Contesting Islamism and nationalism in the contemporary lived worlds of Indonesian youth

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This dissertation examines how young people in Surakarta, Indonesia, navigate the shifting terrains of Islamism and Indonesian nationalism within their everyday social worlds. Drawing on Ernesto Laclau’s discourse theory, the study investigates how subject positions, particularly those tied to “piety,” “nationhood,” and “moral citizenship,” are articulated, negotiated, and contested by students across public schools, pesantren environments, family settings, and digital spaces. Based on multi-sited fieldwork that combines in-depth interviews, participant observation, and survey-based clustering, the research reveals that youth identities are not fixed ideological alignments, but contingent formations shaped by competing hegemonic projects. Rather than occupying rigid categories such as “Islamist” or “nationalist,” young people assemble fluid identity repertoires that respond to school cultures, peer expectations, religious authorities, and algorithmic cues circulating in social media. The dissertation highlights how “piety” emerges as a central nodal point through which moral, religious, and national imaginaries gain traction, producing overlapping (and sometimes inconsistent) subjectivities. This everyday negotiation demonstrates that youth political identities in contemporary Java should be understood not as binaries, but as relational practices embedded in broader socio-religious transformations. The study contributes to Asian anthropology by offering an empirically grounded and theoretically attuned account of how young Indonesians craft moral selves amid intensifying public debates on Islam, nationalism, and belonging.