This study examines how local residents of Belitung Island, Indonesia, shape tourism resources and reinterpret culture, leading to the reconstruction of collective identity. It examines how host communities determine which cultural elements are suitable for tourism representation and how these decisions involve cultural reinterpretation and identity reconstruction. Following the 2008 film adaptation of the novel Laskar Pelangi (“The Rainbow Troops”), tourism has expanded rapidly, initially driven by residents rather than authorities. This growth emerged responsively to visitors’ expectations, with residents actively reinterpreting cultural and natural resources through their socio-cultural perspectives.Ethnographic evidence suggests that rituals such as Cap Go Meh and Buang Jong are reimagined for tourism while remaining rooted in historical social interactions, reflecting the hosts’ ethical choices about what to display. These processes not only reshape cultural expressions but also foster a shared sense of belonging identified as “Orang Belitong-ness.” This study argues that tourism ethics emerge not solely from tourists’ behavior but also from hosts’ active engagement with cultural representation. By positioning hosts as ethical agents, this research contributes to broader discussions on tourism ethics, host agency, and the reimagination of culture and identity in contemporary tourism development.
This study aims to explore the internet discourse surrounding the conditional acceptance of K-pop cross-gender dancers in Indonesia. This study employs digital ethnography methods to examine the present level of acceptance of Indonesian K-pop cross-gender dance videos on YouTube. Drawing on two cross-gender dance videos on YouTube and viewers’ responses, the findings indicate that people in Indonesia remain conditionally accepting of cross-gender dance. This study discussed three aspects affecting the level of ‘conditional acceptance’, such as popularity on the online platform, cross-gender dance performers’ skills, and performers’ (visual) appearances. These findings suggest that those three aspects influence how Indonesian K-pop fans navigate moral standards in interpreting the dance performances and into ‘conditionally accepting’ cross-gender dance. These findings are relevant for understanding how current acceptance could influence future perspectives on gender morality in Indonesia overall.
In the early 1980s, the Indonesian military—and subsequently, the wider public— perceived tattoos as markers of low morality. This perception was legitimized by the reckless association of tattooed individuals with criminal actions or unlawful activities (Barker, 1998). Such narratives underpinned state-sanctioned violence, most notably through the Petrus ("penembak misterius" or "mysterious shooters") military operation, which targeted individuals with tattoos (Barker, 1998). Today, public and state attitudes toward tattoos have shifted considerably: tattooing is now practised across generations, religious affiliations, and ethnic groups, often without provoking moral panic. Drawing on Foucault’s ideas of problematization (see Mattingly 2018), this shift can be seen as the outcome of ongoing redefinitions and contestations of the moral meanings once inscribed on the tattooed body.Tattoos are just one example of how ideas of the moral and ethical self are continually reshaped. This Thematic Edition consists of 5 original research articles, 1 empirical report, and 2 book reviews that explore how ethics and morality are practised, contested, and theorised across diverse Indonesian settings and history. Papers interrogates dominant moral frameworks - whether legal, state-driven, religious, or customary (adat), and simultanously highlighte alternative ethical imaginaries that emerge in response to social change and moral uncertainty at the current moment of post-authoritarian Indonesia.
In the context of the climate change agenda, conservation areas worldwide continue to expand by emphasising community participation and welfare improvement as a contemporary paradigm. Despite increased conservation partnerships with local communities, deforestation in conservation areas in Indonesia continues. Taking the case of the communities around Kerinci Seblat National Park (KSNP) in Sumatra, this article examines the ethical transformation among migrant communities around the National Park. Drawing on ethnographic research and borrowing Michael Foucault's concept of ethics along with Bernstein’s agrarian class analysis, this study reveals ethical transformations among migrant communities living around KSNP. Such transformations occur during the transition from plantation labourers to farmer-labourers (tani-buruh) and ultimately petty commodity producers who are now part of the global commodity market system. These ethical shifts are shaped by global commodity markets and policy loopholes in conservation governance. These dynamics help explain why deforestation persists despite the implementation of participatory conservation schemes.
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