This study investigates the role of Rembuk Pemuda on Instagram as a virtual public sphere that addresses the persistent issue of low voter participation among Generation Z in Denpasar. Using a qualitative descriptive approach, data were collected through digital observations, document analysis, and in-depth interviews (WWC) with community leaders, content creators, and Gen Z followers across Denpasar Barat, Denpasar Timur, Denpasar Utara, and Denpasar Selatan. The findings reveal that Rembuk Pemuda effectively utilizes visual storytelling, interactive content, and data-driven messages to enhance political literacy and civic engagement among youth. Informants emphasized that the platform’s neutral stance, relatable tone, and credible information foster trust and encourage reflective discussion. Through infographics, short videos, and participatory comment spaces, Rembuk Pemuda transforms abstract political issues into accessible, culturally resonant narratives. Analysis using Habermas’s Theory of Communicative Action shows that the platform fulfills the principles of clarity, truth, sincerity, and appropriateness, enabling rational-critical dialogue within digital environments. However, challenges such as algorithmic bias, gender dynamics, and awareness fatigue persist. Despite these constraints, the study demonstrates that youth-led civic communities like Rembuk Pemuda can reshape digital communication into participatory and inclusive spaces that promote democratic awareness. The findings contribute to a deeper understanding of how communicative action and digital rhetoric operate in Indonesia’s emerging digital democracy. Keywords: Political Communication, Instagram, Digital Public Sphere, Generation Z, Rembuk Pemuda
Arja muani is a Balinese performing art in which all characters, including female roles, are performed by men. Although accepted as entertainment on stage, male dancers who perform femininity often experience stigma and social labeling outside the performance space. This study aims to analyze how power relations operate in arja muani performances through social discourse surrounding gender and masculinity. Using a qualitative approach within cultural studies, this research applies Mitchel Foucault’s theory of power relations to examine communitiy responses toward crossgender performance. The findings show that power relations are formed through collective social knowledge, traditional episteme, sexist jokes, public laughter, and institutional legitimization. Society simultaneously accepts and controls feminine expressions by limiting them within the realm of entertainment. Thus, arja muani becomes an ambivalent cultural space where gender, body, and social power are continuously negotiated within Balinese patriarchal culture.
ABSTRACT Road infrastructure development is a government strategy to improve regional connectivity, accelerate economic growth, and reduce development disparities. This study aims to analyze the narrative of the Batabual Cross-Border Road development in Buru Regency from the perspective of the Ilath Village community, Batabual District, by examining how the community interprets the development and its implications for social, economic, cultural, and environmental life. The study uses a qualitative approach with ethnographic methods. Data were obtained through in-depth interviews with 15 informants consisting of traditional leaders, community leaders, village officials, fishermen, farmers, youth, women, and the general public, and supported by field observations and documentation studies. Data analysis was conducted using the interactive model of Miles, Huberman, and Saldaña. The research findings show that the Batabual Crossroad is interpreted by the community as a symbol of the state's presence, improving accessibility, expanding economic opportunities, and facilitating access to education and health services. However, development also brings about social changes in the form of increased population mobility, changes in social interaction patterns, increased economic competition, and concerns about environmental sustainability and the preservation of local culture. Analysis using the perspectives of Arturo Escobar and Michel Foucault shows that road construction is not only a physical development, but also shapes discourses about modernity, progress, and power relations that are continuously negotiated by the community. This research emphasizes that the success of infrastructure development needs to be measured not only from its physical aspects, but also from its ability to maintain a balance between economic growth, environmental sustainability, and the cultural identity of local communities. Keywords: development narrative; road infrastructure; local community; Batabual; development anthropology.
Abstract This article explores color as a polysemic symbolic system within Balinese Hinduism, with attention to the relationships between cosmological structure, ritual practice, and religious experience. Whereas previous research on religion and anthropology has largely treated symbols as sets of meaning (Geertz, 1973) or as vehicles of ritual transformation (Turner, 1969), color as a potent symbolic medium has received less attention (to say nothing of close attention to non-Western contexts like Bali). This study employs a qualitative critical literature review, integrated with symbolic hermeneutic and phenomenological analyses. The findings show that color functions in three interrelated levels: (1) as a cosmological structure demarcating spatial orientation and sacred ordering, (2) as a ritual medium mediating the relationship between human and divine, and (3) as an embodied experience shaping religious emotions and awareness. This study introduces a multidimensional framework that reframes color as part of a system of meaning, positioning colors as an interrelated symbolic system that can consider cosmology, practice, and experience. This study advances symbolic anthropology and religious studies through a contextual, experiential, and integrative lens by marrying classical theoretical perspectives with local Balinese knowledge.
This article examines how cultural experiences are created and negotiated within the landscape of creative tourism in Ubud, using Balinese dance classes as a case study. Creative tourism is not only a space for the exchange of cultural knowledge and skills between tourists and local communities, but also a field where cultural capital, economic interests, and power relations continuously shape the production and perception of Balinese culture. In this study, Balinese dance classes are understood as a performative field in which "Balineseness" is simplified and negotiated. This research employs an ethnographic method, involving semi-structured interviews, participant observation, and document analysis. The findings show that creative tourism remains an opportunity for local communities to gain economic benefits from their cultural expertise. However, the scale and sustainability of these benefits are strongly influenced by economic capital, language skills, social networks, and symbolic legitimacy. The challenges of cultural commodification are interpreted differently by local actors as part of the realities of tourism practices in Bali.
