Netizenship, Activism and Online Community Transformation in Indonesia

Focusing on the concept of prudence as ethical groundwork for digital practices and activism, this book considers digital media expediency and populism as conflicting required experiences that lead digital citizens to discover activism. It highlights the importance of digital citizens’ experience of ‘being-in-the-digital sphere’ and encourages the reader to look at the dynamics of online movement as a part of a community’s search for significance between the online and offline realms of activism. Based on ethnographic research about the largest Indonesian online community, Kaskus, this book uses Indonesian digital citizenship as an example of online activism in a post-authoritarian state, with media viewed as a tool for democratic advancement and a catalyst for social movements among activists, students, and citizens both in Indonesia and further afield. Set at the intersection of media anthropology, sociology, Asian studies, and Citizenship studies, this book considers the shape and future of digital democracy in post-authoritarian state.

Dr. Ario Seto is a Lecturer at Universitas Indonesia and Researcher at Frankfurt University, Germany. He obtained his Masters of Arts from Passau University, Germany and Ph.D from Frankfurt University, Germany. His research focus areas are pop culture, citizenship, digital practices, community engagement and urban studies. Besides conducting a research on Islamism de-radicalization in Southeast Asia’s digital sphere, he is also currently teaching cultural sociology and research method at the University of Indonesia.