This project explores strategies and educational choices made by the psychology students at the University of Indonesia in Jakarta, Indonesia. Interviews via phone were used to collect data from four psychology students. The study involved four psychology students from the University of Indonesia: two males and two females. While male students come from lower class families, females are from middle-class families. The data were analyzed using several steps: transcribing audio data, coding line by line, and finding categories and themes. This process was performed in Bahasa Indonesia and translated into English once it had been completed. Analysis results show that strategies and choices undertaken and made by students are influenced by their social class situations. They are aware of the existing social structure within higher education context. They realize that entering the best university in the country is very competitive and at the same time is very important for their future life and career. Therefore, they have to design certain strategies to ensure that they can enter university successfully. Continue reading Class Strategy and Educational Choice of the Student
Phenomenology as a methodology has an epistemological stand that sees that “knowledge is neither inside a person nor outside in the world.” Saint Exupery asserts that “man is but a network of relations” (Steinar and Brinkmann 2009).
This means that meaning out of the data can only be ‘created’ through interactions among men. Continue reading Phenomenology or Therapeutic Approach
Indonesian students are often branded as agents of changes in the country. However, lately this status has not been shown so well as compared to their arguably roles in toppling down Suharto’s regime before.
In terms of struggle against the dominant power in higher education system, students seem to become lacking of solidarity and tend to act sporadically. They do not have a unified goal to achieve. They do not have a solid ground to act upon together.
I argue that one of the reason why they cannot reach an ideal consensus to act upon is that students have no similar interests in fighting against neo-liberalism orientation of the state toward higher education policy. Continue reading Students as Agents of Changes for Education Policy in Indonesia
This essay compares and contrasts the perspectives of Giddens and Bourdieu on the problem of agency and structure, objective and subjective, and determinism and teleology. It will explore how both theorists address these problems. At the beginning, Giddens’ ideas will be presented separately. Then, Bourdieu’s will be presented alongside with similarities they share and differences they have. Finally, I discusses the methodological implications of their perspectives. Continue reading Contrasting Giddens and Bourdieu: Theory of Structuration and Habitus
This article is intended to examine how education system has increasingly become an effective screening device to include certain groups of people and exclude others from entering higher education based on their class situations in Indonesia. In other words, it is interested in exploring factors (i.e. structural and cultural) involved in the making of education system in Indonesia as a tool of social exclusion. I argue that this phenomenon results from the process of modernization movement characterized with educational institutionalization driven by class and political interests alongside with the global and capitalist forces in Indonesia since 50s. Continue reading Modernization, Class, and Inequality in Indonesia’s Higher Education
This article is intended to examine how Indonesia’s higher education system reproduces cultural capital by enabling groups of people to maintain their class privileges, applying Bourdieu’s theory of cultural reproduction. In other words, it tries to locate Bourdieu’s cultural reproduction theory in the context of Indonesia’s higher education. Some argue that state policy can eliminate inequality of access to higher education in Indonesia. This article argues that the internal logic of Indonesia’s educational system, especially its selection mechanism, has facilitated to ensures the perpetuation of class privileges, rather than eliminates inequality. Continue reading Cultural Reproduction in Indonesia’s Higher Education System: Locating Bourdieu’s Theory
This short article seeks to produce analytical comparisons among Marx, Weber and Bourdieu in the theory of social class. This will proceed with the following sequences. First, it begins by elaborating Marx’s concepts of the social class. Second, Weber’s ideas will be mentioned and explained corresponding to Marx’s in order to reveal their similarities and differences. Third, Bourdieu’s concepts will follow bearing in mind Marx’s and Weber’s. Finally, some analytical responses might occur intermittently throughout this article as an effort of the writer to communicate with ‘them’. Continue reading Theories of Social Class: Marx, Weber and Bourdieu
This essay is an analytical reading on Hagen Koo’s book Korean Workers: the Culture and Politics of Class Formation. It introduces Koo’s main objective and questions, his sociological and theoretical arguments applied to explain Korean worker phenomenon, and how he treats data to facilitate and strengthen his sociological arguments in his effort to answer the main issue addressed in the study. Continue reading Korean Workers: the Culture and Politics of Class Formation
This essay is an analytical reading on Mark Liechty’s book Suitably Modern: Making Middle-Class Culture in a New Consumer Society. The essay introduces Liechty’s main objective, his anthropological and theoretical arguments applied to explain class and the process of middle-class formation in urban Kathmandu, Nepal. Liechty’s concepts are discussed with some comparison to Bourdieu’s and Koo’s ideas in the case of South Korean workers’ class formation where it is thought to be relevant, especially at the end of this essay.
Continue reading Suitably Modern: Making Middle-Class Culture in a New Consumer Society
Continue reading Suitably Modern: Making Middle-Class Culture in a New Consumer Society
This essay seeks to review ‘critically’ C. Wright Mills’ The Sociological Imagination. After explaining Mills’ general arguments underlying his work in relation to his criticism of sociology, it discusses how Mills argues against Grand Theory and Abstracted Empiricism. In addition, it examines how he thinks of agency, history and the possibility of social science to become emancipatory. Finally, a discussion and conclusion is provided. Continue reading The Sociological Imagination: A Critical Review
