| dc.description.abstract | Complexity of Indonesian society is growing along with current global development. Some of the nowadays relevant issues of diversity have been discussed in this volume: particularly the question, how people see themselves as women and as men, how they organize living together and how they share intimacy - increasingly beyond the traditional patterns of gender roles, classical family and heterosexual normativity. Diversification of lifestyles is triggered (i) by the logic of liberal market economy; (ii) by the end of Indonesia’s intellectual isolation and its opening since 1998 towards the rest of the world in context of democratization and globalization; but also (iii) by a growing readiness of (young) people to create their own ways of living beyond the usual path as majority society, religious groups and other organized interests promote it. Indonesia's official motto Bhineka Tunggal Ika refers to diversities within the country. Ultimately it shall be the foundation for a sense of unity among its people. Since the founding of the Republic, but particularly during Soeharto era, the motto has been used to conceptualize an Indonesian national identity, built on multi-cultural society. Therefore, Bhineka Tunggal Ika represents political as well as social aspiration and principle. The diversity that it refers to has been so far defined - if not limited to - the diversity of local cultures, local languages, races and ethni-cities, as well as religions and beliefs. The important question is, from our point of view, how this ongoing heterogeneization and dynamification is integrated into the political consensus of Bhineka Tunggal Ika, the conceptual foundation of the Republic, and in political activity and culture. A mutual understanding of Bhineka Tunggal Ika within such as new democratic order is essential from our point of view and links up to the historic narrative that underlays the very existence of the state. It reflects the conceptualization of nation-al identity as a heterogeneous society. | en_US |
