Indonesian Pluralities: Islam, Citizenship, and Democracy

The crisis of multiculturalism in the West and the failure of the Arab uprisings in the Middle East have pushed the question of how to live peacefully within a diverse society to the forefront. Against this backdrop, Indonesia—as the largest Muslim-majority country in the world and the third-largest democracy—has taken on particular importance. Some analysts say Indonesia offers proof of the compatibility of Islam and democracy, but sceptics argue that the growing religious intolerance that has marred the country’s political transition discredits this. Based on a twenty-month project carried out in several regions of Indonesia, Indonesian Pluralities shows that when assessing democracy and citizenship in Indonesia today, we must examine not only elections and official politics but also the less formal yet more pervasive processes of social recognition at work. The contributors demonstrate that in fact citizen ethics are not static discourses but living traditions that co-evolve in relation to broader patterns of politics, gender, religious resurgence and ethnicity in society.