Youth Environmentalism in Urban Indonesia

This book provides an in-depth analysis of youth's environmental activism in urban Indonesia. Led by a cohort of middle class, educated youth, the environmental movement Baksil emerged to protect the city forest Babakan Siliwangi in the capital of Indonesia’s West Java province, Bandung. Spanning the period between childhood, adolescence and early adulthood, this book offers a new look at the development of ecological habits and environmental consciousness throughout the life course of Indonesian youth. Employing Pierre Bourdieu's habitus as a theoretical framework, the author traces the youths’ emerging eco-consciousness, their love for nature and commitment to ethical consumption, their training as activists and eventual participation in the Babakan Siliwangi urban movement. The author's life-history method to uncover the trajectory stages of becoming an environmental activist in urban Indonesia is a valuable addition to the extant literature of environmental sociology and social movements. As an interdisciplinary work on a timely and important topic, this book will also appeal to scholars and students of area studies (particularly Indonesia and Southeast Asia) and youth studies.

Meredian Alam is Assistant Professor of Sociology at Faculty of Arts and Social Sciences, University of Brunei Darussalam. His key interests are environmental movement and justices in Southeast Asia. He holds a PhD in Sociology and Anthropology from the University of Newcastle, Australia.