Birgit Braeuchler

University of Copenhagen & Monash University Melbourne

Official spaces for peacebuilding, reconciliation and coming to terms with the past are still very limited in Indonesia, giving the matter of creative peacebuilding and resistance enormous urgency. Based on long-term ethnographic fieldwork, authors in this special issue look at the creative ways in which the Indonesian grassroots deal with continui...

Taking Eastern Indonesia as an example, this paper analyses alternative ways to maintain peace and fight social injustices. Arts and creativity are key in transformative justice approaches in post-conflict Maluku. The emerging arts scene was turned into a means to reintegrate society and resist disruptive outside forces, in direct contrast to use o...

Putting forward a synergetic combination of three concepts – brokerage, indigeneity and resonance – this article investigates how brokers in Indonesia support indigenous communities in their struggle for citizen and human rights. It investigates the emergence of broker chains and multi-scalar activism that are needed to translate from the local – i...

Situated between various social worlds, brokers are highly mobile figures, in a physical and an ideational sense; they channel scarce information and resources, translate different languages and jargons, and mediate and facilitate between individuals and/or organisations, the local and the global, in a wide range of settings. Taking an in-depth eth...

The institutionalization and international streamlining of what is called ‘peacebuilding’ often obscures our view of what peace actually means for a society affected by different forms of violence and how that peace can be built. This chapter argues for a broader understanding of peacebuilding, not as an outside intervention but something growing f...

This chapter takes an anthropologically informed look at local efforts to restore social relations and reintegrate society after mass violence in Maluku, Eastern Indonesia, and argues for the need to develop and understand peace from within. The long-term engagement with a particular region allows the author to provide insights into the challenges...

Current transformations within the field of peace studies such as the local turn require closer attention to culture as a specifier of the local and as a context that greatly influences how concepts such as conflict, reconciliation, justice, and peace are locally defined, perceived, adopted, rejected, or not existent. The chapter points at shortcom...

Interventions such as courts and truth commissions are elements of an internationally established transitional justice (TJ) toolkit. Such measures are rarely sustainable or in place after the occurrence of mass violence. Those affected then have to themselves get active to restore social relationships. Civil society plays an important role in these...

https://berghahnbooks.com/downloads/intros/BudkaTheorising_intro.pdf

Theorising Media and Conflict brings together anthropologists as well as media and communication scholars to collectively address the elusive and complex relationship between media and conflict. Through epistemological and methodological reflections and the analyses of various case studies from around the globe, this volume provides evidence for th...

This chapter aims to take an anthropologically informed look into local conflict dynamics and local negotiation processes aimed at the restoration of social relations and the reintegration of society after mass violence. It analyzes local processes of peacebuilding taking place independent of international interventions and how local actors inventi...

Protest movements in Indonesia resist the government’s liberal development policies and the destruction of culture and environment through capitalist intrusion and land (or sea) grabbing. This article analyses the role of intermediaries, or brokers, and how they draw on a global rhetoric of human rights, as well as environmentalism, indigeneity, lo...

Interventions such as courts and truth commissions are elements of an internationally established transitional justice (TJ) toolkit. Such measures are rarely sustainable or in place after the occurrence of mass violence. Those affected then have to themselves get active to restore social relationships. Civil society plays an important role in these...

Forschung DSF 49

The local or local understandings of conflict and peace cannot be grasped by quantitative means, which has made peace scholars start looking at anthropology. This chapter promotes interdisciplinary dialogue and provides suggestions for how anthropology can help to overcome conceptual and methodological challenges of Ethnographic Peace Research (EPR...

Diverted by the virality of social media and the powerful visibility of contemporary global protest, social movement research started to loose sight of the invisible and silent aspects of mobilization and underlying collective identities. Looking at a Balinese protest movement against land reclamation whose anti-capitalist and performative characte...

Land reclamation plans in the south of Bali have triggered local protest on an unprecedented scale. An ecological plurality combined with diverging understandings of nature, environmental protection and sacredness threaten to tear apart Balinese society. The government and the private sector use a techno-interventionist argument, while activists dr...

en The frequent failure of international peace missions and the ‘crisis of the liberal peace’ led to the promotion of a local or cultural turn in peace research and work that focuses on the role and meaning of culture, local actors and a mostly unspecified ‘local’ for peacebuilding processes. This pushes peace and conflict studies to engage with th...

en Given the frequent failure of internationally established reconciliation tools, traditional conflict resolution mechanisms are increasingly integrated into transitional justice programmes in order to locally root peace. However, traditional justice mechanisms can be highly ambivalent; they can be, at the same time, inclusive and exclusionary, th...

The local turn in peace research emphasises the crucial role of cultural context and culturally determined conceptualisations of conflict, security and peace. It emerged as a critique of the liberal peace paradigm that promotes a happy alliance of democracy, economic development and peace. However, an epistemological turn towards culture has not ye...

This paper analyses the interrelationship between patterns of im/mobility on the one hand and the reconstitution of social collective identities and the related emergence or settlement of conflicts on the other. The main arguments are (1) that the im/mobility of a social or cultural group has major impact on how identity narratives, a sense of belo...

Mobility and migration are inherent ingredients of Indonesian cultures. In an archipelago with thousands of islands of various size, character and nature, mobility is an important means to make a living and to survive by migration. The right to free movement in Indonesia is constitutionally granted. It can create mobility and give expression to equ...

What do the cases of Indonesia and Maluku tell us about the emerging cultural turn in peace studies? What are the main lessons learned and how can they help us to understand the ‘paradigm shift’ in this interdisciplinary field of research better? This final chapter sums up the main argument and the contributions this book is meant to make.

‘Reconciliation came rather naturally (secara alami), when we became aware of the disastrous effects of the conflict and the need to restrengthen our culture, our adat, and our identity (budaya, adat, dan jati diri).’ This was the tenor of the many Moluccan villagers I spoke to during fieldwork in post-conflict Maluku. At the same time, the quotati...

During the more than three decades of President Suharto’s authoritarian regime in Indonesia, the so-called Orde Baru (New Order, 1966–1998), there was seemingly no need for any official discussion about reconciliation and peace. Conflicting opinions and emerging tensions — in particular conflicts based on ethnicity, religion, race, or class (Suku,...

The revival, restrengthening, and reconstruction of traditional institu-tions are at the core of the reconciliation process in Maluku. Irrespective of the success or failure of top-down or mid-range initiatives, most peo-ple I talked to in the villages were convinced that they did not bring about peace. Reconciliation and restoration of social rela...

Both Moluccan conflict and peacebuilding were multi-sited, developed different dynamics in different areas and localities, and involved a multitude of actors at various levels. Nonetheless, both also had major themes in common: the conflict being mainly interreligious and the revival of tradition figuring prominently in peacebuilding. This chapter...

Traditional village heads or raja are key symbolic figures in local tra-ditional structures and the center of attention in decentralization and peacebuilding discourses in Maluku. In 2008, Ambon City became the stage for a gathering of traditional village heads from all over the Moluccan Province — all dressed in their traditional clothes. In the c...

Current debates on decentralization and revitalization in Indonesia are closely linked to discourses on individual and cultural human rights: local or indigenous people claiming rights based on their cultural roots, migrants claiming equal individual human rights as Indonesian citizens, and refugees referring to both their human right to protection...

Modernity is surrounded by an almost magic aura that casts a spell over people all over the world. To connect with modernity, various ways and means are used, among them magic practices and religious ideas. Dynamics of Religion in Southeast Asia: Magic and Modernity deals with the magic in and of modernity and asks about its current significance fo...

On the fall of Suharto, the long-surviving authoritarian president of Indonesia, in 1998, the ‘reform era’ began. Quite revolutionary laws on decentralisation sought to meet international notions of democracy and human rights, and local claims to greater self-determination. The decentralisation process in Indonesia was thus accompanied by a nationw...

Zusammenfassung Dieser Beitrag diskutiert Chancen und Herausforderungen, die aus einer Deklaration sogenannter traditioneller Gerechtigkeitsmechanismen als international anerkanntes immaterielles Kulturerbe resultieren. Lange Zeit konzentrierte sich international geforderter Wiederaufbau nach gewaltsam ausgetragenen Konflikten auf materielles Kultu...

In 2007, village kings from all over the Moluccan province gathered in Ambon city and founded a pan-Moluccan raja forum called Majelis Latupati Maluku (MLM). The association is meant to unite traditional leadership, re-integrate Moluccan society and build an effective interface to the regional government. Decisive were two factors: firstly, the int...

The boundaries of what has constituted “Eastern Indonesia” have shifted depending on the historical, cultural, political, or economic context. We review various ways that Eastern Indonesia has been understood, to overview the different ways of delineating and approaching this fascinating part of Indonesia in order to introduce this special issue. T...

The implementation of new national laws on decentralisation and self-determination in Eastern Indonesia provides the case study to examine the various dilemmas resulting from the human right to culture such as integration versus exclusion, cultural flexibility versus codification, and re-empowerment of local cultures versus the re-emergence of feud...

The Internet has become an important instrument for the information politics of radical Muslim groups. This paper focuses on one of the Islamist groups that have emerged in Indonesia recently—the Communication Forum of the Followers of the Sunnah and the Community of the Prophet (FKAWJ). The FKAWJ sent its fighters, the so-called Laskar Jihad or Ji...

Focusing on the recent Moluccan conflict (1999–2003), this article takes a closer look at a traditional village federation called Hatuhaha on Haruku island (Central Moluccas) and its specific version of Islam. From an anthropological perspective, it explores the dynamics in the Islam-adat relationship and the role of historical developments and pol...

This article explores the possibility of a new paradigm of media research which understand media, not as texts or structures of production, but as practice. Drawing on recent moves towards a theory of practice in sociology, this paradigm aims to move beyond old debates about media effects and the relative importance of political economy and audienc...

One of the most violent conflicts of the post-Suharto era took place in the Moluccas, Eastern Indonesia, from 1999 until 2003. Due to a strategic mobilisation process, it was mainly fought out between Christians and Muslims. After the conflict, local actors in the Moluccas hoped to build up sustainable peace through the revival of traditions that a...

The rise of the Internet has a profound impact on the way conflicts are carried out and the faithful practice their religions. This article explores new dimensions of religious conflicts by theoretically reflecting on new developments in cyberage and by substantiating this with an empirical case study—the Moluccan conflict (Eastern Indonesia). Due...

Since the breakdown of the Suharto regime in 1998 and the passing of a new autonomy law in 1999, we can observe trends to revive local traditions all over Indonesia. In parallel, a bloody conflict was fought out in the Moluccas in Eastern Indonesia, mainly between Christians and Muslims, from 1999 until 2002. Nothing was left of the interreligious...

The current process of increasing globalisation, transnationalism and a seeming homogenisation is accompanied by a worldwide trend towards the revitalisation of local traditions, structures, meanings and values, especially in the field of so-called traditional or customary law. This essay introduces the contributions of the special issue The revita...

Since the breakdown of the Suharto regime in 1998 and the passing of a new autonomy law in 1999, we can observe trends to revive local traditions all over Indonesia. In parallel, a bloody conflict was fought out in the Moluccas in Eastern Indonesia, mainly between Christians and Muslims, from 1999 until 2002. Nothing was left of the interreligious...

The current process of increasing globalisation, transnationalism and a seeming homogenisation is accompanied by a worldwide trend towards the revitalisation of local traditions, structures, meanings and values, especially in the field of so-called traditional or customary law. This essay introduces the contributions of the special issue The revita...

The globalisation of local conflicts. Strategic usage of the Internet in the Moluques conflict. The new media, including the Internet which holds the pole position, differ from traditional media through certain features – interactivity, multi-mediality, overcoming the constraints of place, and networking. Because of this, the Internet can give loca...

Konfliktakteure setzen weltweit das Internet in zunehmendem Maße strategisch ein. Lokal ausgetragene Konflikte erhalten so eine neue Dimension: Die veränderte Medialisierung führt zu ihrer Ausdehnung in den globalen Cyberspace. Auf der Grundlage ethnographischer Forschungen zu den Online-Aktivitäten christlicher wie muslimischer Akteure im Molukken...

Konfliktakteure setzen weltweit das Internet in zunehmendem Maße strategisch ein. Lokal ausgetragene Konflikte erhalten so eine neue Dimension: Die veränderte Medialisierung führt zu ihrer Ausdehnung in den globalen Cyberspace. Auf der Grundlage ethnographischer Forschungen zu den Online-Aktivitäten christlicher wie muslimischer Akteure im Molukken...