with one partner until she marries that person. On the other hand, young men and young women are equally aware that forming a new family entails securing processes of production and reproduction through the household economy. Many young men are especially insecure about their capability to fulfil the financial demands of a new household. This condition seems to be a background
to
the
ambiguous
meanings
given
to
romantic
relationships. Most young people in Pontianak imagine that their relationship will end in marriage, but they are also often unsure whether they can fulfil the family obligations a marriage entails. Some young men and young women still at university view romantic relationships as being about growing up while being young by differentiating between the concept of pacar (boy/girlfriend) and calon (future spouse). For both young men and young women still at university, having a pacar is about learning how to grow up through this youthful practice. These young people argue that by being involved in romantic relationships, they learn about values of self-control and sacrifice which they believe will be of benefit when they enter marriage. Partly as an effect of global consumerist ideas, sacrifice for today’s youth refers to the material contribution that each individual brings to the relationship, ensuring the couple’s ability to consume. Young men are 255
6 Conclusions
especially sensitive to the idea that they should make the main financial contribution in the relationship. On the other hand, the older generation refers to sacrifice in the relationship as suppressing the urge to consume (especially to eat out) to save up for their future together. The ideal image of relationships bound within personal intimacy changes as young people move from education to work. For young men and young women who have graduated but have not yet found ‘proper’ employment, having a romantic partner often makes them feel that they are moving on in their transition, that they are making the transition to somewhere. They start thinking of their pacar as their calon. The family becomes more influential in the relationship. Being unemployed is a serious matter, especially for young men. They are more vulnerable to experiencing a transition to nowhere (not being in education, not having any work, and not having a girlfriend), as they often face constant pressure to continue their relationship to marriage. Parents are not eager to marry off their unemployed son, or marry off their daughter to an unemployed young man. Young women are also reluctant to form a relationship with young men who have no economic future. In these situations, practical notions of marriage as an economic unit to ensure future security for the new family and the natal family override ideal notions of intimate/passionate love. Unemployed young women find their pathway to adulthood through forming relationships to find a future husband (calon). Gender roles secure a woman’s position in contributing to processes of social reproduction
in
the
private
domain,
despite
their
state
of
unemployment. Ethnicity and religion also form structural constraints to transiting to marriage. Inter-ethnic and inter-religious relationships occur among many young people, despite family disapproval. The 256
6 Conclusions
uncertainties that youth in Pontianak have to face in forming a firm path towards marriage through these relationships sometimes drive young people to construct the idea of having long-term relationships, without necessarily envisioning them as having to end in marriage. Even when they do, they are often unsure whether they can fulfil the family obligations a marriage entails. In some cases, explorations in the domain of romantic relationships lead to an unplanned fast track to adulthood. Young women are often forced to marry if unwanted pregnancy occurs. Young men are also usually pressured to marry their partner if she becomes pregnant; but caring for the baby is often left to the young woman and her family. Other young women seek methods of pregnancy termination when unwanted pregnancy occurs. In this case, peers play a crucial role in facilitating this practice. Peers’ opinions, often influenced by media images of love, are influential in shaping the standards of appropriation of romantic relationships. On the other hand, parents’ involvement in the relationship is relatively limited at this stage.
Theoretical Reflections Having elaborated the main empirical findings of this study, in this section I will reflect on some of its theoretical implications. The findings of this study are in line with the general view of other studies on youth transitions (Grant and Furstenberg Jr, 2007: 426; Atal, 2005: 15; Dalsgaard et al., 2008: 63-70), which demonstrate the importance of family, state institutions, and global processes in shaping young people’s lives. This study shows that families, in particular, play a crucial
257
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role in the process of social reproduction and cultural transmission by the older to the younger generation (Mannheim, 1952). As argued in most growing up perspectives, my findings show that financial independence is one of the significant indicators that define entrance into adulthood. But that is only half of the story, as this study adds another way of growing up. Contrary to the idea that being in education denotes a state of youth as proposed by scholars such as Furstenberg (2000), this study has shown that entering higher education is also a pathway to growing up. It represents a way of fulfilling family expectations and strengthening the bonds of interdependence. This is in line with various studies in the Global South, such as those by Magazine and Sanchez (2007) and Punch (2002), which emphasise the significance of interdependent relations in the process of social reproduction. This study also confirms studies suggesting that global processes have intensified the changes young people go through, resulting in differences between young people and their previous generation and the variations existing between different groups of young people in understanding the meaning and experience of growing up. Various studies on global youth transitions have shown how transitions to adulthood are becoming more insecure and uncertain, both in the Global South (Welti, 2002: 276-306; Jeffrey et al., 2008; Khan, 2005; Brinton, 2011), and in the Global North (Muller and Gangl, 2003; 2006; Celik, 2008; Malmberg-Heimonen and Julkunen, 2006). This study has also found that gender and ethnicity play a crucial role in how young people face insecurities, employment being one of the significant issues young people have to deal with. While 258
6 Conclusions
young men are often in a more disadvantaged position than young women when it comes to getting secure work in the context of the feminisation of the workforce (McDowell, 2004; Kenway and Kraack, 2004), young women who do find employment in the expanding service sector often face difficulties keeping their jobs, due to increasing age, marriage, or pregnancy. This finding echoes a study by Chisolm and Du Bois Reymond (1993) who suggest that young women in the Global North expect to take breaks from work when they have children and reenter the work force later in their life time, rather than work continuously. In the previous section, it has been described how young men and women of ethnic minority have to deal with more challenges in securing a decent job than do the majority ethnic group who have already engaged in ethnic based networks with those in power. Economic, social, and political change often alter ethnic or racial dynamics, bringing new optimism to previously marginalised groups about their chances of experiencing social mobility. This is also experienced by second and third generations of immigrants in Britain, as noted by Rizvi (2004: 74) who argues that economic change and globalisation have blurred racial identities and provided more opportunities for inclusion among the previously marginalised immigrants. However, while in Britain it is the blurring of ethnic identity that has brought inclusion to ethnically marginalised youth, this study shows a strengthening of ethnic identity among young people as they compete to claim inclusion in West Kalimantan’s society, including in the labour market. Rather than merely portraying a bleak picture of young people’s situation, as many previous studies have done, this study 259
6 Conclusions
supports a rather optimistic view about young people. This study shows how young people strategise and rationalise their situation, without trying to romanticise the uncertain futures they face. This was done by first, looking at the other side of young people’s lives (that is of being young), which sheds light on how young people experiencing a ruptured transition resort to the peer group for support. Instead of taking political action such as staging collective protest like the educated unemployed men in India described by Jeffrey (2008: 745746), this study shows a rather individualised and subtle strategy in coping with insecurity. In the work domain, young people strategise by constructing images of ‘play’ or of being ‘free’. This is an effort to claim making progress towards becoming an adult, of making the transition to somewhere rather than nowhere (Herrera, 2010). One of the explanations for this choice of strategy is that political action and demonstrations are often associated with violence that young people in post conflict societies tend to avoid, even when the choice to distance oneself from collective political action may hinder the onset of change to the betterment of young people’s situation. Moser and McIlwaine (2001: 140-142) note that in post-conflict Guatemala, avoidance (including ‘keeping silent’) of situations assumed to trigger conflict, is also a common strategy applied. Despite this situation, young people continue to negotiate growing up and being young within the limited agency they have and the historical baggage that they carry. Images of ‘playful work’, also introduced by Naafs (2012b) in the term ‘work while playing’, or the image of being ‘free’ (bebas) among young self-employed tourist guides in Lombok (Dahles and Bras, 1999: 275), confirm studies by other scholars that describe the significance of peers during times of uncertain transition to adulthood (Herrera, 2010; 260
6 Conclusions
Jeffrey et al., 2008), especially when families often cannot offer the support young people need (Wyn and Woodman, 2006). Naafs’ (2012b: 130-131) findings show how relatively educated young men in Cilegon (Indonesia) distinguish between various types of work to justify their participation in work they do not find appealing. This includes ‘work while playing’ (pekerjaan sambil bermain), where working in the mall denotes a growing up process, but left unsupervised, it becomes an arena for play as these young men chat and have coffee with their friends during work time. For young women, the image of ‘play’ sometimes refers to being able to ‘look pretty’ through mall jobs. In some cases, such as Pontianak, none of the young women worried about the dress codes of wearing short skirts, as Naafs noticed among young women working in malls in Cilegon (2012: 172-173). Instead, working in the mall justifies wearing clothes that would otherwise be deemed inappropriate outside the work context. The resort to the peers in uncertain times is also in accordance with the phenomenon of ‘youth cultures of waiting’ among young men in India as a strategy to compensate for being stuck in transition (Jeffrey, et al., 2008). Similar to the work of Holland et al. (2007), it shows the agency of young people in reproducing the values of the older generation via intragenerational relationships. Second, using a lens that looks at the interweaving of the three domains in young people’s lives has made it possible to see that young people often compensate for a lack of success in one domain by claiming success in another. This is seen in the construction of ‘longterm relationships’, which show some similarities but also some differences to Arnett’s (2004) ‘explorations in romantic relationships’. The similarity lies in noticing that young people are currently 261
6 Conclusions
prolonging their relationships and delaying marriage. However, Arnett sees prolonging relationships as individual explorations to find the perfect partner, while long-term relationships in this study are often formed as a result of being stuck in the domain of work. Jeffrey (2009) argues that young men are staying longer in school to compensate for not finding the jobs they aspire to. This is slightly different from some young people in Pontianak, who stall growing up by entering higher education as a way to avoid having to work or get married. Education becomes not only a domain that compensates for not being able to move to on, but is a domain where young people can use to justify being successful without being pressured to ‘move on’. Yet, this study also finds that intragenerational relations have much more significance than as merely a resort from a ruptured experience of growing up. Emphasising the value of peer groups for the formation of a youth identity, this study also tries to add to the body of literature on social identity theory. As I have mentioned in Chapter 1, these theories have focused mainly on various social identities based on ethnicity, nationality, and race (Verkuyten and Lay, 1998; Reicher et al., 2006), while paying little attention to age or generation related social identity, with the exception of the work by Hockey and James (1993; 2003) and Widdicombe and Wooffitt (1995). However, Hockey and James’ main focus is on adulthood and old age. This study looks into social identity in a similar manner to Widdicombe and Wooffitt, highlighting the relations between social identity and youth subculture. While Widdicombe and Woffitt’s work remains heavily biased towards a view of youth culture as a way to resist adult culture, the findings of this study elaborate how being young is not always in contrast to growing up, or in resistance or opposition to adult culture. It confirms Blackman’s 262
6 Conclusions
notion of youth cultural practices as reflecting continuity to adult culture (Blackman, 2005) rather than opposition to it (Willis, 1977). This is especially seen in the activity of hanging out. Hanging out in adult-made institutions and public spaces, such as schools, has been illustrated as part of youthful activity. This has also been extensively discussed by geographers, as young people claim space in otherwise adult dominated places (see for instance, Robinson, 2009, Skelton et al., 1998, and Chatterton and Hollands, 2003). However, this study highlights another dimension to hanging out. First, while online social networks may have provided an alternative way of hanging out (Liu, 2009), the centrality of school settings, coffee shops and malls in hanging out explained in this study, is in line with other work on young people conducted in the Global South (Schielke, 2009; Jeffrey et al., 2008). Second, hanging out is also used to prepare for one’s future and facilitate the process of growing up. I would like to emphasise that hanging out, especially among those still in education, is not to compensate for being stuck and to overcome boredom, as elaborated in Schielke’s (2009) work. Instead, the findings of this study suggest that hanging out in public places is both a source of entertainment and a way young people build networks that are expected to smoothen future transitions. Third, there is a tendency for hanging out to be ethnically segregated. The significance of ‘bonding’ with peer networks and its use it as a ‘bridge’ to acquire social networks outside their own ethnic group, have also been noted in Reynolds (2007). Another form of youth culture that young people believe facilitates growing up is involvement in romantic relationships, where young people learn about acts of ‘sacrifice’. This goes against the suggestion of some scholars such as Swidler (1980: 136), who view 263
6 Conclusions
sacrifice as a negative act, as it is assumed to jeopardise one’s well-being because it denies the opportunity to develop one’s individual needs. Whitton et al. (2002: 174) provide an explanation of this difference. They argue that in relationships guided by principles of interdependence, sacrificing (to a certain extent), supports the development of oneself rather than being detrimental to it. This is also in line with one of the early ideas in the lifespan perspective, which sees growing up as a process of moving from an egocentric self to a social one (Kaplan, 1988: 257). The above discussion shows how I have positioned this study in relation to previous studies. Here, I offer some reflections on its theoretical implications which may be of use for further studies. First, by looking at growing up and being young together, we are able to see that peers are becoming more significant in young people’s lives in all life domains. Thus, there is a need to develop social identity theories that use an age or generational based framework, and to further explore theoretical connections between concepts such as social identity, youth culture, and youth transitions. Second, this study supports the argument that continuities also exist between adult culture and youth culture. By doing so, it supports a view that the significance of peers does not render the family unimportant. This is not unique to Pontianak, Indonesia, or countries of the Global South, but is also the case in Global North. Along the same lines as this study, which proposes young people move in and out of growing up and being young, Tanner’s (2006: 30-31) work in the US illustrates how young people move away from their family at certain times of their lives, and re-establish bonds with the family of origin when they are entering adulthood. The goal of achieving independence, Tanner emphasises, is only temporary. Building on 264
6 Conclusions
Tanner’s insightful work, more studies are needed on the dynamics and shifts between growing up and being young, and the ways in which interdependent relations (rather than relations of dependence or independence) are practiced, in different regions and social groups of Indonesia and other parts of our globalised world.
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References
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Summary
This study explores the experiences of youth in the provincial town of Pontianak, West Kalimantan. The research was done in Pontianak, the provincial capital of West Kalimantan during the years 2008-2009. This region has been relatively marginalised from the overall process of national development. Within the region’s history of ethnic segregation and conflict that structures the opportunities, social relations, and individual life aspirations of its population; it has recently gone through major changes. These changes include the implementation of decentralisation, the booming of tertiary education facilities, the growth of the service sector, and the proliferation of ideas of modernity and consumer culture. These changes have encouraged the formation of a large university student population, as ideas of modernity and the ability to consume, are generally linked to attaining well-paid formal jobs in the urban economy, which in turn, is believed accessible through participating in tertiary education. Formal jobs are expected to generate enough income for achieving financial independence and forming a new family through marriage. From a generational perspective, successful transition in these life domains becomes a base for social reproduction and upward mobility. This explains what is generally
297
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expected from young people in the process of growing up, which is to go through the proper life transitions (education, work, marriage) according to the normative time table in society. This does not, however, help understand why young people in Pontianak are sometimes behaving in a manner that seemingly contradicts the process of growing up. They seem to be caught in a state of ‘being young’, as they engage in various youth cultures and build a youthful social identity. For instance, young men and women do not always seem to take education seriously, many educated youth are working in deadend jobs and those who are involved in romantic relationships do not necessarily see it ending in marriage. Within this context, this study focuses on educated youth in university and those who have graduated from university, but have not yet attained their ideal job. As Pontianak’s university student population is steadily growing, it is not balanced by enough promising job opportunities for these educated youth. This study therefore, tries to understand the various patterns of relations between growing up and being young, how social relations of interdependence are embedded within this process, and how it is experienced by different segments of the youth population in the Pontianak context. By trying to understand how young people navigate between being young and growing up as two co-existing dimensions of their lives, this study offers an alternative approach to deal with the limitations of both the perspectives of ‘growing up’ and the perspectives of ‘being young’ which are often discussed, and deployed in research, separately. Mainly using a qualitative approach that focuses on the subjective experiences of an educated youth population coming from the lower middle class, it explores how the tensions and continuities between growing up and 298
Summary
being young are experienced in three life domains influential in young people’s lives: education, work, and romantic relationships. It also shows the interweaving of life domains that young people have to negotiate in their lives, which are also often dealt with separately in studies on youth. The continuities and tensions between growing up and being young are captured through identifying two main patterns of relations: ‘being young while growing up’ and ‘growing up while being young’, with the difference between them being a matter of different emphasis along what is basically a continuum. The first pattern, ‘being young while growing up’, focuses on the continuities that exist between being young and growing up through youth cultures. Instead of merely seeing youth culture and adult culture as in tension, it also recognises how certain aspects of youth culture are adopted from the adult world. In the domain of education, it provides an alternative way of better understanding school counter cultures. For instance, university education provides space for the emergence of particular urban youth cultures: of hanging out on campus but also at malls, consuming alcohol for young men (especially beer, as opposed to traditional forms of alcoholic drinks), or various kinds of consumptive behaviour, that are more acceptable to the adult world, as they are associated with the life style of an educated person. Adults often consider hanging out by university students as a way of relaxing after hard work at school rather than assuming it is a general way of life young people employ (associated with irresponsible behaviour, laziness or an attitude resisting growing up). The
domain
of
romantic
relationships
also
illustrates
continuities between adult and youth culture, especially in how adultconstructed views of ethnic group status often frame young people’s 299
Summary
modes of exploration in romantic relationships. Various ‘styles of appropriation’ (Jeffrey et al., 2008: 62-77), such as physicality or language related to another person's ethnic background become a basis for choosing or avoiding the formation of a romantic relationship (relative to one's own ethnic group membership).
Making public
appearances that show connections to perceived higher status (ethnic) groups brings a positive image to one’s social identity. For example, Malay young men are often attracted to ‘white’ skinned Chinese young women, also assumed to come from a higher social economic background. Fixation on images of beauty based on physicality (the body), public appearance, and material transactions show how expressions of love in romantic relationships are commoditised through processes of global capitalism (Padilla et al., 2007). Aside from confirming that cultures of youth sexuality show continuities to the adult culture, this study also illustrates another dimension to this pattern. It finds that youth cultures also function as a productive domain – as way to facilitate growing up. Many young men and women believe that youth cultures in university facilitate the making of a modern identity, breaking away from structural constraints of ethnicity, class and geographical marginality. Ideas of tolerance, nationalism, optimism, and competitiveness are part of the young modern identity that they want to build. Though a youthful modern identity emphasising individual capacity is believed to support the process of growing up, young people in Pontianak are very much aware of the role social networks play in making their transition. This is why hanging out becomes a central resource that young people use to construct their youth identity, but at the same time, to grow up. Youth cultures of hanging out while still studying enable inclusion within the 300
Summary
peer group in a new university environment. This includes engaging in both leisurely and ‘serious’ campus activities which enable them to acquire and expand their network for the future. The second pattern emphasises how growing up is a structured process, and how young people give meaning to it. In this case, youngsters tend to accept the values of the older generation that ensures the process of reproduction, but face various constraints to actually do so. The findings of this study are in line with the general view of other studies on youth transitions (Grant and Furstenberg Jr, 2007: 426; Atal, 2005: 15; Dalsgaard et al., 2008: 63-70), which show the importance of family, state institutions, and global processes in shaping young people’s lives. This study shows that families, in particular, play a crucial role in the process of social reproduction and cultural transmission by the older to the younger generation (Mannheim, 1952). As argued in most growing up perspectives, my findings show that financial independence is one of the significant indicators that define entrance into adulthood. This study also confirms studies suggesting that global processes have intensified the changes young people go through, resulting in differences between young people and their previous generation and the variations existing between different groups of young people in understanding the meaning and experience of growing up. Here, being young is often a consequence of not being able to successfully grow up – of not being able to make a smooth transition to adulthood. Most young people endure quite long periods of unemployment while waiting for the opportunity to enter a job they find meaningful. Many end up settling for underemployment, basically entering casual informal, low paying, and/or insecure type of jobs for which they are overqualified. Yet, young people try their best at trying 301
Summary
to make the transition to somewhere, no matter how limited their mobility to somewhere is. In most cases, young men try to make the transition to somewhere by entering informal sectors, such as politics, through the forming of patron-client relationships. Rather than merely portraying a bleak picture of young people’s situation, as many previous studies have done, this study supports a rather optimistic view about young people in transition. It shows how young people strategise and rationalise their situation, without trying to romanticise the uncertain futures they face. By looking at the experience of being young and growing up together, it also sheds light on how young people experiencing a ruptured transition resort to the peer group for support. Instead of taking political action such as staging collective protest like the educated unemployed men in India described by Jeffrey (2008: 745-746), this study shows a rather individualised and subtle strategy in coping with insecurity. In the work domain, young people strategise by constructing images of ‘play’ or of being ‘free’. This is an effort to claim making progress towards becoming an adult, of making the transition to somewhere rather than nowhere (Herrera, 2010). Even so, intragenerational relations have much more significance than as merely a resort from a ruptured experience of growing up. Hanging out is not always intended to compensate for being stuck and to overcome boredom, as elaborated in Schielke’s (2009) work. As explained above, hanging out in adult made institutions and public spaces, such as schools, has been illustrated as part of youthful activity in itself and a way to facilitate growing up, which is both central in young people’s lives. In the domain of romantic relationships, young people form ambiguous meanings to their relationship. Young men and young 302
Summary
women are reconstructing gender relations within the gendered opportunities in the labour market, with the expanding low end service sector providing more opportunities for young women to become future breadwinners. Thus, many young people in Pontianak construct long-term relationships, where they imagine that their relationship will end in marriage, yet they are also often unsure whether they can fulfil the family obligation a marriage entails. The findings suggest that ‘growing up’ and ‘being young’ are experienced differently based on gender and ethnic background. For instance, while young men are often at a more disadvantaged position than young women to enter secure work in the midst of the feminisation of the work force (McDowell, 2004; Kenway and Kraack, 2004), young women who do find employment in the expanding service sector often face difficulties inkeeping their jobs, due to increasing age, marriage, or pregnancy. Ethnicity has always played an influential role in processes of social reproduction through work in Pontianak. However, the ethnic work domain is currently challenged. Young people acknowledge that decentralisation has opened opportunities for all ethnic groups to participate in seizing opportunities, especially in entering the civil service. This has changed not only the work aspirations of young people from marginalised ethnic groups, but also the ways in which they try to fulfil these aspirations. By using a lens that looks into the interweaving of the three domains in young people’s lives (education, work, and romantic relationship), this study has made it possible to see that young people often compensate for a lack of success in one domain by claiming success in another. Those that are stuck in the domain of work, for instance, compensate by claiming success in the domain of romantic 303
Summary
relationship. Education becomes a domain that not only compensates for not being able to work or to get married, but is a domain where young people can use to justify of being successful without being pressured to ‘move on’. Finally, this study highlights three main arguments. First, by looking at growing up and being young together across life domains, we are able to see that peers are becoming more significant in young people’s lives in all life domains. Second, this study supports the argument that continuities exist between adult culture and youth culture. By doing so, it supports a view that the significance of peers does not render the family unimportant. This is not unique to Pontianak, Indonesia, or countries of the Global South, but is also the case in Global North. Third, along the same line as this study that proposes young people move in and out of growing up and being young, Tanner’s (2006: 30-31) work in the US illustrates how young people move away from their family in certain times of their lives, and re-establish bonds with family of origin when they are entering adulthood. The goal of achieving independence, Tanner emphasises, is only temporary. Building on Tanner’s insightful work, more studies are needed on the dynamics and shifts between growing up and being young, and the ways in which interdependent relations (rather than relations of dependence or independence) are practiced, in different regions and social groups of Indonesia and other parts of our globalised world.
304
Samenvatting
Samenvatting
Dit proefschrift beschrijft de ervaringen van jongeren in de provinciestad Pontianak, West Kalimantan. Het onderzoek is uitgevoerd in Pontianak, hoofdstad van de provincie West Kalimantan, gedurende het jaar 2008-2009. Deze regio is relatief achtergesteld gebleven binnen het algehele proces van nationale ontwikkeling. De geschiedenis van etnische scheidslijnen en conflict in dit gebied heeft lange tijd de mogelijkheden, sociale relaties and individuele aspiraties van de bevolking beïnvloed, maar hier is onlangs verandering in gekomen. Deze
veranderingen
betreffen
het
proces
van
bestuurlijke
decentralisatie, de toename van hoger onderwijsinstellingen, de groei van de dienstensector en nieuwe ideeën over moderniteit en consumptiecultuur. De toename van het aantal universiteitsstudenten is deels het gevolg
van
ambities
voor
moderniteit
en
consumptie.
Universiteitsonderwijs wordt gezien als een voorwaarde om toegang te krijgen tot goed betaalde banen in de formele sector van de stadseconomie; het inkomen van deze banen schept op haar beurt weer mogelijkheden voor het bereiken van een hogere levenstandaard en nieuwe consumptiepatronen. Daarnaast verwacht men dat het inkomen van een baan in de formele economie jongeren in staat zal stellen om financieel onafhankelijk te worden, te trouwen en een eigen gezin te stichten. De basis voor sociale vernieuwing en opwaartse mobiliteit tussen de generaties ligt dus in de capaciteit om een succesvolle
305
Samenvatting
overgang tussen deze verschillende levensdomeinen te maken. Dit verklaart waarom vaak van jongeren verwacht wordt dat ze op het juiste moment en op de juiste manier de overgang maken tussen onderwijs, werk
en
huwelijk,
in
overeenstemming
met
de
normatieve
verwachtingen van de samenleving. Het verklaart echter niet waarom jongeren in Pontianak zich soms gedragen op een manier die ogenschijnlijk tegengesteld is aan het dit proces van volwassen worden. Ze lijken gevangen te zijn in een fase van ‘jong zijn’, waarin ze deelnemen in jongerenculturen en een sociale identiteit als jongere cultiveren. Bijvoorbeeld, jonge mannen en vrouwen lijken onderwijs niet altijd serieus te nemen, veel hoog opgeleide jongeren werken in uitzichtloze banen en jongeren die in een romantische relatie verwikkeld zijn verwachten niet altijd dat dit in een huwelijk zal uitmonden. Gezien deze achtergrond richt dit onderzoek zich op studenten aan de universiteit en op hoogopgeleide jongeren die al afgestudeerd zijn, maar die nog niet hun ideale baan gevonden hebben. Het aantal geschikte banen voor recent afgestudeerden blijft achter bij de gestaag groeiende populatie van hoogopgeleide jongeren in Pontianak. Dit onderzoek probeert daarom inzicht te verkrijgen in de dynamiek tussen jong zijn en volwassen worden, de sociale relaties van afhankelijkheid die onderdeel zijn van dit proces, en hoe dit ervaren wordt door verschillende groepen jongeren binnen Pontianak’s jongerenpopulatie. Dit onderzoek probeert de verschillende patronen van verhoudingen te begrijpen
tussen
opgroeien
en
jong
zijn,
hoe
sociale
afhankelijkheidsrelaties ingebed zijn in dit proces, en hoe dit ervaren wordt door verschillende segmenten van de jeugdpopulatie in Pontianak. Door te proberen te begrijpen hoe jongeren tussen 306
Samenvatting
opgroeien en jong zijn als twee co-bestaande dimensies van hun leven navigeren, biedt deze studie een alternatieve benadering om te gaan met de beperkingen van zowel de perspectieven van ‘volwassen worden’ en ‘jong zijn’ die in onderzoek vaak afzonderlijk besproken en toegepast worden. De grotendeels kwalitatieve aanpak in deze studie richt zich op de persoonlijke ervaringen van een opgeleide jeugdpopulatie afkomstig uit de lagere middenklasse; het onderzoekt hoe de spanningen en continuïteiten tussen opgroeien en jong zijn ervaren worden in drie invloedrijke levensdomeinen in het leven van jongeren: onderwijs, werk en romantische relaties. Het toont ook de onderlinge verwevenheid aan van verschillende levensdomeinen in de levens van jongeren, een aspect dat in studies naar jongeren vaak afzonderlijk van elkaar wordt behandeld. De continuïteit en spanningen tussen opgroeien en ‘jong zijn’ worden vastgelegd middels het identificeren van twee belangrijke patronen van relaties: ‘jong zijn tijdens het opgroeien’ en ‘opgroeien tijdens het jong zijn’; het verschil tussen de twee is een kwestie van een ander accent langs wat in feite een continuüm is. Het eerste patroon, ‘jong zijn tijdens het opgroeien’, richt zich op de continuïteit die er bestaat tussen jong zijn en opgroeien middels jeugdculturen. In plaats van voornamelijk de nadruk te leggen op de spanningen tussen jeugdcultuur en volwassenencultuur, erkent dit patroon ook hoe bepaalde aspecten van jongerencultuur vanuit de volwassen wereld worden overgenomen. In het domein van onderwijs biedt het een manier om beter begrip te krijgen van tegendraadse schoolculturen. Bijvoorbeeld, universitair onderwijs biedt ruimte voor het ontstaan van bepaalde stedelijke jeugdculturen: zoals rondhangen op de campus en in winkelcentra, het nuttigen van alcohol door jonge mannen (vooral 307
Samenvatting
bier, in tegenstelling tot traditionele alcoholische dranken), of verschillende soorten consumptiegedrag die meer geaccepteerd worden door de volwassen wereld, omdat ze geasssocieerd worden met de levensstijl van een opgeleid persoon. Volwassenen beschouwen het rondhangen van universiteitsstudenten vaak als een manier van ontspanning na het harde werk op school in plaats van te veronderstellen dat het een algemene leefwijze van jongeren betreft (die geassocieerd wordt met onverantwoordelijk gedrag, luiheid of een houding van weerstand tegen opgroeien). Het domein van romantische relaties illustreert ook de continuïteit tussen volwassene en jeugdcultuur, met name hoe door volwassenen geconstrueerde ideeën over etnische groep status vaak het frame vormt voor de manieren waarop jongeren romantische relaties onderzoeken. Verschillende ‘stijlen van toe-eigening’ (Jeffrey et al. 2008: 62-77), zoals fysieke kenmerken of taal gerelateerd aan de etnische achtergrond van een andere persoon, vormen de basis voor het kiezen of vermijden van een romantische relatie (ten opzichte van lidmaatschap van de eigen etnische groep). Een publieke verschijning waar
mee
je
verbindingen
aantoont
met
hogere
(etnische)
statusgroepen, geeft een positief imago aan je sociale identiteit. Zo worden
jonge
Maleisische
mannen
vaak
aangetrokken
tot
lichtgekleurde Chinese jonge vrouwen, die verondersteld worden uit een hogere sociaal-economische achtergrond te komen. Fixatie op beelden van schoonheid gebaseerd op het lichamelijke (het lichaam), publieke verschijning en materiele transacties tonen aan hoe uitingen van liefde binnen romantische relaties gecommercialiseerd worden door processen van het mondiale kapitalisme (Padilla et al., 2007).
308
Samenvatting
Afgezien
van
de
bevestiging
dat
culturen
van
jongerenseksualiteit continuïteit vertonen met de volwassenencultuur, illustreert deze studie ook een andere dimensie van dit patroon. Het toont aan dat jeugdculturen ook als een productief domein functioneren, als een manier om het opgroeien te vergemakkelijken. Veel jonge mannen en vrouwen geloven dat jeugdculturen aan de universiteit het creëren van een moderne identiteit vergemakkelijken door los te breken van de structurele beperkingen van etniciteit, klasse en geografische marginaliteit. Ideeën van tolerantie, nationalisme, optimisme en concurrentievermogen maken deel uit van de identiteit als moderne jongere die ze willen cultiveren. Hoewel een jeugdige moderne identiteit een individuele capaciteit benadrukt die wordt verondersteld het proces van opgroeien te ondersteunen, zijn jongeren in Pontianak zich zeer bewust van de rol van sociale netwerken binnen hun overgang naar volwassenheid. Dit is de reden waarom rondhangen een centrale bron vormt waarmee jongeren hun jeugdidentiteit vorm geven, maar tegelijktijd ook om op te groeien. Jeugdculturen van rondhangen aan de universiteit maken het mogelijk opgenomen te worden in een vriendengroep binnen een nieuwe universitaire omgeving. Dit omvat zowel vrijetijds- als serieuze campus activiteiten die jongeren in staat stellen hun netwerk voor de toekomst te verwerven en uit te breiden. Het
tweede
patroon
benadrukt
hoe
opgroeien
een
gestructureerd proces is en hoe jongeren hier betekenis aan geven. In dit geval hebben jongeren de neiging om de sociale waarden van de oudere generatie die het reproductieproces waarborgt te aanvaarden, maar hebben zij met verschillende beperkingen te maken die het hen
309
Samenvatting
moeilijk maakt dit daadwerkelijk uit te voeren. De bevindingen van dit onderzoek komen overeen met het algemene beeld van andere studies naar jongeren transities (Grant and Furstenberg Jr, 2007: 426; Atal, 2005: 15; Dalsgaard et al., 2008:63-70), die het belang aantonen van familie, overheidsinstellingen en mondiale processen in het vormgeven van de levens van jongeren. Deze studie toont aan dat gezinnen in het bijzonder een cruciale rol spelen binnen het proces van sociale reproductie en culturele overdracht van de oudere aan de jongere generatie (Mannheim, 1952). In overeenstemming met de meeste perspectieven over opgroeien, tonen mijn bevindingen aan dat financiële onafhankelijkheid een van de belangrijke indicatoren is waarmee toegang tot volwassenheid gedefiniëerd wordt. Deze studie bevestigt ook de suggestie van andere studies dat mondiale processen de veranderingen die jongeren ondergaan hebben geïntensiveerd, wat resulteert in verschillen tussen jongeren en de vorige generatie en in de variatie tussen verschillende groepen jongeren onderling wat betreft de betekenis en ervaring van opgroeien. Hier is ‘jong zijn’ vaak het gevolg van het niet succesvol kunnen opgroeien – van het niet in staat zijn een soepele overgang naar volwassenheid te maken. De meeste jongeren doorstaan vrij lange perioden van werkloosheid terwijl ze op een kans wachten een baan te vinden die ze als zinvol ervaren. Veel jongeren moeten uiteindelijk genoegen nemen met een baan beneden hun capaciteit, waarbij ze zich schikken in vrijblijvende, informele, laag betaalde of onzekere banen waarvoor ze overgekwalificeerd zijn. Toch doen jongeren hun best om de overgang naar ergens te maken, ongeacht hoe beperkt hun mobiliteit naar dat ergens is. In de meeste gevallen proberen jonge mannen de overgang te maken door toegang
310
Samenvatting
te verkrijgen tot informele sectoren, zoals politiek, door het vormen van patroon-cliënt relaties. In plaats van vooral een somber beeld te geven van de situatie van jongeren zoals veel eerdere studies hebben gedaan, geeft deze studie een vrij optimistisch beeld van jongeren in transitie. Het laat zien hoe jongeren plannen en hun situatie rationaliseren, zonder te proberen de onzekere toekomst waarmee zij geconfronteerd worden te romantiseren. Door te kijken naar het geheel van ervaringen van ‘jong zijn’ en volwassen worden, werpt deze studie ook licht op hoe jongeren die een onderbroken transitie ervaren op hun leeftijdsgenoten terugvallen voor ondersteuning. In plaats van het ondernemen van politieke actie, zoals het organiseren van collectieve protesten door opgeleide, werkloze mannen in India zoals beschreven door Jeffrey (2008: 745-746), laat dit onderzoek een nogal geïndividualiseerde en subtiele strategie zien in het omgaan met onzekerheid. In het werkdomein is de strategie van jongeren om een beeld te creëren dat ze ‘spelen’ of ‘vrij’ zijn. Hiermee pogen zij een claim te maken over de voortgang naar het volwassen worden, van het maken van de overgang naar ergens in plaats van nergens (Herrera, 2010). Toch hebben onderlinge relaties tussen de generaties meer betekenis dan slechts een toevlucht te zijn vanuit een onderbroken ervaring van opgroeien. Rondhangen is niet altijd bedoeld als compensatie voor stagnatie of het overwinnen van verveling, zoals uitgewerkt in het werk van Schielke (2009). Zoals hierboven uitgelegd, is rondhangen in door volwassenen gecreëerde instituties en publieke ruimtes zoals scholen een jeugdige activiteit op zichzelf en een manier om opgroeien te vergemakkelijken; beide nemen een centrale plaats in in de levens van jongeren.
311
Samenvatting
In het domein van romantische relaties geven jongeren een dubbelzinnige betekenis aan hun relaties. Jonge mannen en jonge vrouwen reconstrueren genderverhoudingen binnen de door gender gestructureerde kansen op de arbeidsmarkt, waarbij de uitbreiding van het aantal banen aan de onderkant van de dienstensector jonge vrouwen kansen biedt om toekomstige kostwinners te worden. Dus, veel jongeren in Pontianak hebben langdurige relaties, waarvan ze zich voorstellen dat die in een huwelijk zullen eindigen, maar ze zijn ook vaak onzeker of ze de familieverplichting die een huwelijk met zich meebrengt kunnen vervullen. De bevindingen suggereren dat ‘opgroeien’ en ‘jong zijn’ verschillend ervaren worden op basis van gender en etnische achtergrond. Bijvoorbeeld, terwijl jonge mannen in vergelijking tot vrouwen zich vaak in een meer achtergestelde positie bevinden voor het verkrijgen van stabiel werk temidden van de feminisering van de arbeidsmarkt (McDowell, 2004; Kenway and Kraack, 2004), worden jonge vrouwen die werk vinden in de groeiende dienstensector vaak geconfronteerd met moeilijkheden hun baan te behouden als gevolg van toenemende leeftijd, huwelijk of zwangerschap. Etniciteit heeft altijd een invloedrijke rol gespeeld in processen van sociale reproductie via werk in Pontianak. Echter, het etnische werkdomein wordt momenteel uitgedaagd. Jongeren erkennen dat decentralisatie mogelijkheden heeft geopend voor alle etnische groepen om kansen te grijpen, met name bij het verkrijgen van toegang tot het ambtenarenapparaat. Dit heeft niet alleen de aspiraties voor werk van jongeren uit gemarginaliseerde etnische groepen veranderd, maar ook de manier waarop zij deze ambities proberen te vervullen.
312
Samenvatting
Door een lens te gebruiken die kijkt naar de onderlinge samenhang van drie domeinen in de levens van jongeren (onderwijs, werk en romantische relaties), heeft deze studie het mogelijk gemaakt om te zien dat jongeren vaak het gebrek aan succes in het ene domein compenseren door succes te claimen in een ander domein. Bijvoorbeeld, degenen die vastzitten in het domein van werk, compenseren dit door succes te claimen op het gebied van romantische relaties. Onderwijs wordt een domein dat niet alleen compenseert voor het niet kunnen vinden van werk of het niet kunnen trouwen, maar is een domein dat jongeren gebruiken om te rechtvaardigen dat ze succesvol te zijn, zonder onder druk gezet te worden om ‘verder te gaan’. Tot slot wijst deze studie op drie belangrijke argumenten. Ten eerste, door te kijken naar opgroeien en ‘jong zijn’ binnen het geheel van de drie levensdomeinen, zijn we in staat te zien dat leeftijdsgenoten steeds belangrijker worden in de levens van jongeren in alle levensdomeinen. Ten tweede onderschrijft deze studie het argument dat er continuïteit bestaat tussen volwassenen cultuur en jeugdcultuur. Op deze manier onderschrijft deze studie het standpunt dat de betekenis leeftijdsgenoten niet afdoet aan de rol van familie. Dit is niet uniek voor Pontianak of landen in het Zuiden, maar is ook het geval voor het Noorden. Ten derde, op dezelfde manier waarmee deze studie suggereert dat jongeren navigeren tussen opgroeien en ‘jong zijn’, laat Tanner’s werk (2006: 30-31) in de Verenigde Staten zien hoe jongeren tijdens bepaalde periodes in hun leven bij hun familie vandaan verhuizen en de band met hun gezin van herkomst herstellen als ze volwassen worden. Tanner benadrukt dat het doel van het bereiken van onafhankelijkheid slechts tijdelijk is. Er zijn meer studies nodig die 313
Samenvatting
voortbouwen op de inzichten uit Tanner’s werk, die de dynamiek en verschuivingen tussen opgroeien en ‘jong zijn’ inzichtelijk maken, en de manier waarop onderling afhankelijke relaties (in plaats van relaties van afhankelijkheid of onafhankelijkheid) worden vormgegeven binnen verschillende regio’s en bevolkingsgroepen in Indonesië en in andere delen van onze geglobaliseerde wereld.
314