ON IMAGINING A NATION: CONSTRUCTIONS OF "INDONESIA" IN JAKARTA, KUPANG AND BANDA ACEH

Abstract

This dissertation examines the construction of ?Indonesia? among young people (age 15 to 27) in Jakarta, Kupang and Banda Aceh, through photo-elicitation interview method and participant observation. Expanding on Benedict Anderson?s notion of ?imagined community? and using Laclau and Mouffe?s theory of hegemony as the analytical framework, the thesis proposes that the imagination about the nation is heterogeneous. The main points of divergence that have emerged in this thesis are in regard to the perceptions of the center-periphery disparity, the emphasis on ethnic versus pragmatic ties of nationhood, and salience of the international community. Patterns of conjunctures and disjunctures are perceptible on several levels: between Jakarta (the centre) versus Kupang and Banda Aceh (the peripheries), between the peripheries, and between people who do not see their belongingness to Indonesia as problematic versus those who do.