Pluralism as Practice

Offline and Online Forms of Sociality in the Technopolitan City of Bandung, Indonesia

This project aims at generating an anthropological account of pluralism as it is practiced and experienced in emerging online and offline socialities in the technology-driven city of Bandung, Indonesia.

It lends on a definition of pluralism as different ways of being in the world that are accorded legitimacy in the process of everyday practices and interaction. This definition goes beyond discursive engagements to account for pluralist sentiments and dispositions nurtured in the daily socialities of ethnically and religiously heterogeneous groups. Bandung, Indonesia’s center of technological development, demonstrates a multiplicity of lifestyles with social media prompting new spheres of cultural exchange that inform the perception and interpretation of diversity.

Central aim of this research is to assess how young tech-savvy Muslims in Indonesia deal with cultural and religious difference and to what extent new forms of connectivity bear pluralist sentiments and dispositions in an urban, majority Muslim and yet diverse society.

Duration:
01.09.2017-31.05.2022

Funding:
AAS DOC Fellowship